Philippine E-Journals

The Bernoulli Family: An Introduction

Brother Augusto Solomon

Discipline: Biography

 

Abstract:

The Bernoullis were a family studied by Sir Francis Galton, a man intensely interested in the question of the heredity of genius and greatness. They seem to be a fitting choice for such a study, for a great many of them distinguished themselves in all forms of human endeavor, not with mathematics alone. It is as a family of mathematicians, however, in which their fame mainly lies. Of the Bernoulli family it is said: 'No fewer than 120 of the descendants of the mathematical Bernoullis have been traced geneologically, and of this considerable posterity the majority achieved distinction – sometimes amounting to eminence – in the law, scholarship, science literature, the learned professions, administration, and the arts. None were failures.