When and where was Leonhard Euler born?
Leonhard Euler was born on the 15th of April 1707 in Basel, Switzerland. He was born into a family where the intellectual currents of the Reformation Church flowed as freely as the Rhine.
Common questions about Leonhard Euler
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What major mathematical problems did Leonhard Euler solve in 1735 and 1739?
Leonhard Euler solved the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem in 1735, which became the first theorem of graph theory. He also wrote the Tentamen novae theoriae musicae in 1739, applying mathematical precision to music theory.
How did Leonhard Euler's career progress from Russia to Prussia?
Leonhard Euler arrived in Russia in May 1727 and later accepted an invitation from Frederick the Great to move to Berlin in 1741. He spent the next twenty-five years in Berlin while maintaining a strong connection to Russia by sending over one hundred memoirs to the St. Petersburg Academy.
What specific mathematical achievements did Leonhard Euler make regarding prime numbers and constants?
Leonhard Euler introduced the constant e as the base of the natural logarithm and proved that 2^31 - 1 was a Mersenne prime by 1772. He also proved that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes diverges and generalized Fermat's little theorem to what is now known as Euler's theorem.
When and how did Leonhard Euler die?
Leonhard Euler died on the 18th of September 1783 in Saint Petersburg after a lunch with his family while discussing the newly discovered planet Uranus. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time and the most prolific contributor to mathematics and science.