Johann Bernoulli

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Johann Bernoulli
Johann Bernoulli
Johann Bernoulli
Born July 27, 1667(1667-07-27)
Basel, Switzerland
Died January 1, 1748 (aged 80)
Basel, Switzerland
Residence Switzerland
Nationality Swiss
Fields Mathematician
Institutions University of Groningen
University of Basel
Alma mater University of Basel
Doctoral advisor Jacob Bernoulli
Doctoral students Leonhard Euler
Johann Samuel König
Pierre Louis Maupertuis
Known for Development of calculus
Catenary solution
Religious stance Calvinist
Notes
Brother of Jakob Bernoulli, and the father of Daniel Bernoulli.

Johann Bernoulli (Basel, July 27, 1667 - January 1, 1748) was a Swiss mathematician. He was the brother of Jakob Bernoulli, and the father of Daniel Bernoulli (for whom Bernoulli's principle was named) and Nicolaus II Bernoulli. He is also known as Jean or John Bernoulli. He educated the great mathematician Leonhard Euler in his youth.

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Johann began studying medicine at Basel University. His father desired that he study business so that he might take over the family spice trade, but John Bernoulli disliked business and convinced his father to allow him to study medicine instead. However, John Bernoulli did not enjoy medicine either and began studying mathematics with his older brother on the side.[1] Throughout John Bernoulli’s education at Basel University the Bernoulli brothers worked together spending much of their time studying the newly discovered calculus. They were among the first mathematicians to not only study and understand calculus but to apply it to various problems.[2]

[edit] Adult life

After graduating from Basel University John Bernoulli moved to Geneva to teach differential equations. Later, in 1694, John Bernoulli married Dorothea Falkner and soon after accepted a position as the professor of mathematics at the University of Groningen. At the request of John Bernoulli’s father-in-law, John Bernoulli began the voyage back to his home town of Basel in 1705. Just after setting out on the journey he learned of his brother’s death to tuberculosis. John Bernoulli had planned on becoming the professor of Greek at Basel University upon returning but instead was able to take over as professor of mathematics; his older brother’s former position. As a student of Leibniz’s calculus, John Bernoulli sided with him in 1713 in the Newton-Leibniz debate over who deserved credit for the discovery of calculus. John Bernoulli defended Leibniz by showing that he had solved certain problems with his methods that Newton had failed to solve. However, due to his opposition to Newton and the study that he had done under the followers of Descartes, John Bernoulli also promoted Descartes’ vortex theory over Newton’s theory of gravitation which ultimately delayed acceptance of Newton’s theory in Europe.[3]

In 1724 he entered a competition sponsored by the French Académie Royale des Sciences, which posed the question:

What are the laws according to which a perfectly hard body, put into motion, moves another body of the same nature either at rest or in motion, and which it encounters either in a vacuum or in a plenum?

In defending a view previously espoused by Leibniz he found himself postulating an infinite external force required to make the body elastic by overcoming the infinite internal force making the body hard. In consequence he was disqualified for the prize, which was won by Maclaurin. However, Bernoulli's paper was subsequently accepted in 1726 when the Académie considered papers regarding elastic bodies, for which the prize was awarded to Mazière. Bernoulli received an honourable mention in both competitions.

[edit] Family rivalries

Although Jakob and John worked together before John graduated from Basel University shortly after this the two developed a jealous and competitive relationship. John was jealous of Jakob's position and the two often attempted to outdo each other. After Jakob's death John's jealousy shifted toward his talented son, Daniel. In 1738 the father-son duo nearly simultaneously published separate works on hydrodynamics. John Bernoulli attempted to take precedence over his son by purposely predating his work two years prior his son’s.

[edit] Contributions to mathematics

In 1691 John Bernoulli again fueled the tensions between himself and his brother when he solved the problem of the catenary presented by Jakob. In 1696 John Bernoulli proposed the problem of the brachistochrone, despite already having solved the problem himself. Within two years he received five answers, one of which was from his older brother, Jakob. Bernoulli also proposed a fluid energy perpetual motion machine.

[edit] L'Hôpital controversy

Bernoulli was hired by Guillaume François Antoine de L'Hôpital to tutor him in mathematics. Bernoulli and L'Hôpital signed a contract which gave L'Hôpital the right to use Bernoulli’s discoveries as he pleased. L'Hôpital authored the first textbook on calculus, which mainly consisted of the work of Bernoulli, including what is now known as L'Hôpital's rule.[4][5][6]

[edit] See also

Sophomore's dream

[edit] References

  1. ^ A Short History of Mathematics, by V. Sanford, Houghton, Mifflin Company, (1958)
  2. ^ The Bernoulli Family, by H. Bernhard, Doubleday, Page & Company, (1938)
  3. ^ Johann and Jacob Bernoulli, by J.O. Fleckenstein, Mathematical Association of America, (1949)
  4. ^ The Story of a Number, by Eli Maor, Princeton University Press, Princeton, (1998) p. 116, ISBN 0-691-05854-7
  5. ^ The Mathematics of Great Amateurs, by Julian Lowell Coolidge, Dover, New York, (1963), pp. 154-163
  6. ^ A Source Book in Mathematics, 1200-1800, ed. D. J. Struck, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, (1969), pp.312-316

[edit] External links

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Bernoulli family tree
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nicolaus Bernoulli (1623-1708)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Jakob Bernoulli (1654–1705)
 
 Nicolaus Bernoulli (1662–1716)
 
 
 
 
 
 Johann Bernoulli (1667–1748)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nicolaus I Bernoulli (1687-1759)
 
 Nicolaus II Bernoulli (1695–1726)
 
 Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782)
 
 Johann II Bernoulli (1710–1790)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Johann III Bernoulli (1744–1807)
 
 Daniel II Bernoulli (1751–1834)
 
 Jakob II Bernoulli (1759–1789)
Family tree of the Bernoulli family
Persondata
NAME Bernoulli, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES John, Jean
SHORT DESCRIPTION Mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1667
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1748
PLACE OF DEATH Basel, Switzerland