Petition for General Mills to make a cereal called “Bernoulli-O’s”
Happy birthday, Johann Bernoulli!
Johnann is one of the eight math whizzes of the Bernoullis, a Swiss family that somehow kept birthing amazing mathematicians into the world over a few generations.
This particular Bernoulli spent a lot of his time studying (and teaching!) infinitesimal calculus way back when calculus was at its very beginnings. He tutored both L’Hopital and Euler in math and was specifically thanked in the very first calculus textbook (written by L’Hopital). He also worked with his brother Jakob on a lot of problems, though there was a good deal of friction and the two often fought.
Johann is extra badass, though, because he was a good friend of LEIBNIZ and a student of his calculus. He was also one of the few who took Leibniz’ side and defended him when the whole Newton-Leibniz calculus controversy began. He actually took several problems and showed that they could be solved using Leibniz’ methods, but not Newton’s. A pretty cool guy, if you ask me.
Math Man!
Guess whose birthday* it is today?
Hint 1: He was a Swiss mathematician born in 1667
Hint 2: He tutored l’Hopital in mathematics
Hint 3: Most of his family members were mathematicians as well
Give up?
It’s JOHANN BERNOULLI!
So why is he awesome?
Not only did he tutor l’Hopital—which eventually led to l’Hopital publishing the first formal book on calculus**–but he also tutored Euler when Euler was young. In fact, he was the one who convinced Euler’s father that he had the makings of a great mathematician, thus steering him away from a life of a pastor.
For a majority of his life, he was in a highly competitive relationship with his equally mathematically talented brother, Jakob. When his brother died of tuberculosis, Bernoulli’s jealousy actually shifted to his son (another mathematician!) and they had a few good disputes about who came up with what papers and ideas.
One super awesome thing about Bernoulli, though, was that he was one of the few who stayed on Leibniz’ side of the whole calculus dispute with Newton. He showed his support by demonstrating several problems that could be solved using Leibniz’ methods, but not Newton’s. Go Bernoulli!
Yay.
*He was born on July 27th by old style dates; by new style, he was born on August 6th.
**The book was basically all of Bernoulli’s teachings written up formally, which ticked Bernoulli off quite a bit even though l’Hopital mentioned him in the book.
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