In 1671, Jacob Bernoulli, I graduated from the University of Basel with a master’s degree in philosophy and then a theology degree five years later.
In 1684, Jacob Bernoulli, I took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Basel.
Career
Achievements
The lunar crater Bernoulli, located in the northeast part of the Moon, is named jointly after him and his brother Johann.
Membership
French Academy of Sciences
1699
6th arrondissement, Paris, Île-de-France, France
In 1699, Jacob Bernoulli, I became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Prussian Academy of Sciences
1702
Unter den Linden 8, Potsdamer Straße 33, Westhafenstraße 1, Berlin, Germany
In 1702, Jacob Bernoulli, I was made a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
In 1671, Jacob Bernoulli, I graduated from the University of Basel with a master’s degree in philosophy and then a theology degree five years later.
In 1684, Jacob Bernoulli, I took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Basel.
The Art of Conjecturing, together with Letter to a Friend on Sets in Court Tennis
(Jacob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi, published posthumously...)
Jacob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi, published posthumously in Latin in 1713 by the Thurneysen Brothers Press in Basel, is the founding document of mathematical probability. Here, Edith Dudley Sylla offers the first complete English translation of this monumental work.
Jacob Bernoulli, I, also known as James or Jacques, was a Swiss mathematician and professor of mathematics at the University of Basel, who devoted his career to the study of calculating complex numerical formulas.
Background
Ethnicity:
The Bernoulli family came originally from Antwerp, at that time in the Spanish Netherlands, but emigrated to escape the Spanish persecution of the Protestants.
Jacob Bernoulli, I was born on January 6, 1655, (old style December 27, 1654), in Basel, Switzerland, the son of Nicolaus Bernoulli, l, an important member of the town council and also a magistrate. He was also the owner of a successful spice business, which he had inherited from his father. Jacob’s mother, Margaretha Schönauer, came from an influential family of bankers and councilors.
Education
Nothing is known about Jacob’s early life except that he entered the University of Basel with philosophy and theology at his parents’ insistence. Side by side, against the wishes of his parents, he also began studying mathematics and astronomy.
In 1671, Bernoulli graduated from the University of Basel with a master’s degree in philosophy and then a theology degree five years later. Refusing a position in the church, he moved to Geneva in the same year and there he sustained himself by giving tuitions.
Sometime around 1679, Bernoulli moved to France. Here he studied for two years under the followers of René Descartes, a well-known philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, who had passed away in 1650.
Thereafter in 1681, Bernoulli moved to the Netherlands, where he studied with Johannes (van Waveren) Hudde, the famed mathematician, known for Hudde’s Law and his translation of Descartes's La Géométrie into Latin. Later, he went to England, where he studied with Robert William Boyle and Robert Hooke.
In 1684, Jacob Bernoulli took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Basel.
In 1682, Bernoulli started working on infinite series, but before he could progress much he returned to Switzerland. This was also the period when he produced his theory on comets but it later turned out to be incorrect.
In 1683, on returning to Switzerland, Bernoulli accepted a position at the University of Basel and began teaching mechanics. Concurrently, he also started studying the new discoveries in the field of mathematics and began his own research on the subject. In the same year, while studying a problem regarding compound interest, he discovered the first approximation found of the mathematical constant "e". This was possibly his first major discovery for which he justly became famous.
Sometime now, his younger brother Johann Bernoulli entered the University of Basel to study medicine but soon started studying mathematics with Jacob. Subsequently, the two brothers began to study the publications of von Tschirnhaus as well as differential calculus as presented by Leibniz. In fact, the brothers were among the first batch of mathematicians who studied infinitesimal calculus. Subsequently, they began to apply the theory to various problems. Later they helped in spreading this new branch of mathematics and became instrumental in turning it, into one of the fundamental features of mathematics. Side by side, Jacob continued his own research and in 1685 published his work on the parallels of logic and algebra in a pamphlet form. In the same year, Jacob Bernoulli published another paper; this time on the theory of probability.
Next in 1687, Bernoulli was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Basel, a position he held until his death. In the same year, he published his third major paper, this time on geometry, which gave a construction to divide a triangle into four equal parts with two perpendicular lines.
Concurrently, he continued his research on infinite series, started in 1682. In 1689, he established that if an experiment is repeated a large number of times then the relative frequency with which an event occurs equals the probability of the event.
Subsequently, he wrote a few more treatises on infinite series that resulted in the establishment of the Law of Large Numbers in Probability Theory. Meanwhile, in May 1690, Bernoulli published another important paper, which became a landmark in the history of calculus.
In this paper, he for the first time used the term integral with its integration meaning. In the same paper, he showed that the problem of determining the isochrones or the curve of constant descent is the same as solving a first-order nonlinear differential equation.
Bernoulli then began working on the problem and by 1696 he had solved the equation by the method of separation of variables. The equation is now known as The Bernoulli Equation. Meanwhile, he continued working on various other problems. Around 1692, Bernoulli investigated caustic curves and worked especially on the parabola, the logarithmic spiral, and epicycloids. Next, in 1694, he first described The lemniscate of Bernoulli, as it was later named. In 1695, he worked on drawbridge problems.
Throughout his life, he continued working on infinite series and published several papers on it. The last paper was published in 1704, a year before his death in 1705. Jacob Bernoulli died on August 16, 1705, in Basel, Switzerland. As per his wish, the logarithmic spiral with the Latin inscription "Eadem Mutata Resurgo" was engraved on his tombstone in Basel Minster.
(Jacob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi, published posthumously...)
2005
Views
Jacob Bernoulli was an early proponent of Leibnizian calculus and sided with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz during the Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy.
Quotations:
"It is utterly implausible that a mathematical formula should make the future known to us, and those who think it can would once have believed in witchcraft."
"The art of measuring, as precisely as possible, probabilities of things, with the goal that we would be able always to choose or follow in our judgments and actions that course, which will have been determined to be better, more satisfactory, safer or more advantageous."
Membership
French Academy of Sciences
,
France
1699
Prussian Academy of Sciences
,
Germany
1702
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"Following the example of Archimedes who wished his tomb decorated with his most beautiful discovery in geometry and ordered it inscribed with a cylinder circumscribed by a sphere, James Bernoulli requested that his tomb be inscribed with his logarithmic spiral together with the words, "Eadem mutata resurgo," a happy allusion to the hope of the Christians, which is in a way symbolized by the properties of that curve." - Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle
"We pass with admiration along the great series of mathematicians, by whom the science of theoretical mechanics has been cultivated, from the time of Newton to our own. There is no group of men of science whose fame is higher or brighter. The great discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, had fixed all eyes on those portions of human knowledge on which their successors employed their labors. The certainty belonging to this line of speculation seemed to elevate mathematicians above the students of other subjects; and the beauty of mathematical relations and the subtlety of intellect which may be shown in dealing with them were fitted to win unbounded applause. The successors of Newton and the Bernoullis, as Euler, Clairaut, D’Alembert, Lagrange, Laplace, not to introduce living names, have been some of the most remarkable men of talent which the world has seen." - William Whewell
Connections
In 1684, Jacob Bernoulli married Judith Stupanus, the daughter of a wealthy pharmacist; together they had two children.