Leonhard Euler: Life, Work and Legacy

The year 2007 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of one of the Enlightenment’s most important mathematicians and scientists, Leonhard Euler. This volume is a collection of 24 essays by some of the world’s best Eulerian scholars from seven different countries about Euler, his life and his work. Some of the essays are historical, including much previously unknown information about Euler’s life, his activities in the St. Petersburg Academy, the influence of the Russian Princess Dashkova, and Euler’s philosophy. Others describe his influence on the subsequent growth of European mathematics and physics in the 19th century. Still others give technical details of Euler’s innovations in probability, number theory, geometry, analysis, astronomy, mechanics and other fields of mathematics and science. - Over 20 essays by some of the best historians of mathematics and science, including Ronald Calinger, Peter Hoffmann, Curtis Wilson, Kim Plofker, Victor Katz, Ruediger Thiele, David Richeson, Robin Wilson, Ivor Grattan-Guinness and Karin Reich - New details of Euler's life in two essays, one by Ronald Calinger and one he co-authored with Elena Polyakhova - New information on Euler's work in differential geometry, series, mechanics, and other important topics including his influence in the early 19th century

Euler was not only by far the most productive mathematician in the history of mankind, but also one of the greatest scholars of all time. He attained, like only a few scholars, a degree of popularity and fame which may well be compared with that of Galilei, Newton, or Einstein. Moreover he was a cosmopolitan in the truest sense of the word; he lived during his first twenty years in Basel, was active altogether for more than thirty years in Petersburg and for a quarter of a century in Berlin. Leonhard Euler’s unusually rich life and broadly diversified activity in the immediate vicinity of important personalities which have made history, may well justify an exposition. This book is based in part on unpublished sources and comes right out of the current research on Euler. It is entirely free of formulae as it has been written for a broad audience with interests in the history of culture and science.

The year 2007 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of one of the Enlightenments most important mathematicians and scientists, Leonhard Euler. This volume is a collection of 24 essays by some of the worlds best Eulerian scholars from seven different countries about Euler, his life and his work. Some of the essays are historical, including much previously unknown information about Eulers life, his activities in the St. Petersburg Academy, the influence of the Russian Princess Dashkova, and Eulers philosophy. Others describe his influence on the subsequent growth of European mathematics and physics in the 19th century. Still others give technical details of Eulers innovations in probability, number theory, geometry, analysis, astronomy, mechanics and other fields of mathematics and science.

This book primarily serves as a historical research monograph on the biographical sketch and career of Leonhard Euler and his major contributions to numerous areas in the mathematical and physical sciences. It contains fourteen chapters describing Euler''s works on number theory, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, differential and integral calculus, analysis, infinite series and infinite products, ordinary and elliptic integrals and special functions, ordinary and partial differential equations, calculus of variations, graph theory and topology, mechanics and ballistic research, elasticity and fluid mechanics, physics and astronomy, probability and statistics. The book is written to provide a definitive impression of Euler''s personal and professional life as well as of the range, power, and depth of his unique contributions. This tricentennial tribute commemorates Euler the great man and Euler the universal mathematician of all time. Based on the author''s historically motivated method of teaching, special attention is given to demonstrate that Euler''s work had served as the basis of research and developments of mathematical and physical sciences for the last 300 years. An attempt is also made to examine his research and its relation to current mathematics and science. Based on a series of Euler''s extraordinary contributions, the historical development of many different subjects of mathematical sciences is traced with a linking commentary so that it puts the reader at the forefront of current research. Erratum. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Mathematics Before Leonhard Euler (434 KB). Contents: Mathematics Before Leonhard Euler; Brief Biographical Sketch and Career of Leonhard Euler; Euler''s Contributions to Number Theory and Algebra; Euler''s Contributions to Geometry and Spherical Trigonometry; Euler''s Formula for Polyhedra, Topology and Graph Theory; Euler''s Contributions to Calculus and Analysis; Euler''s Contributions to the Infinite Series and the Zeta Function; Euler''s Beta and Gamma Functions and Infinite Products; Euler and Differential Equations; The Euler Equations of Motion in Fluid Mechanics; Euler''s Contributions to Mechanics and Elasticity; Euler''s Work on the Probability Theory; Euler''s Contributions to Ballistics; Euler and His Work on Astronomy and Physics. Readership: Undergraduate and graduate students of mathematics, mathematics education, physics, engineering and science. As well as professionals and prospective mathematical scientists.

An acclaimed biography of the Enlightenment's greatest mathematician This is the first full-scale biography of Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), one of the greatest mathematicians and theoretical physicists of all time. In this comprehensive and authoritative account, Ronald Calinger connects the story of Euler's eventful life to the astonishing achievements that place him in the company of Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss. Drawing on Euler's massive published works and correspondence, this biography sets Euler's work in its multilayered context—personal, intellectual, institutional, political, cultural, religious, and social. It is a story of nearly incessant accomplishment, from Euler's fundamental contributions to almost every area of pure and applied mathematics in his time—especially calculus, mechanics, and optics—to his advances in shipbuilding, telescopes, acoustics, ballistics, cartography, chronology, and music theory.

The subject of the book is the development of physics in the 18th century centered upon the fundamental contributions of Leonhard Euler to physics and mathematics. This is the first book devoted to Euler as a physicist. Classical mechanics are reconstructed in terms of the program initiated by Euler in 1736 and its completion over the following decades until 1760. The book examines how Euler coordinated his progress in mathematics with his progress in physics.

The Early Mathematics of Leonhard Euler gives an article-by-article description of Leonhard Euler's early mathematical works; the 50 or so mathematical articles he wrote before he left St. Petersburg in 1741 to join the Academy of Frederick the Great in Berlin. These early pieces contain some of Euler's greatest work, the Konigsberg bridge problem, his solution to the Basel problem, and his first proof of the Euler-Fermat theorem. It also presents important results that we seldom realize are due to Euler; that mixed partial derivatives are (usually) equal, our f(x) f(x) notation, and the integrating factor in differential equations. The books shows how contributions in diverse fields are related, how number theory relates to series, which, in turn, relate to elliptic integrals and then to differential equations. There are dozens of such strands in this beautiful web of mathematics. At the same time, we see Euler grow in power and sophistication, from a young student when at 18 he published his first work on differential equations (a paper with a serious flaw) to the most celebrated mathematician and scientist of his time. It is a portrait of the world's most exciting mathematics between 1725 and 1741, rich in technical detail, woven with connections within Euler's work and with the work of other mathematicians in other times and places, laced with historical context.

Sandifer has been studying Euler for decades and is one of the world’s leading experts on his work. This volume is the second collection of Sandifer’s “How Euler Did It” columns. Each is a jewel of historical and mathematical exposition. The sum total of years of work and study of the most prolific mathematician of history, this volume will leave you marveling at Euler’s clever inventiveness and Sandifer’s wonderful ability to explicate and put it all in context.

Recipient of the Mathematical Association of America's Beckenbach Book Prize in 2008! Leonhard Euler was one of the most prolific mathematicians that have ever lived. This book examines the huge scope of mathematical areas explored and developed by Euler, which includes number theory, combinatorics, geometry, complex variables and many more. The information known to Euler over 300 years ago is discussed, and many of his advances are reconstructed. Readers will be left in no doubt about the brilliance and pervasive influence of Euler's work.

Leonhard Euler's Letters to a German Princess: A Milestone in the History of Physics Textbooks and More is a milestone in the history of physics textbooks and the instruction of women in the sciences. It also covers views of its author on epistemology, religion, and innovations in scientific equipment, including telescopes and microscopes. Today, 250 years later, we study this work of Euler's as a foundation for the history of physics teaching and analyze the letters from an historical and pedagogical point of view.

The Finnish mathematician and astronomer Anders Johan Lexell (1740–1784) was a long-time close collaborator as well as the academic successor of Leonhard Euler at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. Lexell was initially invited by Euler from his native town of Abo (Turku) in Finland to Saint Petersburg to assist in the mathematical processing of the astronomical data of the forthcoming transit of Venus of 1769. A few years later he became an ordinary member of the Academy. This is the first-ever full-length biography devoted to Lexell and his prolific scientific output. His rich correspondence especially from his grand tour to Germany, France and England reveals him as a lucid observer of the intellectual landscape of enlightened Europe. In the skies, a comet, a minor planet and a crater on the Moon named after Lexell also perpetuate his memory.

In 1821, Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857) published a textbook, the Cours d’analyse, to accompany his course in analysis at the Ecole Polytechnique. It is one of the most influential mathematics books ever written. Not only did Cauchy provide a workable definition of limits and a means to make them the basis of a rigorous theory of calculus, but he also revitalized the idea that all mathematics could be set on such rigorous foundations. Today, the quality of a work of mathematics is judged in part on the quality of its rigor, and this standard is largely due to the transformation brought about by Cauchy and the Cours d’analyse. For this translation, the authors have also added commentary, notes, references, and an index.

This revised and greatly expanded edition of the Russian classic contains a wealth of new information about the lives of many great mathematicians and scientists, past and present. Written by a distinguished mathematician and featuring a unique mix of mathematics, physics, and history, this text combines original source material and provides careful explanations for some of the most significant discoveries in mathematics and physics. What emerges are intriguing, multifaceted biographies that will interest readers at all levels.

This book is a collection of articles, all by the author, on the Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan as well as on some of the greatest mathematicians throughout the history whose life and works have things in common with Ramanujan. It presents a unique comparative study of Ramanujan’s spectacular discoveries and remarkable life and of the monumental contributions of various mathematical luminaries, some of whom, like Ramanujan, overcame great difficulties in life. In the book, some aspects of Ramanujan’s contributions, such as his remarkable formulae for the number pi, his pathbreaking work in the theory of partitions, and his fundamental observations on quadratic forms, are discussed. Finally, the book describes various current efforts to ensure that the legacy of Ramanujan will be preserved and continue to thrive in the future. Thus the book is an enlightening study of Ramanujan as a mathematician and a human being.

This vividly illustrated history of the International Congress of Mathematicians — a meeting of mathematicians from around the world held roughly every four years — acts as a visual history of the 25 congresses held between 1897 and 2006, as well as a story of changes in the culture of mathematics over the past century. Because the congress is an international meeting, looking at its history allows us a glimpse into the effect of wars and strained relations between nations on the scientific community.

Poet, essayist, chemist, geologist, educator, entrepreneur, publisher--Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864) was one of the virtuosi of the Early Republic and a founder of the American scientific community. This absorbing biography is not only a study of the youth and early career of a complex and remarkable man but also a window on his times. In lively and often moving detail, Chandos Michael Brown opens the broad context of Silliman's life in his native Connecticut. From Silliman's father's disastrous captivity among the British during the Revolution to the intensities of New England religious revivals, from the international celebrity of the Weston Meteor to the economic hazards of introducing artificial mineral waters to the New York market, here is an engaging portrayal of the growth of an American scientist within his rich cultural setting. Brown tells how the young Silliman confronted the declining fortunes of his distinguished family and how he strove to invent a new career worthy of his ambition and social standing. He describes Silliman's education at Yale College and in Philadelphia, his European tour, and his subsequent activities as a professor of chemistry and mineralogy, founder of the Yale Medical School, and editor of the American Journal of Science. Throughout this cultural biography, Silliman appears as the concerned member of an often troubled family--a man who nonetheless managed to achieve that elusive quality, greatly admired by his contemporaries, that of the representative American. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

An exploration of one of the most celebrated and well-known theorems in mathematics By any measure, the Pythagorean theorem is the most famous statement in all of mathematics. In this book, Eli Maor reveals the full story of this ubiquitous geometric theorem. Although attributed to Pythagoras, the theorem was known to the Babylonians more than a thousand years earlier. Pythagoras may have been the first to prove it, but his proof—if indeed he had one—is lost to us. The theorem itself, however, is central to almost every branch of science, pure or applied. Maor brings to life many of the characters that played a role in its history, providing a fascinating backdrop to perhaps our oldest enduring mathematical legacy.

Robertson's Latest Mix of Rich History and Deadly Murder For young Leonhard Euler, the Bernoulli family have been more than just friends. Master Johann has been a demanding mentor, and his sons have been Leonhard's allies and companions. But it is also a family torn by jealousy and distrust. Father and sons are engaged in a ruthless competition for prestige among the mathematical elites of Europe, especially the greatest prize: the Chair of Mathematics at the University of Basel, which Johann holds and his sons want. And now, their aspirations may have turned deadly. Lured into an investigation of the suspicious death of Uncle Jacob twenty years ago, Leonhard soon realizes there's more at stake than even a prominent appointment. Surrounded by the most brilliant--and cunning--minds of his generation, Leonhard is forced to see how dangerous his world is. His studies in mathematics have always been entwined with his thoughts on theology, and now, caught in a deadly battle of wills, he'll need both his genius and his faith to survive.

A biography of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. The book gives a detailed account of his upbringing in India, his mathematical achievements, and his mathematical collaboration with English mathematician G. H. Hardy. The book also reviews the life of Hardy and the academic culture of Cambridge University during the early twentieth century.