The Beethoven of Mathematics

Miliyon T.
Addis Ababa University
miliyon@ymail.com

April 9, 2014

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Overview

Early Life

Contributions

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Some Quotes

The study of Eulers work will remain the best school for the various
fields of mathematics. And nothing will replace it.
-Gauss
Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all.
-Laplace

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Early Life

Leonhard Euler
Born on 15 April 1707 in Basel Switzerland.
Raised in Riehen which is a town near basel.
He was a child Prodigy. Euler calculated without apparent effort, as
men breathe, or eagles sustain themselves in the wind.(Arago)
At the age of 13 he enrolled at the university of Basel.
At the age of 16 he received master of philosophy.

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Conti...

While he was studying philosophy, Euler had attended mathematics class

of Johann Bernoulli(his fathers friend). After receiving his masters degree
in philosophy, he began his study of theology, following his fathers wishes.
But Johann Persuaded Eulers father to let him study mathematics. His
father agreed, and that was a major turning point in Eulers life.

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Mathematical Career

Euler was the most prolific mathematicians ever. He wrote one-third of

the mathematics of eighteenth century. His collected work opera omnia
is still in print. One of the most known physicists of our time, Stephen
Hawking, had once said It takes a lifetime to compose a lifes work but for
Leonhard Euler a century or more. There is an apparent diversity on
Eulers writing and there was hardly a branch of mathematics to which he
did not contributed.

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Contribution
Mathematical Notations
f (x) for function, for summation,e for the base of natural logarithm, i
for imaginary number and for the ratio of the circumference a circle to
its diameter.

Venn diagrams
This(Venn) Diagram was introduced by Euler for the first time. But due
to stiglers law we now call it Venn diagram honoring John Venn.

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...continued

Beautiful Results
Euler Formula
e x = cosx + i sinx
Corollary: Euler Identity
e i + 1 = 0
Euler Polyhedral formula
V +F =E +2
Basel problem

X
1 1
2
1
=1+ + +=
2
n
4 9
6
n=1

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The late years of Euler

Euler spent most of his adult life in St. Petersburg ,Russia.
In 1735 he became nearly blind in his right eye.
On 19 June 1741 he moved to Berlin, Prussia.
On his stay in Berlin academy he did lots of thing beside mathematics
these includes:
organizing state lotteries
advise the govt on insurance issues
supervise academys observatory and botanical garden.
In 1766 he returned to Russia at the meantime he was totally blinded.But
that did not stop him from doing mathematics. In fact, he did more than
half of his lifes work while he was blind.

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Conti...
In St. Petersburg on 18 September 1783, after a lunch with his family,
during a conversation with a fellow academician about the newly
discovered Uranus and its orbit, Euler suffered a brain hemorrhage and
died a few hours later.

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Humour
Theorem (God exists)
Proof:

a + bn
=x
n

Hence God Exists!

The story goes like this....
Once at the court of Catherine the Great Euler met a French philosopher
named Denis Diderot. Diderot was a convinced athiest, and was trying to
convince the Russians into athism also. Catherine was very annoyed by
this and she asked for Eulers help. Euler thought about it and when he
n
began a theological discussion with Diderot, Euler said: a+b
n = x,
therefore God exists. Diderot was poor at mathematics and was unable
to understand what Euler had said. On the next day he returned to Paris.
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References

The Genius of Euler Reflections on His Life and Work.

ww.wikipedia.org/leonhard euler

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The End

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