Nicolaus I Bernoulli

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Nicolaus Bernoulli (* October 21, 1687 in Basel, † November 29, 1759 in Basel), sometimes also written Nicolas or Nikolas, was a Swiss mathematician; he was the nephew of Jacob and Johann Bernoulli.

In 1704 he graduated at the University of Basel under Jakob Bernoulli and obtained his PhD 5 years later with a work on probability theory in law. 1716 he obtained the Galileo-chair at the university of Padova, where he worked on differential equations and geometry. In 1722 he returned to Switzerland and obtained a chair in Logics at the University of Basel.

His most important contributions can be found in his letters, in particular to Pierre Rémond de Montmort. In these letters, he introduced in particular the St. Petersburg Paradox. He also communicated with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Leonhard Euler.

[edit] External links

• O'Connor, John J., and Edmund F. Robertson. "Nicolaus I Bernoulli". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.