Johann II. Bernoulli

Johann II Bernoulli ( born May 18, 1710 in Basel, † July 17, 1790 ) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, and a lawyer from the famous family Basle mathematician Bernoulli.

Life and work

Johann II Bernoulli was the third of five sons of Johann Bernoulli. In 1724 he was awarded with Leonhard Euler the Master's title and then studied as well as Maupertuis, whose close friend he was, with his father. 1732 he received his doctorate in law. After that he went on a trip to Europe. He visited his brother Daniel Bernoulli in St. Petersburg and was in Paris. After that he was in Basel, where he was his father's employees, in 1743 professor of eloquence was in 1748 and after his death his father's successor as professor of mathematics. Had helped that he was not less than four times the price of the Académie des sciences won ( in 1736 with a dissertation on the propagation of light in 1737 in the form of anchors, 1741 on marine winches, 1746, Daniel Bernoulli on the theory of the magnet ). In 1765 he served as rector of the University of Basel.

Bernoulli, Euler and Maupertuis received invitations to Berlin, but was only in 1746 foreign member of the Berlin Academy. As his friend Maupertuis - not least at the instigation of Voltaire - was deposed as president of the Berlin Academy, in 1756 this came to him to Basel, where he spent the last three years of his life. After the death of Maupertuis he sent his son John III. Bernoulli to Berlin. Johann II Bernoulli conducted an extensive scientific correspondence (more than 900 letters have been preserved ). He also edited the works of his father Johann I..