Mathematician and physicist — Daniel Bernoulli (Groningen, 1700 – Basel, 1782) was a Swiss mathematician and physicist, member of the famous Bernoulli scientific dynasty. He studied medicine but devoted himself to mathematics, working for years at the St Petersburg Academy alongside Euler, before returning to Basel. His most important work is the Hydrodynamica (1738), in which he formulated the principle that bears his name, linking pressure and velocity in a moving fluid. He was also a pioneer of the kinetic theory of gases, explaining pressure as an effect of particle collisions long before the idea was accepted. His contributions range from fluid dynamics to probability, to the theory of vibrating strings.
Fun fact
He won the prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences ten times; on one occasion he shared it with his father Johann, who, jealous, threw him out of the house, feeling humiliated at being placed on equal footing with his son.
Theories and contributions
- Bernoulli’s principle — Along a streamline of an ideal fluid the sum of pressure, kinetic energy and potential energy per unit volume is constant: .
- Kinetic theory of gases — Interpretation of the pressure of a gas as the result of molecular collisions against the walls of the container.
Featured in chapters
Linked atoms
4 linked atoms.