Jakob Bernoulli
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Categories: Cleanup from January 2006 | 1654 births | 1705 deaths | Swiss mathematicians | Swiss scientists | Natives of Basel | 17th century mathematicians | 18th century mathematicians | Number theorists
Jakob Bernoulli (Basel, Switzerland, December 27, 1654 - August 16, 1705), also known as Jacob, Jacques or James Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and scientist and the older brother of Johann Bernoulli.
While travelling in England in 1676, Jakob Bernoulli met Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. This contact inspired Jakob to devote his life to science and mathematics. He was appointed Lecturer at the University of Basel in 1682 and, in 1687, was promoted to Professor of Mathematics.
He became familiar with calculus through a correspondence with Gottfried Leibniz, then collaborated with brother Johann on various applications, notably publishing papers on transcendental curves (1696) and isoperimetry (1700, 1701).
His masterwork was Ars Conjectandi (the Art of Conjecture), a groundbreaking work on probability theory. It was published eight years after his death in 1713 by his nephew Nicholas. The terms Bernoulli trial and Bernoulli Numbers result from this work. Bernoulli crater, on the Moon, is also named after him jointly with his brother Johann.
Quote
- [The law of large numbers is a rule that] even the stupidest man knows by some instinct of nature per se and by no previous instruction.
- in a letter to Gottfried Leibniz
External links
- Jakob Bernoulli at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson. Jakob Bernoulli at the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
- Jakob Bernoulli: Tractatus de Seriebus Infinitis (pdf)
