Johann Albrecht Euler (27 November 1734 – 17 September 1800) was a Swiss-Russian

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who made contributions to

electrostatics Electrostatics is a branch of physics that studies slow-moving or stationary electric charges. Since classical antiquity, classical times, it has been known that some materials, such as amber, attract lightweight particles after triboelectric e ...

. The eldest son of the renowned mathematician

Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...

, he served as professor of physics at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg and later as secretary of conferences overseeing the Academy's correspondence. His work ''Disquisitio de Causa Physica Electricitatis'' represented one of the earliest attempts to mathematize electrical theory through a mechanical framework based on compressible, elastic aether.

Biography

Also known as ''Johann Albert Euler'' or ''John-Albert Euler'', Johann Albrecht Euler was the first child born to the great Swiss mathematician

(1707–1783), who had emigrated (for the first time) to Saint-Petersburg on 17 May 1727. His mother was Katharina Gsell (1707–1773) whose maternal grandmother was the famous scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717). Katharina married Leonhard Euler on 7 January 1734, and Johann Albert would be the eldest of their 13 children (only 5 of whom survived childhood). He spent his youth in

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from 1741 to 1766, after which he returned to Russia and was appointed Professor of Physics at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg in 1766. From 1769, he served as secretary of conferences, overseeing the Academy’s correspondence.

Contributions to electrostatics

In 1754, Euler composed ''Disquisitio de Causa Physica Electricitatis'' (published 1757), in which he advanced a mechanical theory of

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

based on a compressible, elastic aether. Drawing on methods from

hydrodynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in ...

and

differential calculus In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus—the study of the area beneath a curve. ...

, he formulated equations linking the density and velocity of ether flowing through the pores of charged bodies, thereby providing a quantitative account of attraction and repulsion phenomena. Euler interpreted electrification as the expulsion of ether from a body's pores, with positive and negative states determined by the relative elasticity of ether inside the body compared to the surrounding medium. His approach represents one of the earliest attempts to mathematise electrical theory prior to the development of the

action at a distance Action at a distance is the concept in physics that an object's motion (physics), motion can be affected by another object without the two being in Contact mechanics, physical contact; that is, it is the concept of the non-local interaction of ob ...

framework later formalised by

Coulomb The coulomb (symbol: C) is the unit of electric charge in the International System of Units (SI). It is defined to be equal to the electric charge delivered by a 1 ampere current in 1 second, with the elementary charge ''e'' as a defining c ...

Legacy

Although Euler's mechanistic and mathematical treatment of electricity was innovative, it attracted little contemporary attention—partly because it did not address the emerging phenomena of the Leyden jar and because he was based outside the principal research centres in London and Paris. Nevertheless, his work stands as a pioneering example of applying rigorous mathematical analysis to

and influenced subsequent debates on the nature of physical interactions in the late eighteenth century.

Works

References

External links

J. A. Euler's math genealogyL. Euler's descendantsThe Eulers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Euler, Johann 1734 births 1800 deaths Scientists from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd 18th-century Swiss mathematicians Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Swiss emigrants to the Russian Empire 18th-century mathematicians from the Russian Empire