Scientists in History: Daniel Bernoulli

At Intellectual Ventures Lab we name our conference rooms, kitchens, and buildings after
famous inventors and scientists. One of our prominent conference rooms is named after
the Bernoulli family, a family of merchants and influential mathematicians prone to bitter
rivalry.

An internal debate flared as to which Bernoulli impacted science and mathematics the most, so
we settled to name the room after the family instead of an individual, but the familys
accomplishments are too great to cover in just one post. Having editors rights, I determined
that the accomplishments of Daniel Bernoulli were quite extraordinary and deserved a spotlight,
plus the Bernoulli Principle was named after him!

Although Daniel Bernoulli is lesser known than Einstein or Newton, his contributions earned
him great regard during his time and today many of his ideas still form the foundation of
engineering applications, such as aircraft wing design. Daniel Bernoulli is best remembered for
his applications of mathematics to mechanics, particularly fluid mechanics, and for his
pioneering work in probability and statics. He was also the earliest writer to attempt to formulate
a kinetic theory of gases.
Daniel Bernoulli was born in 1700 to a family of distinguished Swiss mathematicians. From
early on in Daniels life his father, Johann- one of the early developers of calculus, was
determined for him to become a merchant as there was little to no money in mathematics,
however Daniel continued to spend considerable time learning Calculus from him. Daniel was
resistant to becoming a merchant and finally at the age of 13, his father finally gave in, but still
refused to allow him to become a mathematician and forced him to study medicine. During his
tenure in medical studies, Daniel was interested in the work of William Harvey, On the
Movement of Heat and Blood in Animals, suggesting the heart was like a pump which forced
blood to flow like a fluid through the arteries. This was the beginning of Daniels investigations
of the basic rules by which fluids move.

Daniels interest in mathematics continued during his medical studies and eventually Johann
gave in and tutored him. One of the topics he studied with his father was the Law of Vis Viva
Conservationor the Law of Conservation of Energy, which Daniel applied to his medical
studies. Daniel went on to write his doctoral dissertation on the mechanics of breathing, applying
mathematical physics to medicine to obtain his medical doctorate. While in Venice studying for
his doctorate, he also published his book Mathematical Exercises and designed an hour glass to
be used at sea, winning the 1725 Paris Academy prize.

In 1725, Daniel was invited to become the chair of mathematics at the Imperial Academy in St
Petersburg, Russia. He was reluctant to move to such a distant land, so Empress Catherine I
agreed to offer a second chair to his brother Nikolas Bernoulli. Sadly, Nikolas died of
tuberculosis less than a year later, so a promising student of Johann Bernoulli, Leonard Euler
traveled to St Petersburg to work with Daniel.

In Russia, Bernoulli and Euler investigated the flow of fluids together, in particular they wanted
to better understand the relationship between the speed at which blood flows and its pressure. To
investigate, Daniel experimented by puncturing the wall of a pipe with an open ended straw and
noted that the height to which the fluid rose was related to the fluids pressure in the pipe. Soon
physicians throughout Europe were measuring blood pressure by sticking point-ended glass
tubes directly into the artery. It wasnt until 1896, 170 years later, that a less painful method was
discovered which still in use today.

But Bernoulli went one step further and realized that per the Law of Conservation of Energy, a
moving body exchanges kinetic energy for potential energy as it gains height, and the same holds
true of a moving fluid, it exchanges its kinetic energy for pressure. Bernoullis method of
measuring pressure is still used today in the aircraft industry to measure the speed of air passing
the plane air speed!

A simple explanation Bernoullis Principle in relationship to flight is that the pressure of any
fluid decreases when the speed of the fluid flow increases. High-speed flow is linked to low
pressure and low-speed flow to high pressure. An airplane can fly because its wings are
designed to create an area of fast-moving (low pressure) air above the surface of the wing,
buoyed by the higher pressure air underneath the wing, producing lift. Its a bit more
complicated than that, but thats the basic underlying idea.
Daniel spent 9 years in Russia, compiling his research and investigations to form the majority of
his major work Hydrodynamica, but longed to return to Switzerland. In 1734, Daniel returned to
Switzerland having finally been awarded an academic position. That same year Daniel and his
father were jointly awarded a prize from the French Academy of Sciences. After longing to
return home for years, he was estranged by his father because Johann was unwilling to admit that
Daniel was his equal and banned him from his house.

For the next three years Daniel continued to work on Hydrodynamica, where he introduced the
idea of potential energy and gave a correct analysis of water flowing from a hole in a container,
based on the principle of conservation of energy. It also contained theories on the Screw of
Archimedes, a theory of windmill sails, a kinetic theory of gases, and a primitive form of the
Bernoulli Equation. Daniel was the first to understand air pressure from a molecular point of
view. He drew a picture of a vertical cylinder, closed at the base, with a piston with weights on it
at the top, both the piston and weight being supported by the air pressure inside the cylinder.

Just a year after the publication of Hydrodynamica in 1738, his father, Johann,
published Hydraulics which covered similar key ideas as Daniels book, talk quickly turned to
the idea that Johann blatantly plagiarized his ideas! Despite Daniels attempts at reconciliation,
his father carried a grudge until his death. Daniel lost much of his drive in mathematics after
these events and turned his focus to medicine and physiology. He remained in Switzerland until
his death in 1782.

For additional details about Daniel Bernoullis life visit Wikipedia, +Plus Magazine, and
the Stetson University websites. For additional information about the Bernoulli equation, check
out NASAs website or Georgia State Universitys Department of Physics and Astronomy
professor Rod Naves Hyperphysics site.