Having more than one mathematician in a family is not unheard of. There have been many father-son and father-daughter duos in the history of mathematics, e.g. Theon and Hypatia, Farcas Bolyai(1775-1856) and Janos Bolyai(1802-1860), George David Birkhoff(1884-1944) and Garrent Birkhoff, Emil and Michael Artin, Elie and Henri Cartan, etc. The Riccati family in Italy managed to produce three mathematicians, but the their contributions to mathematics do not compare to that of all eight of the Bernoulli mathematicians.
The first generation of Bernoulli mathematicians include brothers Jacob I(James, Jacques) (1654-1705), Nicolaus (1662-1716), and Johann I(John, Jean) (1667-1748), second generation are brothers Daniel I (1700-1782), Johann II(1710-1790), and their cousin Nicolaus II (1687-1759), and the third generation are brothers Johann III(1746-1807) and Jacob II(1759-1789). It would be exhausting to discuss the accomplishments of all the Bernoulli mathematicians, so our focus will be on the brothers Jacob I and Johann I, who contributed a substantial amount to the fields of mathematics we know today as elementary calculus and the theory of probability.
Before the Bernoulli family was known for its mathematicians, the father of mathematical dynasty Nicolas Bernoulli(1623-1708) was known for being a successful spice trader and businessman. His family was originally from Holland, but they left Antwerp to avoid religious persecution. At the time, King Philip of Spain began enforcing the Roman Catholic beliefs in their country, but the Bernoulli's were Calvinist Protestants so they migrated to Basel, Switzerland in 1583 and settled on the bank of the Rhine. Basel was one of the main trade routes at the time, a University town since ...
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...ting his father he found out that his brother had passed away, and was offered the position of Chair of Mathematics at the University of Basel which he gladly accepted(Mukhopadhyay, 33).
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Born in the summer of September 17, 1826 in Breselenz, Kingdom of Hanover what’s now modern-day Germany the son of Friederich Riemann a Lutheran minister married to Charlotte Ebell was the second of six children of whom two were male and four female. Charlotte Ebell passed away before seeing any of her six children reach adult hood. As a child Riemann was a shy child who suffered of many nervous breakdowns impeding him from articulating in public speaking but he demonstrated exceptional skills in mathematics at an early age. At the age of four-teen Bernhard moved to Hanover to live with his grandmother and enter the third class at Lynceum two years later his grandmother also passed away he went on to move to the Johanneum Gymnasium in Lunberg and entered High School. During these years Riemann studied the Bible, Hebrew, and Theology but was often amused and side tracked by Mathematics. Showing such interests in mathematics the director of the gymnasium often time allowed Riemann to lend some mathemat...
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born to a highly educated family on July 1, 1646 in Leipzig. Leibniz’s father, Friedrich Leibniz, was a professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Leipzig and Catharina Schmuck, his mother, was the daughter of a professor of law. With the event of his father’s death, Leibniz was guided by his mother and uncle in his studies. He was also given access to the contents of his father’s library. In 1661 Leibniz began his formal university education at the University of Leipzig. While attending the university he soon met Jacob Thomasius. Thomasius instilled in Leibniz a great respect for ancient and medieval philosophy. After accepting his baccalaureate from Leipzig, Leibniz began studying at the University of Altdorf. While in attendance at Altdorf, Leibniz published Dissertation on the Art of Combinations (Dissertatio de arte combinatoria) in 1666 (Brandon C. Look, 2007). It sketched a plan for a “universal cha...
Francois Viete was born in 1540 in Frontenay-le-Comte, France. It is now the province of Vendee. His father was Etenne Viete, who was a lawyer, and his mother was Marguerite Dupont. They both came from well-to-do families. He enjoyed all the available educational opportunities. He did preliminary studies in Frontenay, before moving to study law at the University of Poitiers. He earned his degree in 1560. He practiced it for four years, then abandoned it for a legal profession in 1564. He wanted to enter the employment of Antionette d'Aubeterre, as private tutor to her daughter, Catherine of Parthenay. He became a friend and was confidant of Catherine during the years he spent as her tutor. He remained her loyal and trusted adviser for the rest of his life (Parshall 1).
Ball, Rouse. “Sir Isaac Newton.” A Short Account of the History of Mathematics. 4th ed. Print.
Michael Guillen, the author of Five Equations that Changed the World, choose five famous mathematician to describe. Each of these mathematicians came up with a significant formula that deals with Physics. One could argue that others could be added to the list but there is no question that these are certainly all contenders for the top five. The book is divided into five sections, one for each of the mathematicians. Each section then has five parts, the prologue, the Veni, the Vidi, the Vici, and the epilogue. The Veni talks about the scientists as a person and their personal life. The Vidi talks about the history of the subject that the scientist talks about. The Vici talks about how the mathematician came up with their most famous formula.
son to follow in his footsteps and sent him to the University of Basel to
No other scholar has affected more fields of learning than Blaise Pascal. Born in 1623 in Clermont, France, he was born into a family of respected mathematicians. Being the childhood prodigy that he was, he came up with a theory at the age of three that was Euclid’s book on the sum of the interior of triangles. At the age of sixteen, he was brought by his father Etienne to discuss about math with the greatest minds at the time. He spent his life working with math but also came up with a plethora of new discoveries in the physical sciences, religion, computers, and in math. He died at the ripe age of thirty nine in 1662(). Blaise Pascal has contributed to the fields of mathematics, physical science and computers in countless ways.
Charles Perrault was born in 1628 and was of French descent. He was from a very wealthy family. His father was a lawyer, and his three brothers grew up to have successful careers as well. Perrault was able to attend the best schools, but preferred to be self-taught so he dropped out of
There have been many great mathematicians in the world, though many are not well known. People have been studying math for ages, the oldest mathematical object dated all the way back to around 35,000 BC. There are still mathematicians today, studying math and figuring out ways to improve the mathematical world. Some of the most well-known mathematicians include Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Aristotle. These mathematicians (and many more) have influenced the mathematical world and mathematics would not be where it is today without them. There were many great individuals who contributed greatly in mathematics but there was one family with eight great mathematicians who were very influential in mathematics. This was the Bernoulli family. The Bernoulli family contributed a lot to mathematics, medicine, physics, and other areas. Even though they were great mathematicians, there was also hatred and jealousy between many of them. These men did not want their brothers or sons outdoing them in mathematics. Most Bernoulli fathers told their sons not to study mathematics even if they wanted. They were told to study medicine, business, or law, instead, though most of them found a way to study mathematics. The mathematicians in this family include Jacob, Johann, Daniel, Nicolaus I, Nicolaus II, Johann II, Johann III, and Jacob II Bernoulli.
» Part 1 Logarithms initially originated in an early form along with logarithm tables published by the Augustinian Monk Michael Stifel when he published ’Arithmetica integra’ in 1544. In the same publication, Stifel also became the first person to use the word ‘exponent’ and the first to indicate multiplication without the use of a symbol. In addition to mathematical findings, he also later anonymously published his prediction that at 8:00am on the 19th of October 1533, the world would end and it would be judgement day. However the Scottish astronomer, physicist, mathematician and astrologer John Napier is more famously known as the person who discovered them due to his work in 1614 called ‘Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio’.
The argument in this paper that even though the onus of the discovery of calculus lies with Isaac Newton, the credit goes to Leibniz for the simple fact that he was the one who published his works first. Appending to this is the fact that the calculus wars that ensue was merely and egotistic battle between humans succumbing to their bare primal instincts. To commence, a brief historical explanation must be given about both individuals prior to stating their cases.
Carl Friedrich Gauss was born April 30, 1777 in Brunswick, Germany to a stern father and a loving mother. At a young age, his mother sensed how intelligent her son was and insisted on sending him to school to develop even though his dad displayed much resistance to the idea. The first test of Gauss’ brilliance was at age ten in his arithmetic class when the teacher asked the students to find the sum of all whole numbers 1 to 100. In his mind, Gauss was able to connect that 1+100=101, 2+99=101, and so on, deducing that all 50 pairs of numbers would equal 101. By this logic all Gauss had to do was multiply 50 by 101 and get his answer of 5,050. Gauss was bound to the mathematics field when at the age of 14, Gauss met the Duke of Brunswick. The duke was so astounded by Gauss’ photographic memory that he financially supported him through his studies at Caroline College and other universities afterwards. A major feat that Gauss had while he was enrolled college helped him decide that he wanted to focus on studying mathematics as opposed to languages. Besides his life of math, Gauss also had six children, three with Johanna Osthoff and three with his first deceased wife’s best fri...
Calculus, the mathematical study of change, can be separated into two departments: differential calculus, and integral calculus. Both are concerned with infinite sequences and series to define a limit. In order to produce this study, inventors and innovators throughout history have been present and necessary. The ancient Greeks, Indians, and Enlightenment thinkers developed the basic elements of calculus by forming ideas and theories, but it was not until the late 17th century that the theories and concepts were being specified. Originally called infinitesimal calculus, meaning to create a solution for calculating objects smaller than any feasible measurement previously known through the use of symbolic manipulation of expressions. Generally accepted, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz were recognized as the two major inventors and innovators of calculus, but the controversy appeared when both wanted sole credit of the invention of calculus. This paper will display the typical reason of why Newton was the inventor of calculus and Leibniz was the innovator, while both contributed an immense amount of knowledge to the system.
Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. (Seventh Ed.) New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The 17th Century saw Napier, Briggs and others greatly extend the power of mathematics as a calculator science with his discovery of logarithms. Cavalieri made progress towards the calculus with his infinitesimal methods and Descartes added the power of algebraic methods to geometry. Euclid, who lived around 300 BC in Alexandria, first stated his five postulates in his book The Elements that forms the base for all of his later Abu Abd-Allah ibn Musa al’Khwarizmi, was born abo...