LAST WORD family friends. mathematician), wereclose regarded asEurope’sforemost (whowasatthetime Bernoulli dynasty, Johann inparticular Members oftheBernoulli daughter.Brucker, apastor’s Church, andMarguerite a pastoroftheReformed on 15April1707toPaul Euler, inBasel physicist, wasborn Swiss mathematicianand Leonhard Euler, apioneering by Paul Kruger Leonhard Euler–theprolificman The rootsofindustrialengineering: are thebasicsymbols to thelanguageofMathematics notation. Among hiscontributions mathematical terminologyand introduced muchofthemodern calculus andgraphtheory. Healso in fieldsasdiverseinfinitesimal Euler madeimportantdiscoveries wheels necessary to raise the water to wheels necessary toraisethewater garden: Eulercalculatedtheforce ofthe “I wantedtohaveawaterjetinmy practical engineeringabilities: Euler’s also expresseddisappointment with referred tohimas‘Cyclops’.Frederick Germany, somuch thatFrederick eye deterioratedduringhisstayin sightinhisright the Great.Euler’s and theStPetersburgofCatherine the BerlinofFrederickGreat he ismostcloselyassociatedwith Although hewasborninSwitzerland, obtained. much coveted,butneversuccessfully This wasanappointmenthevery University ofBaselseveraltimes. applied forvariouspositionsatthe was turneddown.Duringhislife,he in PhysicsatBaselUniversity, but applied forapositionasprofessor career inMathematics.In1727,Euler father toallowhissonpursuea Bernoulli. BernoulliconvincedEuler’s highly valuedbyhisteacher, Johann on reversetrajectory. These were Mathematics. Hewrotetwoarticles devoted allhissparetimetostudying by enrollinginthetheologyfaculty, but wishes, Eulerfurtheredhiseducation entitled thesis onthepropagationofsound, In 1726,Eulercompletedhisdoctoral systems ofNewtonandDescartes. comparing thenaturalphilosophy degree in1723withadissertation of Basel.Heobtainedhismaster’s attending lecturesattheUniversity At theageof13,Eulerwasalready astronomy. mechanics, fluiddynamics,opticsand is alsorenownedforhisworkin standard functionnotation the summationnotation NEWS De Sono . On his father’s . Onhisfather’s 100 π , INNOVATE 6 2011 Σ e andthe andi f(x). He , throughout hismathematical career. eyesight worsenedfurther Euler’s five survivedchildhood. his wifehad13children,ofwhich only half centuryafterhisdeath.He and continued topublishthemforanother over 500ofhisworks. The academy in StPetersburgwaspresentedwith in 1783,the Academy ofSciences mathematical papers.Untilhisdeath ever, havingpublishedmorethan800 of themostprolificmathematicians greatest ofalltime.Heisalsoone century andarguablyoneofthe eminent mathematicianofthe18 He isconsideredtobethepre- the Mathematicsdepartment. Euler succeededhimasprofessorin In 1733,whenDanielleftforBasel, became professorofPhysicsin1731. through theranksinacademyand position inhisplace.Eulerswiftlyrose Daniel askedhimtofillhisbrother’s Daniel’s brother, Nicolas,diedand of hisfriend,DanielBernoulli,after St Petersburgontherecommendation Russian Academy ofSciencesin court, EulerwenttotheImperial who wasalsoamemberofFrederick’s of thechidingFrederickandVoltaire, of vanities!Vanity ofgeometry!” Tired than 50pacestothereservoir. Vanity not raiseamouthfulofwatercloser carried outgeometricallyanditcould a reservoir. The plansformymillwere 

Leonhard Euler

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 Leonhard Euler In 1735, he became nearly blind in his right eye and later suffered a cataract in his good left eye, rendering him almost totally blind in 1766. Even so, his condition appeared to have little effect on his productivity. With the aid of his scribes, Euler’s productivity in many areas of study actually increased. He produced on average one mathematical paper every week in 1775!

Richard Feynman called the formula, known as Euler’s identity (eiπ + 1 = 0), “the most remarkable formula in Mathematics” for its single use of the notions of addition, multiplication, exponentiation and equality, and the single use of the important constants 0, 1, e, i and π. Euler, a simple religious man and a hard worker, was very conventional in his beliefs and tastes and is commemorated by the Lutheran Church on their Calendar of Saints on 24 May.

“Liesez Euler, Liesez Euler, c’est notre ma tre tous.” (Read Euler, read Euler, he is our master in everything.) Pierre Simon Laplace

“He remains living in thought in terms of the splendid example he provided of a mind capable of movement without friction and so achievement without effort.” – David Berlinski

Adapted primarily from, http://www-history.mcs. st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Euler.html, http:// en.wikipedia.org, http://www.scienceworld.wolfram. com, Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Magnus Magnusson, The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Mathematics, Infi nite Ascent: A short history of Mathematics by David Berlinski and Leonhard Euler – the greatest mathematician of all times, by Simon Patterson.

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