Leonard Euler
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Euler calculated without apparent effort, as men breathe, or eagles sustain themselves in the wind. (Arago) Leonard Euler is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of the eighteenth century. He wrote over 700 papers and 32 books. He established many symbols that are still in use today such as pi, e, and i. Euler also formed the notation f(x) for a function (1734), e for the base of natural logs (1727), i for the square root of -1 (1777), p for pi, for summation (1755), the notation for finite differences y and 2y and many others.
Paul Euler was a protestant minister who married Margaret Brucker. Their son Leonard was born April 15, 1707 in Basel, but they moved to Riehen when he was one year old. This was where Leonard was raised. Paul Euler had studied with Jacob Bernoulli, a well-known mathematician, and Paul was able to teach his son basic mathematics as well as other subjects. The first school Leonard went to was in Basel, and it was a very poorly run school...