Jakob Bernoulli (
1654 - 1705 )
(James, Jacque, Jacob)

The Swiss stamp issued in 1994
honoring James
Bernoulli. Note the formula for mathematical expectation.
Today,
the Basel phone book lists many Bernoullis and family members are still
on the faculty of the University.
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In
1694 James Bernoulli (left) published a curve in Acta Eruditorum that
he described as being "shaped like a figure 8, or a knot, or bow
of a ribbon." Following the protocol of his day, he gave
this
curve the Latin name of lemniscus, which translates as a
pendant
ribbon to be fastened to a victor's garland. He was unaware that
his curve was a special case of the Ovals of Cassini.
His investigations on the length of the arc laid the
foundation for later work on elliptic functions. But his most
important contributions were in probability. We still use the
terms "Bernoulli trials" and "Bernoulli numbers" as first suggested in
his great classic ArsConjectandi. For example, he included the
Bernoulli number of the sum of the 10th powers of the first
1,000 integers to be
91,409,924,241,424,243,424,241,924,242,500.
He
wrote that he calculated this in "half of a quarter of an hour."
James
joined with his younger brother, John (right), in recognizing the
importance
of Leibniz's highly abbreviated analysis of infinitesimals. In
the
late 1600s this trio produced almost all of what we now call elementary
calculus as well as the beginnings of ordinary differential
equations.
John contributed the name "integral calculus."
John's
name is also associated with two other famous curves, the
brachystochrome
and the catenary. Unfortunately, he is also remembered for an
arrogant
personality and the harsh treatment of his son, Daniel. Daniel
won
an important prize given by the French Academy, a prize his father
thought
he should have received.
A
fourth Bernoulli, Nicholas, was the first to state the St. Petersburg
paradox.
He was also a nephew of James. Today we experiment with this
paradox
as Buffon's Needle, using computer and graphing calculator
programs.
The
Bernoulli family of distinguished mathematicians and scientists is
virtually
synonymous with the city of Basel in
Switzerland.
Though at times dysfunctional in centuries past, the family has
remained
a significant contributor to the life of the University. The
Bernoullis
are our most important mathematical dynasty.
The spiral Jakob (James)
requested be on
his tomb.

Eadem mutata
resurgo.
I shall arise
the same though
changed.
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Johann Bernoulli (1667 - 1748
)
(John, Jean)

For a slide show of
mathematics sites in
Basel
click on Eulerstrasse above.

For an enlarged 18th century
image of John
click on the above icon.
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