Jakob Bernoulli

Jakob Bernoulli (December 27, 1654 - August 16, 1705), also known as Jacob, Jacques or James Bernoulli was a Swiss mathematician and scientist and the older brother of Johann Bernoulli.

Born in Basel, Switzerland in 1654, Jakob Bernoulli met Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke on a trip to England in 1676, after which he devoted his life to science and mathematics. He lectured at the University of Basel from 1682, becoming Professor of Mathematics in 1687.

He corresponded with Gottfried Leibniz, and thus learnt calculus, and collaborated with his brother Johann. His early papers on transcendental curves (1696) and isoperimetry (1700, 1701) are early examples of its application.

His masterwork was Ars Conjectandi of 1713, a groundbreaking work on probability theory. The terms Bernoulli trial, Bernoulli Theorem, and Bernoulli Numbers result from this work, and are named after him.