Leonhard Euler's Life And Accomplishments

Leonhard Euler was one of the greatest mathematicians to ever live. He built on works by some of the greats before him like Newton and Leibniz, and also created new ideas that paved the way for future mathematicians. Leonhard Euler was born on April 15,1707 in Basel, Switzerland to Paul Euler and Margaret Brucker. His father was a Protestant minister and had studied theology at the University of Basel. While at the University, Paul Euler, had attended Jacob Bernoulli’s lectures, and lived with him when they were undergraduates. The University gave him some mathematical training and he eventually passed some of his knowledge onto his son Leonhard. Shortly thereafter, Leonhard, was sent to school in Basel and lived with his grandmother on his mother’s side during this time. During his years at this school he really didn’t learn much mathematics, but the teachings that his father gave him sparked his interest in mathematics. This led him to read

Then in 1771 his house caught fire, and he was only able to save himself and his mathematical manuscripts. After the fire, he had a cataract operation that restored his sight for a few days, but the effects were only temporary and because of his lack of self-care he became totally blind. Despite this obstacle, Euler was still able to continue his work on optics, algebra, and lunar motion. Even though blindness seems like a difficult obstacle to overcome, Euler, produced almost half of his total work while completely blind! However, he did not do all of this work without some aid from his sons, and other relatives/friends. Even though Euler continued to work his condition continued to worsen as well. Then on September 18, 1783 Leonhard Euler suffered a brain hemorrhage at around 5 o’clock and uttered only “I am dying” before he lost consciousness. He died later that day at 11 o’clock in the evening in St. Petersburg,