Karl Heinrich Gräffe

For the Swiss zoologist and naturalist, see Eduard Heinrich Graeffe.

Karl Heinrich Gräffe (7 November 1799 – 2 December 1873) was a German mathematician, who was professor at the University of Zurich.

Karl Heinrich Gräffe
Born	(1799-11-07)7 November 1799 Braunschweig, Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (now Germany)
Died	2 December 1873(1873-12-02) (aged 74) Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Göttingen
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Zurich
Thesis	Commentatio historiam calculi variationum inde ab origine calculi differentialis atque integralis usque ad nostra tempora complectens (1825)
Doctoral advisor	Bernhard Thibaut

Life and work

Gräffe's father migrated to North America, leaving the family business of jewelry in his hands. Even so, Gräffe succeeded, studying at night, entering the Carolineum of Brunswick in 1821. From 1823, he studied at the University of Göttingen with professors Gauss and Thibaut, doctorate in 1825.^[1]

In 1828 he was appointed professor of the Zurich Institute of Technology and, as of 1833, associate professor at the University of Zurich from the date of its creation. Simultaneously, also he was professor of the Obere Industrieschule.^[2]

Gräffe is known for having been the first to enunciate a method to approximate the roots of any polynomial, a method known today as the Dandelin-Gräffe method.^[3]