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EULER, LEONHARD (1707-1783)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 889 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EULER, LEONHARD (1707-1783) , Swiss mathematician, was See also:born at See also:Basel on the 15th of See also:April 1707, his See also:father See also:Paul Euler, who had considerable attainments as a mathematician, being Calvinistic pastor of the neighbouring See also:village of Riechen. After receiving preliminary instructions in See also:mathematics from his father, he was sent to the university of Basel, where See also:geometry soon became his favourite study. His mathematical See also:genius gained for him a high See also:place in the esteem of See also:Jean See also:Bernoulli, who was at that See also:time one of the first mathematicians in See also:Europe, as well as of his sons See also:Daniel and See also:Nicolas Bernoulli. Having taken his degree as See also:master of arts in 1723, Euler applied himself, at his father's See also:desire, to the study of See also:theology and the See also:Oriental See also:languages with the view of entering the See also:church, but, with his father's consent, he soon returned to geometry as his See also:principal pursuit. At the same time, by the See also:advice of the younger Bernoullis, who had removed to St See also:Petersburg in 1725, he applied himself to the study of See also:physiology, to which he made a happy application of his mathematical knowledge; and he also attended the medical lectures at Basel. While he was engaged in physiological researches, he composed a dissertation on the nature and See also:propagation of See also:sound, and an See also:answer to a See also:prize question concerning the masting of See also:ships, to which the See also:French See also:Academy of Sciences adjudged the second See also:rank in the See also:year 1727. In 1727, on the invitation of See also:Catherine I., Euler took up his See also:residence in St Petersburg, and was made an See also:associate of the Academy of Sciences. In 1730 he became See also:professor of physics, and in 1733 he succeeded Daniel Bernoulli in the See also:chair of mathematics. At the commencement of his new career he enriched the academical collection with many See also:memoirs, which excited a See also:noble emulation between him and the Bernoullis, though this did not in any way affect their friendship. It was at this time that he carried the integral calculus to a higher degree of perfection, invented the calculation of sines, reduced See also:analytical operations pure mathematics. In 1735 a problem proposed by the academy, for the See also:solution of which several eminent mathematicians had demanded the space of some months, was solved by Euler in three days,but the effort threw him into a See also:fever which endangered his See also:life and deprived him of the use of his right See also:eye. The Academy of Sciences at See also:Paris in 1738 adjudged the prize to his memoir on the nature and properties of See also:fire, and in 1740 his See also:treatise on the tides shared the prize with those of See also:Colin See also:Maclaurin and Daniel Bernoulli—a higher See also:honour than if he had carried it away from inferior rivals.

In 1741 Euler accepted the invitation of See also:

Frederick the See also:Great to See also:Berlin, where he was made a member of the Academy of Sciences and professor of mathematics. He enriched the last See also:volume of the Melanges or Miscellanies of Berlin with five memoirs, and these were followed, with an astonishing •rapidity, by a great number of important researches, which are scattered throughout the See also:annual memoirs of the Prussian Academy. At the same time he continued his philosophical contributions to the Academy of St Petersburg, which granted him a See also:pension in 1742. The respect in which he was held by the Russians was strikingly shown in 176o, when a See also:farm he occupied near See also:Charlottenburg happened to be pillaged by the invading See also:Russian See also:army. On its being ascertained that the farm belonged to Euler, the See also:general immediately ordered See also:compensation to be paid, and the empress See also:Elizabeth sent an additional sum of four thousand crowns. In 1766 Euler with difficulty obtained permission from the See also:king of See also:Prussia to return to St Petersburg, to which he had been originally invited by Catherine II. Soon after his return to St Petersburg a See also:cataract formed in his See also:left eye, which ultimately deprived him almost entirely of sight. It was in these circumstances that he dictated to his servant, a tailor's apprentice, who was absolutely devoid of mathematical knowledge, his Anleitung cur See also:Algebra (1770), a See also:work which, though purely elementary, displays the mathematical genius of its author, and. is still reckoned one of the best See also:works of its class. Another task to which he set himself immediately after his return to St Petersburg was the preparation of his Lettres a une princesse d'Alletnagne sur quelques sujets de physique et de philosophic (3 vols.,. 1768-1772). They were written at the See also:request of the princess of See also:Anhalt-See also:Dessau, and contain an admirably clear exposition of the principal facts of See also:mechanics, See also:optics, See also:acoustics and See also:physical See also:astronomy. Theory, however, is frequently unsoundly applied in it, and it. is to be observed generally that Euler's strength See also:lay rather in pure than in applied mathematics.

In 1755 Euler had been elected a See also:

foreign member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and some time afterwards the academical prize was adjudged to three of his memoirs Concerning the Inequalities in the Motions of the See also:Planets. The two prize-questions proposed by the same academy for 1770 and 1772 were designed to obtain a more perfect theory of the See also:moon's See also:motion: Euler, assisted by his eldest son Johann See also:Albert, was a. competitor for these prizes, and obtained both. In the second memoir he reserved for further See also:consideration several, inequalities of the moon's motion, which he could not determine in his first theory on See also:account of the complicated calculations in which the method he then employed had engaged him. He afterwards reviewed his whole theory with the assistance of his son and W. L. See also:Krafft and A. J. Lexell, and pursued his researches until he had constructed the new tables, which appeared in his Theoria motuum lunae (1772). Instead of confining himself, as before, to the fruitless integration of three See also:differential equations of the second degree, which are furnished by mathematical principles, he reduced them to the three co-ordinates which determine the place of the moon; and he divided into classes all the inequalities of ' that See also:planet, as far as they depend either on the See also:elongation of ' the See also:sun and moon, or upon the eccentricity, or the See also:parallax, or the inclination of the lunar See also:orbit. The inherent difficulties of this task were immensely enhanced by the fact that Euler was virtually See also:blind, and had to carry all the elaborate computations it involved in his memory. A further difficulty arose fromthe burning of his See also:house and the destruction of the greater See also:part of his See also:property in 1771. His See also:manuscripts were fortunately preserved.

His. own life, was only saved by the courage of a native of Basel, See also:

Peter Grimmon, who carried him out of the burning• house: Some time after this an operation restored Euler's sight; but a too harsh use of the recovered See also:faculty, along with some carelessness on the part of the surgeons, brought about a relapse. With the assistance of his sons, and of Krafft and Lexell, however, he continued his labours, neither the loss of his sight nor the infirmities of an advanced See also:age being sufficient to check his activity. Having engaged to furnish the Academy of St Petersburg with as many memoirs as would be sufficient to See also:complete its Acta for twenty years after his See also:death, he in seven years transmitted to the academy above seventy memoirs,. and left above two See also:hundred more, which were revised and completed by another See also:hand. Euler's knowledge was more general than might have been expected in one who had pursued with such unremitting ardour mathematics and, astronomy as his favourite studies. He had made very considerable progress in medical, botanical and chemical See also:science, and he was an excellent classical See also:scholar, and extensively ,read in general literature. He was much indebted to an uncommon memory, which seemed to retain every See also:idea that was conveyed to it, either from See also:reading or meditation. He could repeat the Aeneid of See also:Virgil from the beginning to the end without hesitation, and indicate the first and last See also:line of every See also:page of the edition which he used. Euler's constitution was uncommonly vigorous, and his general See also:health was always See also:good. He was enabled to continue his labours to the very See also:close of his life. His last subject of investigation was the motion of balloons, and the last subject on which he conversed was the newly discovered planet See also:Herschel (See also:Uranus). He died of See also:apoplexy on the 18th of See also:September 1783, whilst he was amusing himself at See also:tea with one of his grandchildren. Euler's genius was great and his See also:industry still greater.

His works, if printed in their completeness, would occupy from 6o to 8o See also:

quarto volumes: He was See also:simple and upright in his See also:character,' and had a strong religious faith. He was twice married; his second wife being a See also:half-See also:sister of his first, and he had a numerous. See also:family, several of whom attained to distinction. His eloge was written for the FrenchAcademy by the See also:marquis de See also:Condorcet, and an account of his life, with a See also:list of his works, was written by Von Fuss, the secretary to the Imperial Academy of St Petersburg.. The works which Euler published separately are: Dissertatio physica de See also:song (Basel, 1727, in 4to) ;' Mechanica, sive motus scientia analytice;expasita (St Petersburg, 1736, in 2 vols. 4to) ; Ennleitung in See also:die Arithmetik (ibid., 1738, in 2 vols. 8vo), in See also:German and Russian; Tentamen novae theoriae musicae (ibid. 1739, in 4to); Methodus inveniendi limas curvas, maximi minimive proprictate gaudentes (See also:Lausanne, 1744, in 4to) ; Theoria motuum planetarum et cometarum (Berlin, 1744, in 4to) ; Beantwortung, &c., or Answers to Different Questions respecting Comets (ibid., 1744, in 8vo) ; Neue Grundsatze, c., or New Principles of See also:Artillery, translated from the See also:English of See also:Benjamin See also:Robins, with notes and illustrations (ibid., 1745, in 8vo) ; Opuscula varii argumenti (ibid., 1746-1751, in 3 vols. 4(o) ; Novae et carrectae tabulae ad loco lunae computanda (ibid., 1746, in 4to); Tabulae astronomicae See also:solis et lunae _(ibid., 4to) ; Gedanken, &c., or Thoughts on the Elements of Bodies (ibid. 4to) ; Rettung der See also:gall-See also:lichen Offenbarung, &c., See also:Defence of Divine See also:Revelation against See also:Free-thinkers (ibid., 1747, in 4t0) ; Introductio it analysin infinitorum (Lausanne, 1748, in 2 vols. 4t0) ; Scientia navalis, seu tractatus de construendis ac dirigendis navi bus (St Petersburg, 1749, in 2 vols. 4to) ; Theoria motus lunae (Berlin, 1753, in 4to) ; Dissertatio de principio mininiae actionis, ' una cum examine objectionum cl. prof. Koenigii (ibid., 1753, in 8vo) ; Institutianes calculi diflerentialis, cum ejus usu in analysiIntnitorum ac doctrina serierum (ibid., 1755, in 410) ; Constructio lentium objectivarum, &c.

(St Petersburg, 1762, in 4to); Theoria motus corporum solidoruni seu rigidorum (See also:

Rostock, 1765, in 4to); Institutiones,calculi integralis (St Petersburg, 1768-1770, in 3 vols. 4to) ; Lett', es a une Princesse d'Allernagne sur quelques sujets de physique it de philosophic (St Petersburg, 1768-1772, in 3 vols. 8vo) ; Anleitung zur Algebra, or Introduction to Algebra (ibid., 1770, in 8vo); Dioptrica (ibid., 1767-1771, in 3 vols. 4t0); Theoria motuum See also:lunge nova method() pertr.arctata (ibid., 1772, in 4to) ; Novae tabulae lunares (ibid., in 8vo); l he'orie complete de la construction et de la manteuvre See also:des vaisseaux (ibid., .1773, in 8vo) ; Eclaircissements svr etablissements en favour taut des veuves que des marts, without a date; Opuscula analytica (St Petersburg, 1783-1785, in 2 vols. 4t0). See Rudio, Leonhard Euler (Basel, 1884) ; M. Cantor, Geschichte der 1lfathematik.

End of Article: EULER, LEONHARD (1707-1783)

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