Euler, Leonhard 1707 – 1783(欧拉：瑞士数学家, 物理学家)

Mathematician, born in Basel, Switzerland. He studied mathematics there under Jean Bernoulli, and became professor of physics (1731) and then of mathematics (1733) at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1738 he lost the sight of one eye. In 1741 he moved to Berlin as director of mathematics and physics in the Berlin Academy, but returned to St Petersburg in 1766, soon afterwards losing the sight of his other eye.

He was a giant figure in 18th-c mathematics, publishing over 800 different books and papers, on every aspect of pure and applied mathematics, physics and astronomy. His Introductio in analysin infinitorum (1748) and later treatises on differential and integral calculus and algebra remained standard textbooks for a century and his notations, such as e and Ò have been used ever since.

For the princess of Anhalt-Dessau he wrote Lettres ¨¤ une princesse d'Allemagne (1768--72), giving a clear non-technical outline of the main physical theories of the time. He had a prodigious memory, which enabled him to continue mathematical work and to compute complex calculations in his head when he was totally blind. He is without equal in the use of algorithms to solve problems.

莱昂哈德·欧拉(Leonhard Euler ，1707年4月5日～1783年9月18日)是瑞士数学家和物理学家。他被一些数学史学者称为历史上最伟大的两位数学家之一(另一位是卡尔·弗里德里克·高斯)。欧拉是第一个使用“函数”一词来描述包含各种参数的表达式的人，例如：y = F(x) (函数的定义由莱布尼兹在1694年给出)。他是把微积分应用于物理学的先驱者之一。