It was only after he became a professor and therefore a full member of the academy that he was able to quit this venture. Petersburg, and alongside his teaching served as a medical lieutenant in the Russian Navy. He had been recommended by Johann Bernoulli’s son Daniel, after his brother Nicholas Bernoulli had sadly died 8 months after taking up the position.Īt Bernoulli’s behest, Euler was promoted to the mathematics department in St. Petersburg Academy in Russia, established by Peter the Great in 1724. Instead, he was offered a position at St.
In 1723, Euler received his Master of Philosophy after submitting a dissertation comparing the philosophies of Descartes and Newton, and enrolled in the theological faculty of the university.Ĭontinuing his studies, he wrote a further dissertation on propagation of sound before applying for a position to teach physics at the university.
In his autobiography, Euler later wrote: “the famous professor…made it a special pleasure for himself to help me along in the mathematical sciences”, and despite being too busy to give him private lessons, allowed the young boy to visit him every Saturday afternoon to go over difficulties in his reading.ĭuring this time, Euler was given his father’s permission to set aside the career of pastor and become a mathematician.
There he took a course on elementary mathematics by Johann Bernoulli, the younger brother of Jacob Bernoulli. Image Credit: Bernoulli, Jean, 1667-1748, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Portrait of Bernoulli in volume I of his 1742 ‘Opera omnia’ At 8 years old, Leonhard was enrolled in the Latin school in Basel, and at 13 he enrolled in the University of Basel, not an uncommon practice at the time. Soon after his birth the family moved to the Swiss town of Riehen near Basel, where he spent most of his childhood with his three younger siblings.Īs a youth, Leonhard received schooling in mathematics from his father, who had taken courses from the prominent mathematician Jacob Bernoulli at the University of Basel while training to be a Protestant minister. His father, Paul III Euler, was a pastor of the Reformed Church, and his mother Marguerite Brucker belonged to a long line of well-known scholars in the classics. She died just a few days after giving birth to a daughter, but her completed work was published posthumously, and is still used today.One of 18th century Europe’s brightest minds, Swiss physicist Leonhard Euler was a pioneering figure in the history of mathematics.Ī prominent figure in the growing universities of St Petersburg and Berlin, Euler’s contributions furthered the fields of geometry, trigonometry and calculus for decades, despite him going almost completely blind in later life.īut who exactly was Leonhard Euler? Early lifeĮuler was born in Basel, Switzerland on 15 April 1707. She was also working on a French translation of Newton’s book Principia, which containes the basic laws of physics.ĭu Châtelet was determined to finish the translation, as well as a detailed commentary with additions and clarifications, and often worked 18 hours per day. At the time, without adequate healthcare, this was very dangerous for women of her age. She applied her mathematical ability while gambling, and used her winnings to buy books and laboratory equipment, and made important advanced regarding the concepts like energy and energy conservation.Īround the age of 42, Du Châtelet became pregnant again. As a women, she was often excluded from the scientific community, but she built friendships with renown scholars, and had a long affair with the philosopher Voltaire. Émilie du Châtelet (1706 – 1749) was a French scientist and mathematician.
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