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Born in Moravia. He was the first to systematically study supersonic motion and he also made important contributions to understanding the Doppler Effect.
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Mach devised a simple apparatus that demonstrated that the Doppler Effect was real, at least for sound. Pojman, Paul. “Ernst Mach.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 3 Mar. 2019, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ernst-mach/#BioEarDev. -
Mach published "On the effect of the spacial distribution of the light stimulus on the retina," which was the first of a series of articles of what we now know as the Mach Bands. Mach is credited for discovering the later inhibition in our sense organs, which is the idea that our senses pre-process information before sending it to the brain. Before this period, optical illusions were understood to be errors in judgement (quirks of the brain).
Pojman, Paul. “Ernst Mach.”... -
By 1885, Mach had worked out the details of supersonic motion. Along the way, he also developed high-speed photographic techniques. Pojman, Paul. “Ernst Mach.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 3 Mar. 2019, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ernst-mach/#BioEarDev. -
Mach established the principles of supersonics and the Mach number (ratio of velocity of an object to the velocity of sound). He also Proposed a theory of inertia known as Mach's Principle, inertial forces experienced by a body in nonuniform motion are determined by the quantity and distribution of matter in the universe. “Mach's Principle.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/science/Machs-principle.
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