Philipp Jolly (after 1854 Philipp von Jolly) studies mathematics and physics in Heidelberg und Vienna. In 1839, he becomes a professor in Heidelberg. From 1854 up to his death in 1884 he works as an ordinary professor of physics at the University of Munich. His scientific work is focused on experimental physics.

Jolly is one of the academic teachers of Max Planck. In 1874, he strongly discourages the young Max Planck to study physics. According to his opinion, everything has been explored already in physics. Only some unimportant gaps were still to be filled, for which it would not be worthwhile to study physics.

Based on Newton's theory of gravitation, Jolly determines the dependence of the gravitational force on the distance from the surface of the Earth as well as the density of the Earth. For this purpose, he invents a special balance.