Leonhard Euler Research Paper

The Life of Euler

There is no argument that one of the greatest mathematicians of all time came out of Switzerland in the Eighteenth Century, by the name of Leonhard Euler (1707-1783). Switzerland was the birthplace to many pioneers in mathematics during this time, but Leonhard Euler is widely thought of as the most significant of them all. Euler’s many publications had a decisive influence on the development of mathematics, such an influence that it is still being felt to this day. He worked in basically all areas of math, such as number theory, algebra, geometry, calculus and probability. Euler also did a lot of work in physics including continuum physics and lunar theory. Euler was a true renaissance man, who studied and made discoveries in a vast number of subjects, and his theories are still being taught and studied. There is no denying that Leonhard Euler is one of the founding fathers of mathematics and modern science.

Euler was born in 1707 in Switzerland, where he lived most of his young life. He was the first child to his father Paulus Euler, and his mother Margaretha Brucker. Paulus Euler came from modest folk, mostly artisan, while Margaretha Brucker’s ancestors include a number of well know scholars. Euler’s father was a

clergyman who at the time was a vicar at the church of St. Jakob, just outside the city walls of Basel. Paulus, although just a clergyman, has interests in mathematics and was influenced at a young age by Jakob Bernoulli. Paulus took courses from the famous Jakob Bernoulli during the first two years of his study at the local university. Soon after the birth of little Leonhard Euler, the family moved to a suburb of Basel known as Riehen. It was here where Paulus Euler took the position of Protestant minister at the local parish and served in that capacity faithfully and devoted for the rest of his life.
Paulus Euler had hoped his son, Leonhard, would follow him and enter the ministry, but Leonhard found an early interest in mathematics. Leonhard received his first schoolings in mathematics by his father at home. At the age of eight years old, Leonhard was sent to a Latin school in Basel and lived with his grandmother. He was also given a tutor because of the poor quality of schooling that Euler was receiving. By the time Euler was thirteen, he began taking classes at the University of Basel. The young Euler was far ahead of his time, and it was extremely uncommon for someone of his age to be enrolled in the university.
Euler took classes on elementary mathematics, which were being taught by Johann Bernoulli, the younger brother of now deceased Jakob Bernoulli. It didn’t take long for Euler to catch the attention of Bernoulli with his unique pursuit of mathematics. Bernoulli began to encourage Euler to advance his studies, and read higher level books on his own. Bernoulli even assisted the young boy at his house every Saturday afternoon. Leonhard Euler graduated with a master’s degree in 1723 at the age of 16.
Euler spoke about this early learning experience at the university in a brief autobiography, “In 1720 I was admitted to the university as a public student, where I soon found the opportunity to become acquainted with the famous professor Johann Bernoulli, who made it a special pleasure for himself to help me along in the mathematical sciences” (Gautschi, 2008).

He went on in his autobiography to talk about Bernoulli’s influence on him, “he was gracious enough to comment on the collected difficulties, which was done with such a desired advantage that, when he resolved on of my objections, ten others at once disappeared, which certainly is the best method of making happy progress in the mathematical sciences” (Gautschi,

2008).
Euler grew close with the two sons of Bernoulli, Nicolas and Daniel. It was around this time that both Nicolas and Daniel were working tat the imperial Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. After spending roughly a year working in Russia, Nicolas died of appendicitis, which meant a role was available at the Academy, and Daniel recommended his good friend Euler. Euler spent the winter of 1726 in Basel studying anatomy and physiology in preparation for his anticipated word at the Russian Academy. Once Euler had arrived in St. Petersburg, it was soon determined that he should devote the entirety of his time and studies to mathematical sciences.
“Euler’s years at the Academy of St. Petersburg proved to be a period of extraordinary productivity and creativity. Many spectacular results achieved during this time brought him instant world fame and increased status and esteem within the Academy” (Gautschi, 2008). In his years in St. Petersburg, Euler not only worked on the mathematical sciences, but other areas that include theory of production of the human voice, the theory of sound and music, the mechanics of vision, and his work on telescopic and microscopic perception that made the construction of telescopes and microscopes possible. It was in St. Petersburg that Euler met and married Katharina Gsell, who was the daughter to a Swiss art teacher at the Academy. The couple brought forth thirteen children, but only 5 of them survived childhood. Their first-born child, Johann Albrecht, went on to become a mathematician, and he later served Euler as one of his assistants.
At the age of twenty-six, Leonhard Euler became the Russian Academy of Science’s chief mathematician. The Academy had maintained a research journal and from the very start, Euler contributed a large amount of mathematical articles. It was here that Euler was able to publish so much of his work and this is why he has such a large amount of publications.
“It was said by the French academician Francois Arago that Euler could calculate without any apparent effort, ‘just as men breathe, as eagles sustain themselves in the air’” (Merzbach and Boyer, 2011). Misfortune struck as Euler fell seriously ill in 1735 and he almost lost his life. Euler survived the attack, and needed to survive a second time as the infectious disease returned again three years later. The disease cost Euler the sight in his right eye. Miraculously, this misfortune about his eyesight did not diminish the rate of output of his research. The work continued to flow from Euler as he published anywhere between 500 and 900 books and papers in his lifetime.
Euler was offered an invitation from the Prussian King Fredrick II to come to Berlin and help establish an Academy of Sciences there. Due to other political conflicts in St. Petersburg, Euler decided to take this opportunity to move him and his family to Berlin. Euler was a busy man at the Academy in Berlin because he had many more responsibilities than he did back in St. Petersburg, but that didn’t slow