Alfred Wegener: Difference between revisions
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Alfred was exercising his right, as a member of the educated upper middle class to avoid conscription into army for a period of two years, by volunteering instead for one year. They began their training under the command of noncommissioned drill instructors and learned the lessons of barracks life. They went through physical training and learned "spit and polish", marching, field exercises, infantry tactics, weapons traing, military etiquette, military topography, map reading, logistics and mobilization drill.
=== Winter Semester 1902 - 1903 ===
Alfred was released from full-time military service in September 1902. In October, he returned to the university to resume his training as an astronomer.
Alfred was plunged into studies in positional astronomy and data reduction, in the form of Julius Bauschinger's "Seminar on Scientific Calculation", where he learned the details of orbital calculations, perturbations of orbits, and the calculation of the timing and path of solar eclipses. He also took a course with Wilhelm Forster on techniques for calculating meteor trajectories and cloud altitudes. Simultaneously with these technical courses, Alfred began his rotation as a student assistant in the Berlin observatory and Urania, a center for popular astronomy, founded by Forster. This combination of observing and "public outreach" work at the observatory was expected of all the doctoral candidates.
Wegener also signed up for Max Planck's course of lectures on thermodynamics and thermochemistry.
=== Summer Semester 1903 ===
In spring and summer of 1903 he pushed his work in astronomy beyond the solar system and, under Bauschinger's direction, extended his studies to celestial mechanics, double-star systems, and calculation of stellar ephemerides (tables of star positions). With Forster, he studied the history of Greek astronomy, theory of chronometry, selected topics in the theory of errors, and continuing his work at the Urania observatory. He also entrolled in Wilhelm von Bezold's course in theoretical meteorology, that concerned with the thermodynamcis of the atmosphere.
=== Winter Semester 1903 - 1904 ===
In the fall and winter 1903 he continued his work with Bauschinger : a history of celestial mechanics and a seminar on the design and use of planetary tables. With Forster, he took the second half ot the two survey course he had begun in 1903. Following the history of Greek astronomy with a history of Arabic and Medieval European astronomy, and following the course on chronometry with one on the theory of stereometry. Alfred also took a course in fall 1903 entitled "The Method of Least Squares", given by Friedrich Helmert, professor of advanced geodesy at Berlin and head of the Prussian Geodetic Institute. In tandem with this course, Wegener studied "Topographical Surveying" with Hermann Eggert. He also found the physical activity he longed for in Bezold's "Meteorological Practicum", accompanied by a course of lectures entitled "Wind and Weather".
=== Final Year ===
{{Cquote| In astronomy, everything has fundamentally already been dealt with, and now only exceptional mathematical gifts and sophisticated equipment in astronomical observatories can led to new discoveries. Besides, astronomy offers no opportunity for physical exertion.}}
At some point in the 1903 - 1904 academic year, Alfred made his final decision to switch from astronomy to cosmics physics. The cosmic physics at that time was an attempt to bring the study of the heavens together with the study of Earth, including its oceans, its atmosphere, and the intense and hostile regions of severe temperature and pressure below its surface.
Now that he was no longer considering a career in astronomy, he decided against some astronomical courses : "The Three-Body Problem", "The Temperature of the Sun", and "Solar Physics". Since he was in Bezold's meteorology working group, he had no reason to attend the Astrophysical Colloquium. He retained an active interest in the history of science and elected to complete the full historical survey of astronomy with "History of Modern Astronomy since Newton". A practical course on measurement of celestial angles by theodolite with Forster looked useful, and he signed up for that as well. With Bauschinger, he took up "Potential Theory with Applications to the Figure and Rotation of Heavenly Bodies" and its practical counterpart "Introduction to the Art of Calculation".
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