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     Leonard Euler

     Leonard Euler lived from 1707 until 1783. He was born at Bâle on April 15 and died at St. Petersburg on September 7 due to apoplexy. Euler moved to Berlin at the command of Peter the Great in 1741, but returned to his native Russia in 1766, where he lived until his death.

Perhaps his greatest contribution to mathematics was his Introduction in Analysin Infinitorium, which was an introduction to analytical mathematics. He divided this into two separate parts, with the first part containing many things which can be found today in math texts, such as Algebra, theory of equations, and trigonometry. The second part of his book in on analytical geometry.

Euler also represented the relationship between analysis, trigonometry, and imaginary numbers in this simple but effective formula:

cos(x) % isin(x) = e (ix)

 

Leonard Euler developed the notations for e and pi.

In his lifetime Euler published 500 books and documents, and another 400 were published after his death. He was a major contributor to analytical mathematics, and his ideas and concepts are still used today.

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