Description
This is the first full-scale biography of Leonhard Euler (1707–83), one of the greatest mathematicians and theoretical physicists of all time. In this comprehensive and authoritative account, Ronald Calinger connects the story of Euler's eventful life to the astonishing achievements that place him in the company of Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss. Drawing chiefly on Euler’s massive published works and correspondence, which fill more than eighty volumes so far, this biography sets Euler’s work in its multilayered context—personal, intellectual, institutional, political, cultural, religious, and social. It is a story of nearly incessant accomplishment, from Euler’s fundamental contributions to almost every area of pure and applied mathematics—especially calculus, number theory, notation, optics, and celestial, rational, and fluid mechanics—to his advancements in shipbuilding, telescopes, ballistics, cartography, chronology, and music theory.
The narrative takes the reader from Euler’s childhood and education in Basel through his first period in St. Petersburg, 1727–41, where he gained a European reputation by solving the Basel problem and systematically developing analytical mechanics. Invited to Berlin by Frederick II, Euler published his famous Introductio in analysin infinitorum, devised continuum mechanics, and proposed a pulse theory of light. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1766, he created the analytical calculus of variations, developed the most precise lu
Chapter
Groundwork Research and Massive Computations
4. Reaching the “Inmost Heart of Mathematics”: 1734 to 1740
The Basel Problem and the Mechanica
The Königsberg Bridges and More Foundational Work in Mathematics
Scientia navalis, Polemics, and the Prix de Paris
Pedagogy and Music Theory
Daniel Bernoulli and Family
5. Life Becomes Rather Dangerous: 1740 to August 1741
Another Paris Prize, a Textbook, and Book Sales
Health, Interregnum Dangers, and Prussian Negotiations
6. A Call to Berlin: August 1741 to 1744
“Ex Oriente Lux”: Toward a Frederician Era for the Sciences
The Arrival of the Grand Algebraist
The New Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences
Europe’s Mathematician, Whom Others Wished to Emulate
Relations with the Petersburg Academy of Sciences
7. “The Happiest Man in the World”: 1744 to 1746
Renovation, Prizes, and Leadership
Investigating the Fabric of the Universe
Contacts with the Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Home, Chess, and the King
8. The Apogee Years, I: 1746 to 1748
The Start of the New Royal Academy
The Monadic Dispute, Court Relations, and Accolades
Exceeding the Pillars of Hercules in the Mathematical Sciences
Academic Clashes in Berlin, and Euler’s Correspondence with the Petersburg Academy
9. The Apogee Years, II: 1748 to 1750
The Introductio and Another Paris Prize
Competitions and Disputes
Decrial, Tasks, and Printing Scientia navalis
A Sensational Retraction and Discord
State Projects and the “Vanity of Mathematics”
The König Visit and Daily Correspondence
10. The Apogee Years, III: 1750 to 1753
Competitions in Saint Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin
Maupertuis’s Cosmologie and Selected Research
Rivalries: Euler, d’Alembert, and Clairaut
The Maupertuis-König Affair: The Early Second Phase
Two Camps, Problems, and Inventions
The Maupertuis-König Affair: The Late Second and Early Third Phases
Planetary Perturbations and Mechanics
Strife with Voltaire and the Academy Presidency
11. Increasing Precision and Generalization in the Mathematical Sciences: 1753 to 1756
The Dispute over the Principle of Least Action: The Third Phase
Administration and Research at the Berlin Academy
The Charlottenburg Estate
A New Correspondent and Lessons for Students
Institutiones calculi differentialis and Fluid Mechanics
A New Telescope, the Longitude Prize, Haller, and Lagrange
Anleitung zur Nauturlehre and Electricity and Optimism Prizes
12. War and Estrangement, 1756 to July 1766
Into the Great War and Beyond
Losses, Lessons, and Leadership
Rigid-Body Disks, Lambert, and Better Optical Instruments
The Presidency of the Berlin Academy
What Soon Happened, and Denouement
13. Return to Saint Petersburg: Academy Reform and Great Productivity, July 1766 to 1773
Restoring the Academy: First Efforts
The Grand Geometer: A More Splendid Oeuvre
A Further Research Corpus: Relentless Ingenuity
The Kulibin Bridge, the Great Fire, and One Fewer Distraction
Persistent Objectives: To Perfect, to Create, and to Order
14. Vigorous Autumnal Years: 1773 to 1782
Elements of Number Theory and Second Ship Theory
The Diderot Story and Katharina’s Death
The Imperial Academy: Projects and Library
The Russian Navy, Turgot’s Request, and a Successor
At the Academy: Technical Matters and a New Director
A Second Marriage and Rapprochement with Frederick II
End of Correspondence and Exit from the Academy
Mapmaking and Prime Numbers
A Notable Visit and Portrait
Magic Squares and Another Honor
15. Toward “a More Perfect State of Dreaming”: 1782 to October 1783
The Inauguration of Princess Dashkova
Major Eulogies and an Epilogue
General Bibliography of Works Consulted
Register of Principal Names
Leonhard Euler
：Mathematical Genius in the Enlightenment
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