Nicolaus II Bernoulli

Nicholas II Bernoulli (born 27 Januarjul / February 6 1695greg in Basel;. .. . † 29 Julijul / August 9 1726greg in St. Petersburg) was a mathematician and lawyer from the Bernoulli family.

He was the son of Johann Bernoulli and the older brother of Daniel Bernoulli, he also taught in mathematics. Even as a teenager he had knowledge of several languages. From the age of 13, he studied at the University of Basel, mathematics and law. In 1711 he became Master of Arts; 1715 he obtained his doctorate in law. 1716-17 he spent as a tutor to Venice. Until 1719 he was at the University of Padua, the chair of mathematics, the Giovanni Poleni took over. He served as assistant to his father, inter alia, in the correspondence to the priority dispute between Isaac Newton and Leibniz, and also in a priority dispute between his father and the English mathematician Brook Taylor. 1720, he posed the problem of reciprocal orthogonal trajectories, which was intended as a challenge to the English Newtonians. From 1723 he was professor of law at Bern Upper School. 1725 he was appointed along with his brother Daniel, with whom he traveled to this time Italy and France by Peter the Great to the newly founded Academy of St. Petersburg. There he discussed with his brother Daniel, the St. Petersburg paradox of probability theory, about the then his brother wrote several treatises. Eight months after his appointment, he contracted a fever and died. His professorship took over in 1727 Leonhard Euler, the Bernoulli brothers had recommended.

He is the cousin of Nicholas I Bernoulli, who worked in a similar field.