Basel Problem/Historical Note

Historical Note on Basel Problem

The Basel problem was first posed by Pietro Mengoli in $1650$ (although some sources say $1644$).

Its solution is generally attributed to Leonhard Euler, who solved it in $1734$ and delivered a proof in $1735$.

However, it has also been suggested that it was in fact first solved by Nicolaus I Bernoulli.

Jacob Bernoulli had earlier established that the series was convergent, but had failed to work out what to.

The problem is named after Basel, the home town of Euler as well as of the Bernoulli family.


If only my brother were alive now.
-- Johann Bernoulli


Sources

  • 1650: Pietro Mengoli: Novae Quadraturae Arithmeticae, seu de Additione Fractionum
  • 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.20$: The Bernoulli Brothers
  • 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.21$: Euler ($\text {1707}$ – $\text {1783}$)
  • 2021: Richard Earl and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Basel problem
This article is issued from ProofWiki. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.