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Johann Bernoulli
Johann Bernoulli
Born	July 27, 1667(1667-07-27) Basel, Switzerland
Died	January 1, 1748 (aged 80) Basel, Switzerland
Residence	Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Field	Mathematician
Institutions	University of Groningen University of Basel
Alma mater	University of Basel
Academic advisor	Jacob Bernoulli
Notable students	Leonhard Euler
Known for	Development of calculus Catenary solution
Religious stance	Calvinist
Brother of Jakob Bernoulli, and the father of Daniel Bernoulli.

Johann Bernoulli (Basel, July 27, 1667 - January 1, 1748) was a Swiss mathematician. He was the brother of Jakob Bernoulli, and the father of Daniel Bernoulli (for whom the Bernoulli's principle was named) and Nicolaus II Bernoulli. He is also known as Jean or John Bernoulli. He educated the great mathematician Leonhard Euler in his youth.

Bernoulli family tree

Johann began studying medicine at Basel University. His father desired that he study business so that he might take over the family spice trade, but John Bernoulli disliked business and convinced his father to allow him to study medicine instead. However, John Bernoulli did not enjoy medicine either and began studying mathematics with his older brother on the side.^[1] Throughout John Bernoulli’s education at Basel University the Bernoulli brothers worked together spending much of their time studying the newly discovered calculus. They were among the first mathematicians to not only study and understand calculus but to apply it to various problems.^[2]

After graduating from Basel University John Bernoulli moved to Geneva to teach differential equations. Later, in 1694, John Bernoulli married Dorothea Falkner and soon after accepted a position as the professor of mathematics at the University of Groningen. At the request of John Bernoulli’s father-in-law, John Bernoulli began the voyage back to his home town of Basel in 1705. Just after setting out on the journey he learned of his brother’s death to tuberculosis. John Bernoulli had planned on becoming the professor of Greek at Basel University upon returning but instead was able to take over as professor of mathematics; his older brother’s former position. As a student of Leibniz’s calculus, John Bernoulli sided with him in 1713 in the Newton-Leibniz debate over who deserved credit for the discovery of calculus. John Bernoulli defended Leibniz by showing that he had solved certain problems with his methods that Newton had failed to solve. However, due to his opposition to Newton and the study that he had done under the followers of Descartes, John Bernoulli also promoted Descartes’ vortex theory over Newton’s theory of gravitation which ultimately delayed acceptance of Newton’s theory in Europe.^[3]

Although Jakob and John worked together before John graduated from Basel University shortly after this the two developed a jealous and competitive relationship. John was jealous of Jakob's position and the two often attempted to outdo each other. After Jakob's death John's jealousy shifted toward his talented son, Daniel. In 1738 the father-son duo nearly simultaneously published separate works on hydrodynamics. John Bernoulli attempted to take precedence over his son by purposely predating his work two years prior his son’s.

In 1691 John Bernoulli again fueled the tensions between himself and his brother when he solved the problem of the catenary presented by Jakob. In 1696 John Bernoulli proposed the problem of the brachistochrone, despite already having solved the problem himself. Within two years he received five answers, one of which was from his older brother, Jakob. Bernoulli also proposed a fluid energy perpetual motion machine.

Bernoulli was hired by Guillaume François Antoine de L'Hôpital to tutor him in mathematics. Bernoulli and L'Hôpital signed a contract which gave L'Hôpital the right to use Bernoulli’s discoveries as he pleased. L'Hôpital authored the first textbook on calculus, which mainly consisted of the work of Bernoulli, including what is now known as L'Hôpital's rule.^[4][5][6]

Sophomore's dream

1. ^ A Short History of Mathematics, by V. Sanford, Houghton, Mifflin Company, (1958)
2. ^ The Bernoulli Family, by H. Bernhard, Doubleday, Page & Company, (1938)
3. ^ Johann and Jacob Bernoulli, by J.O. Fleckenstein, Mathematical Association of America, (1949)
4. ^ The Story of a Number, by Eli Maor, Princeton University Press, Princeton, (1998) p. 116, ISBN 0-691-05854-7
5. ^ The Mathematics of Great Amateurs, by Julian Lowell Coolidge, Dover, New York, (1963), pp. 154-163
6. ^ A Source Book in Mathematics, 1200-1800, ed. D. J. Struck, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, (1969), pp.312-316

• Entry at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• O'Connor, John J; Edmund F. Robertson "Johann Bernoulli". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.  
• Golba, Paul, "Bernoulli, Johan'"
• "Johann Bernoulli"
• Eric W. Weisstein, Bernoulli, Johann (1667-1748) at ScienceWorld.
• C. Truesdell The New Bernoulli Edition Isis, Vol. 49, No. 1. (Mar., 1958), pp. 54-62, discusses the strange agreement between Bernoulli and de l'Hôpital on pages 59-62.