SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris-Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université Paris, France.
Ann Sci. 2021 Apr;78(2):162-196. doi: 10.1080/00033790.2021.1891284. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
We are interested in the case of Friedrich Christoph Mayer, who in the 1720s, while at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (in Latin Academiae scientiarum imperialis Petropolitanae), developed a system of the aurora borealis, as well as a mathematical method for calculating the height of the aurora from the geometrical characteristics of the auroral arc. Mayer, encountering a major contradiction in his system which placed the aurora at the height of the clouds, whereas his mathematical method led to an altitude a hundred times higher, never applied his method to concrete cases to deduce the height of the aurora, and quickly lost interest in their detailed description, a task that was nevertheless assigned to him at the St. Petersburg Observatory. Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan suggests that Mayer's abandonment was due to his lack of confidence in observations. We set Mayer's case against that of Leonhard Euler who, working with Mayer and being aware of the great height of the aurora, later developed a system of the aurora borealis that was compatible with the observational fact. We put forward possible hypotheses to explain Mayer's disinterest in observing the aurora and in the mathematical method he himself had developed.
我们对弗里德里希·克里斯托夫·迈尔（Friedrich Christoph Mayer）的案例感兴趣，他在 18 世纪 20 年代，在圣彼得堡帝国科学院（拉丁语：Academiae scientiarum imperialis Petropolitanae）工作时，提出了一种极光系统，以及一种根据极光弧的几何特征计算极光高度的数学方法。迈尔在他的系统中遇到了一个主要的矛盾，该系统将极光置于云层的高度，而他的数学方法则导致了高出一百倍的高度，但他从未将其方法应用于具体案例来推断极光的高度，并且很快对其详细描述失去了兴趣，尽管圣彼得堡天文台分配了这项任务给他。让-雅克·多托斯·德·梅兰（Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan）认为，迈尔的放弃是因为他对观测结果缺乏信心。我们将迈尔的案例与莱昂哈德·欧拉（Leonhard Euler）的案例进行对比，欧拉与迈尔合作，并意识到极光的高度非常高，后来他开发了一种与观测事实相符的极光系统。我们提出了可能的假设来解释迈尔对观测极光和他自己开发的数学方法不感兴趣的原因。
