Day 4: Visit to Stadtfriedhof Cemetery

 Hello from Germany! We all woke up to the sun peaking through the clouds today, which was so beautiful since it's been cloudy the past couple of days. Most of us had breakfast between 9-10am and then prepared to leave for the Stadtfriedhof Cemetery. This was an optional trip, so not everyone attended, but for those of us who did, had a good time navigating the bus schedule. 

    

It is chilly in Germany so waiting for the bus not the warmest activity, but the blue skies made up for the wait. The bus ride was about 5 minutes before we got off at the cemetery. Before we even entered, we immediately noticed the numerous trees throughout the entire cemetery. 

The beautiful cemetery we visited is where a couple of very smart mathematicians and physicists are buried. We first found Max Planck where we made sure to get a picture of all of the physics majors by his headstone. Planck won his Nobel Prize in 1918 and is responsible for quantum theory. He is also responsible for Planck's constant which can be used to solve the energy of photons. His work was revolutionary and helped lead to other important scientific discoveries. 

Next, we found the headstone of David Hilbert where we all got a picture since he was one of the most important mathematicians of his time. He was extremely influential through the many different fields of math he studied, and we are excited to be learning more about him in the coming weeks. Even though I am not a physics major, I have heard a lot about Hilbert spaces from the physics majors on this trip as they are essential in the physics world. 

Lastly, to finish our trip to the cemetery, we all spent about 30 minutes wandering, trying to find the headstone of Felix Klein, another extremely important mathematician. Luckily, Collin ended the search by finding Klein's headstone next to the entrance of the cemetery. 

After the morning, we had class from 2-5 where we talked about more mathematics of Emmy Noether, including ideals, equivalence relations, cosets, and quotients. After class, group 2 got dinner with our professor, while others went out to get kebabs for dinner. We are having such a great time in Germany, and can't wait for days to come!

--Marit