Jacob Bernoulli

Infobox_Scientist
name = Jacob Bernoulli

|200px
image_width = 200px
caption = Jacob Bernoulli
birth_date = birth date|df=yes|1654|12|27
birth_place = Basel, Switzerland
death_date = death date and age|df=yes|1705|8|16|1654|12|27
death_place = Basel, Switzerland
residence = Switzerland
nationality = Swiss
field = Mathematician
work_institution = University of Basel
alma_mater = University of Basel
doctoral_advisor = Gottfried Leibniz
doctoral_students = Johann Bernoulli
Jacob Hermann
Nicolaus I Bernoulli
known_for = Bernoulli trial
Bernoulli numbers
religion = Calvinist
footnotes= Brother of Johann Bernoulli.:"For other family members named Jacob, see Bernoulli family."

Jacob Bernoulli (also known as James or Jacques) (Basel, 27 December 1654 – 16 August 1705) was one of the eight prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family.

Following his father's wish, Jacob studied theology and entered the ministry. But contrary to the desires of his parents, he also studied mathematics and astronomy. He traveled throughout Europe from 1676 to 1682, learning about the latest discoveries in mathematics and the sciences. This included the work of Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke.

He became familiar with calculus through a correspondence with Gottfried Leibniz, then collaborated with his brother Johann on various applications, notably publishing papers on transcendental curves (1696) and isoperimetry (1700, 1701). In 1690, Jacob became the first person to develop the technique for solving separable differential equations.

Upon returning to Basel in 1682, he founded a school for mathematics and the sciences. He was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Basel in 1687, remaining in this position for the rest of his life.

Jacob is best known for the work "Ars Conjectandi" (The Art of Conjecture), published eight years after his death in 1713 by his nephew Nicholas. In this work, he described the known results in probability theory and in enumeration, often providing alternative proofs of known results. This work also includes the application of probability theory to games of chance and his introduction of the theorem known as the law of large numbers. The terms Bernoulli trial and Bernoulli numbers result from this work. The Bernoulli crater, on the Moon, is also named after him jointly with his brother Johann.

Bernoulli chose a figure of a logarithmic spiral and the motto "Eadem mutata resurgo" "("Changed and yet the same, I rise again")" for his gravestone; the spiral executed by the stonemasons was, however, an Archimedean spiral. [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Bernoulli_Jacob.html]

Further reading

*DSB
first=J.E.
last=Hoffman
title=Bernoulli, Jakob (Jacques) I
volume=2
pages=46-51
*Schneider, I., 2005, "Ars conjectandi" in Grattan-Guiness, I., ed., "Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics". Elsevier: 88-104.

External links

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* Jakob Bernoulli: [http://www.kubkou.se/pdf/mh/jacobB.pdf Tractatus de Seriebus Infinitis] (pdf)
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Persondata
NAME= Bernoulli, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH= 27 December 1654
PLACE OF BIRTH= Basel, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH= 16 August 1705
PLACE OF DEATH= Basel, Switzerland