Johann Bernoulli

In 1694, he married Dorothea Falkner. She was the daughter of an Alderman of Basel and together they had three children Nicolaus II, Daniel, and Johann II.

It is reported that he kicked his son Daniel out of their home after the son took home a mathematical prize in the competition they both had entered.

He became known as the ‘Archimedes of his age’ and enjoyed the title so much he had it inscribed on his tombstone upon his death in 1748.

He was born to Nicolaus Bernoulli and Margeretha Schonauer. Nicolaus wanted him to study business to continue on the family spice trade business. In 1683, he attended ‘Basel University’ to study medicine, contrary to his father’s wishes. However, he ended up not liking medicine.

He studied mathematics with his older brother Jacob outside of school. They focused their work on infinitesimal calculus and were the first to truly explore this topic.

Soon after the younger brother graduated from college, their relationship descended into jealousy. Both claimed to have discovered the word ‘integral’ in relationship to math, although historians tend to side with Jacob, the older brother.

He began teaching at University of Groningen in 1694 but was asked to return to his hometown of Basel by his father-in-law after nine years of teaching there.

In 1696, controversy struck when he agreed to tutor Guillaume de l’Hopital. l’Hopital published a textbook on calculus creating ‘l’Hopital’s Rule,’ stealing all of Bernoulli’s idea – but there was nothing he could do, as he had signed a contract saying l’Hopital could use his discoveries.

A year later, in 1697, he proved the ‘Sophomore’s dream’, an important mathematical theorem still used to this day.

He proposed the ‘Brachistorchone’ problem, in 1969, that was later solved by Newton, Leibniz, l’Hopital, and his brother Jacob. The object was to form a wire in a way that would let a ball traveled down it in the fastest manner possible.

In 1705, he learned that Jacob had passed away due to tuberculosis. He was able take his brother’s old position of mathematics professor at ‘Basel University’.

He was awarded membership to the ‘Academy of Science’ in Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, London, and many others.