Daniel Bernoulli

Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782), Dutch-born Swiss scientist, who discovered basic principles of fluid behavior. He was the son of Johann Bernoulli and the nephew of Jakob Bernoulli, both of whom made major contributions to the early development of calculus.

Bernoulli was born in Groningen on January 29, 1700, and took an early interest in mathematics. Although he earned a medical degree in 1721, he became a professor of mathematics at the Russian Academy in Saint Petersburg in 1725. He later taught experimental philosophy, anatomy, and botany at the universities of Groningen and Basel, Switzerland.

Bernoulli pioneered in Europe in accepting the new physics of the English scientist Isaac Newton. He studied the flow of fluids and formulated the principle that the pressure exerted by a fluid is inversely proportional to its rate of flow (see Bernoulli's Principle). He used atomistic concepts in trying to develop the first kinetic theory of gases, accounting for their behavior under conditions of changing pressure and temperature in probabilistic terms. This work, however, did not gain wide notice at the time. Bernoulli died in Basel on March 17, 1782.