Daniel Bernoulli Biography

Daniel Bernoulli was born in the famous Bernoulli family of Netherlands, a family which had given birth to many prominent mathematicians. Though originally belonged to Antwerp, the Bernoulli family moved to Basel, Switzerland. Daniel Bernoulli was con to Johann Bernoulli, who is renowned for pioneering calculus. His other famous relatives include Jakob Bernoulli (uncle) and Johann II (brother).Exercitationes is Bernoulli’s earliest work, published in 1724. Hydrodynamique (Hydrodynamica), his major work published in 1738 resembles Joseph Louis Lagrange's Mécanique Analytique. Bernoulli, along with Euler, researched more about the flow of fluids, especially the relation between blood pressure and the speed with which it flows inside the blood vessels. He did an experiment with a pipe to investigate this. He punctured the wall of a pipe with an open-ended straw and inferred that the height to which the fluid rises up in the straw depends upon the pressure of the fluid. This method was then adopted by the physicians all over the world, to find out the blood-pressure. This method of measurement was in use for about 170 years, until another Italian surgeon discovered a less painful method to measure the blood pressure. Bernoulli’s method of measuring pressure finds application even today. It is now used to measure the speed of the air passing the aircraft. Bernoulli was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May, 1750. This great intellect took his last breath on 17 March 1782.