Bernoulli, Daniel

1995/08/02 Azkune Mendia, Iñaki - Elhuyar Fundazioa | Kaltzada, Pili - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Biografiak

(1700-1782)

Daniel Bernoulli entered the Dutch city of Groningen on January 29, 1700. His family was from Antwerp to seek refuge in the Basel of Switzerland. At the end of the twentieth century. Bernoullitos were famous mathematicians and physicists in Switzerland. Daniel's uncle Jakob was a very good mathematician at the time of Newton and Leibniz. His father Johann had also achieved great fame and Daniel was born as a professor at Groningan.

Daniel's father and uncle found new applications to mathematical calculus, but also had two other brothers, a cousin and two nephews to the mathematician or scientist.

In 1705 Daniel and his family returned to Switzerland. There he studied medicine and mathematics.

In 1724 he wrote in Venice Excercitationes mathematicaes, resolving separately the variables Equation of Ricatti. He then worked with his brother Nicholas at the St. Petersburg Academy (1725-1733) and conducted basic research on the theory of elasticity and hydrodynamics.

In 1733 he returned to Switzerland and in Basel taught botany, anatomy and natural philosophy. In 1738 he published his main work Hydrodynamica. When checking that by accelerating the speed of fluids the pressure decreased, it is called Bernoulli Principle.

It is used to obtain vacuum in the laboratories by connecting to a container of a tube or quick passage siphon of water.

Bernoulli first raised the problem of gas behavior by altering its temperature and pressure. Boyle, Mariotte and Amontonons had seen these changes, but they were not able to explain them.

Bernoulli considered that the gases were formed by a large number of small particles and focused the problem from a mathematical point of view. Applying the calculation of probabilities of Pascal and Fermat, it obtained acceptable results, although the methods used were not very strict.

If the scientists of the time paid more attention to Bernoulli's work, progress on the path of atomism would have spread earlier.

For his part, Daniel participated with Euler and D'Alembert in the problem of vibratory threads, but he also wrote works on medicine.

He died in Basel on 17 March 1782.