(1654 – 1705)<\/p>\r\n\r\n
James Bernoulli was born on December 27, 1654, in Basel Switzerland. His father, Nickolaus Bernoulli, was descended from four generations of prosperous merchants and pharmacists; James’s mother, Margaretha Sch\u00f6nauer, was the daughter of a banker. Both parents\u2019 families were prominent in local politics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Like his younger brother, John, whose biography appears in Section 7.5, James abandoned the discipline chosen for him by his father\u2014in James\u2019s case, theology\u2014and devoted himself to the study of mathematics, physics, and astronomy. James traveled extensively throughout Europe, where he met with the learned men of his day, then returned to Switzerland in 1682. He secured a position as a professor of mathematics at the University of Basel in 1687, a post he held until his death in 1705.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
James and John were among the first to recognize the potential of the calculus, particularly as developed by Leibniz, and were its most zealous proponents. Working together, the Bernoullis successfully applied the analytical power of the calculus to such difficult problems as the nature of the isochronous curve and the form of a wind-filled sail. The brothers are acknowledged to have been, after Newton and Leibniz, the most important founders of the calculus. Among James\u2019s individual contributions are the invention of polar coordinates; the discovery of the equations of several curves, including the lemniscate, the tractrix, and the logarithmic spiral; and advances in algebra and the calculus of variations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
James Bernoulli\u2019s most significant achievement was his Ars Conjectandi<\/em>, or The Arts of Conjecturing<\/em>. Published posthumously in 1713, the Ars Conjectandi<\/em> is the cornerstone of modern probability theory. Though its fundamental principles were first proposed by Pascal and Fermat, Bernoulli\u2019s elegant and comprehensive treatment dramatically advanced the accuracy and impact of the calculus of probabilities.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Bernoulli died in Basel on August 16, 1705, at the age of fifty.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nhttp:\/\/www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk\/Biographies\/Bernoulli_Jacob.html<\/a>\r\nLinks<\/h3>\r\n
References<\/h3>\r\n
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