1. Jacob Bernoulli was born in Basel in the Swiss Confederation, the son and grandson of Protestant spice merchants on his fathers side, his mother was born into a family engaged in banking and city governing.
18 Facts About Jacob Bernoulli
1. 2.
Jacob Bernoulli traveled throughout Europe from 1676 to 1682, learning about the latest discoveries in mathematics and the sciences under leading figures of the time.
3.
Jacob Bernoulli returned to Switzerland, and began teaching mechanics at the University of Basel from 1683.
4.
In 1684, Jacob Bernoulli married Judith Stupanus; they had two children.
5.
Jacob Bernoulli's travels allowed him to establish correspondence with many leading mathematicians and scientists of his era, which he maintained throughout his life.
6.
Jacob Bernoulli studied Isaac Barrow and John Wallis, leading to his interest in infinitesimal geometry.
7.
Jacob Bernoulli collaborated with his brother on various applications of calculus.
8.
The lunar crater Jacob Bernoulli is named after him jointly with his brother Johann.
9.
Jacob Bernoulli published five treatises on infinite series between 1682 and 1704.
10.
The first two of these contained many results, such as the fundamental result that diverges, which Jacob Bernoulli believed were new but they had actually been proved by Pietro Mengoli 40 years earlier and was proved by Nicole Oresme in the 14th century already.
11.
Jacob Bernoulli studied the exponential series which came out of examining compound interest.
12.
In 1696, Jacob Bernoulli solved the equation, now called the Jacob Bernoulli differential equation,.
13.
Jacob Bernoulli discovered a general method to determine evolutes of a curve as the envelope of its circles of curvature.
14.
Jacob Bernoulli investigated caustic curves and in particular he studied these associated curves of the parabola, the logarithmic spiral and epicycloids around 1692.
15.
Jacob Bernoulli was one of the most significant promoters of the formal methods of higher analysis.
16.
Jacob Bernoulli noticed that this sequence approaches a limit for more and smaller compounding intervals.
17.
Jacob Bernoulli wanted a logarithmic spiral and the motto Eadem mutata resurgo engraved on his tombstone.
18.
Jacob Bernoulli died in 1705, but an Archimedean spiral was engraved rather than a logarithmic one.