Contributions in Calculus (Johann Bernoulli) In 1691 Johann Bernoulli again fueled the tensions between himself and his

brother when he solved the problem of the catenary presented by Jakob. In physics and geometry, the catenary is the curve that an idealised hanging chain or cable assumes when supported at its ends and acted on only by its own weight. The curve is the graph of the hyperbolic cosine function, and has a U-like shape, superficially similar in appearance to a parabola (though mathematically quite different). Its surface of revolution, the catenoid, is a minimal surface and is the shape assumed by a soap film bounded by two parallel circular rings. In 1696 Johann Bernoulli proposed the problem of the brachistochrone, despite already having solved the problem himself. A Brachistochrone curve (Gr. , brachistos - the shortest, , chronos - time), or curve of fastest descent, is the curve between two points that is covered in the least time by a body that starts at the first point with zero speed and is constrained to move along the curve to the second point, under the action of constant gravity and assuming no friction. Given two points A and B, with A not lower than B, there is just one upside down cycloid that passes through A with infinite slope, passes also through B and does not have maximum points between A and B. This particular inverted cycloid is a brachistochrone curve. The curve does not depend on the body's mass or on the strength of the gravitational constant. The problem can be solved with the tools from the calculus of variations. Calculus of variations is a field of mathematics that deals with extremizing functionals, as opposed to ordinary calculus which deals with functions. A functional is usually a mapping from a set of functions to the real numbers. Functionals are often formed as definite integrals involving unknown functions and their derivatives. The interest is in extremal functions that make the functional attain a maximum or minimum value or stationary functions those where the rate of change of the functional is precisely zero. If the body is given an initial velocity at A, or if friction is taken into account, the curve that minimizes time will differ from the one described above. L'Hpital controversy Bernoulli was hired by Guillaume Franois Antoine de L'Hpital to tutor him in mathematics. Bernoulli and L'Hpital signed a contract which gave L'Hpital the right to use Bernoullis

discoveries as he pleased. L'Hpital authored the first textbook on calculus, "l'Analyse des Infiniment Petits pour l'Intelligence des Lignes Courbes", which mainly consisted of the work of Bernoulli, including what is now known as L'Hpital's rule. In calculus, l'Hpital's rule (also called Bernoulli's rule) uses derivatives to help evaluate limits involving indeterminate forms. Application (or repeated application) of the rule often converts an indeterminate form to a determinate form, allowing easy evaluation of the limit. The rule is named after the 17thcentury French mathematician Guillaume de l'Hpital, who published the rule in his book l'Analyse des Infiniment Petits pour l'Intelligence des Lignes Courbes (literal translation: Analysis of the Infinitely Small to Understand Curved Lines) (1696), the first textbook on differential calculus. However, it is believed that the rule was discovered by the Swiss mathematician Johann Bernoulli. The Stolz-Cesro theorem is a similar result involving limits of sequences, but it uses finite difference operators rather than derivatives. In its simplest form, l'Hpital's rule states that for functions and g:

If

or

and

exists,

then The differentiation of the numerator and denominator often simplifies the quotient and/or converts it to a determinate form, allowing the limit to be evaluated more easily