What was leonhard euler most famous for

Vanity of vanities! Vanity of geometry! The rules which we make up at the beginning seem ordinary and inevitable, but it is impossible to foresee their consequences. These have only been found out by long study, extending over many centuries.

Much of our knowledge is due to a comparatively few great mathematicians such as Newton, Euler, Gauss, or Riemann; few careers can have been more satisfying than theirs. They have contributed something to human thought even more lasting than great literature, since it is independent of language.

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Euler's reputation was to bring an offer to go to Berlin, but at first he preferred to remain in St Petersburg. However political turmoil in Russia made the position of foreigners particularly difficult and contributed to Euler changing his mind.

Accepting an improved offer Euler, at the invitation of Frederick the Great, went to Berlin where an Academy of Science was planned to replace the Society of Sciences. In a letter to a friend Euler wrote:- I can do just what I wish [ in my research ] The king calls me his professor, and I think I am the happiest man in the world. Even while in Berlin Euler continued to receive part of his salary from Russia. For this remuneration he bought books and instruments for the St Petersburg Academy , he continued to write scientific reports for them, and he educated young Russians.

Maupertuis was the president of the Berlin Academy when it was founded in with Euler as director of mathematics. He deputised for Maupertuis in his absence and the two became great friends. Euler undertook an unbelievable amount of work for the Academy [ 1 ] The king also charged Euler with practical problems, such as the project in of correcting the level of the Finow Canal At that time he also supervised the work on pumps and pipes of the hydraulic system at Sans Souci, the royal summer residence.

This was not the limit of his duties by any means. He served on the committee of the Academy dealing with the library and of scientific publications. He served as an advisor to the government on state lotteries, insurance, annuities and pensions and artillery. On top of this his scientific output during this period was phenomenal. During the twenty-five years spent in Berlin, Euler wrote around articles. He wrote books on the calculus of variations; on the calculation of planetary orbits; on artillery and ballistics extending the book by Robins ; on analysis; on shipbuilding and navigation; on the motion of the moon; lectures on the differential calculus; and a popular scientific publication Letters to a Princess of Germany 3 vols.

In Maupertuis died and Euler assumed the leadership of the Berlin Academy , although not the title of President. The king was in overall charge and Euler was not now on good terms with Frederick despite the early good favour.

Euler, who had argued with d'Alembert on scientific matters, was disturbed when Frederick offered d'Alembert the presidency of the Academy in However d'Alembert refused to move to Berlin but Frederick's continued interference with the running of the Academy made Euler decide that the time had come to leave.

In Euler returned to St Petersburg and Frederick was greatly angered at his departure. Soon after his return to Russia, Euler became almost entirely blind after an illness. In his home was destroyed by fire and he was able to save only himself and his mathematical manuscripts.

A cataract operation shortly after the fire, still in , restored his sight for a few days but Euler seems to have failed to take the necessary care of himself and he became totally blind.

Because of his remarkable memory he was able to continue with his work on optics, algebra, and lunar motion. Amazingly after his return to St Petersburg when Euler was 59 he produced almost half his total works despite the total blindness. Euler of course did not achieve this remarkable level of output without help.

He was helped by his sons, Johann Albrecht Euler who was appointed to the chair of physics at the Academy in St Petersburg in becoming its secretary in and Christoph Euler who had a military career. Fuss , who was Euler's grandson-in-law, became his assistant in Yushkevich writes in [ 1 ] For example Euler credits Albrecht, Krafft and Lexell for their help with his page work on the motion of the moon, published in Fuss helped Euler prepare over articles for publication over a period on about seven years in which he acted as Euler's assistant, including an important work on insurance which was published in Yushkevich describes the day of Euler's death in [ 1 ] :- On 18 September Euler spent the first half of the day as usual.

He gave a mathematics lesson to one of his grandchildren, did some calculations with chalk on two boards on the motion of balloons; then discussed with Lexell and Fuss the recently discovered planet Uranus. About five o'clock in the afternoon he suffered a brain haemorrhage and uttered only "I am dying" before he lost consciousness. He died about eleven o'clock in the evening. After his death in the St Petersburg Academy continued to publish Euler's unpublished work for nearly 50 more years.

Euler's work in mathematics is so vast that an article of this nature cannot but give a very superficial account of it. He was the most prolific writer of mathematics of all time. He made large bounds forward in the study of modern analytic geometry and trigonometry where he was the first to consider sin, cos etc.

He made decisive and formative contributions to geometry, calculus and number theory. He integrated Leibniz 's differential calculus and Newton's method of fluxions into mathematical analysis. He introduced beta and gamma functions , and integrating factors for differential equations. He studied continuum mechanics, lunar theory with Clairaut , the three body problem , elasticity, acoustics, the wave theory of light, hydraulics, and music.

He laid the foundation of analytical mechanics, especially in his Theory of the Motions of Rigid Bodies Let us examine in a little more detail some of Euler's work. Firstly his work in number theory seems to have been stimulated by Goldbach but probably originally came from the interest that the Bernoullis had in that topic.

Perhaps the result that brought Euler the most fame in his young days was his solution of what had become known as the Basel problem. The problem had also been studied unsuccessfully by Leibniz , Stirling , de Moivre and others.

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Leonhard Euler was an 18th century physicist and scholar who was responsible for developing many concepts that are an integral part of modern mathematics. Olivia Rodrigo —. Megan Thee Stallion —. Bowen Yang —. See More.