REFLECTIONS ON THREE CENTURIES OF LEONHARD EULER

Abstract

In the year 2007, the whole world commemorated three centuries of the birth of the Swiss Leonhard Euler, possibly the greatest mathematician of the 18th century.” This is an invented statement, but, on a first inspection, it seems to be a fair description of things that are well-known to the point of being taken for granted: Indeed, Leonhard Euler was born in 1707 in Basel, Switzerland (having lived for almost the entirety of the 18th century), so that 2007 marked his tercentenary; the man and his work were in fact remembered in countless commemorations, all of them being certainly well-deserved, given that he really was a emarkable mathematician. In this way, the opening statement of this note could well pass as nothing more than a description of a fact worth mentioning.

Keywords

• REFLECTIONS ON THREE CENTURIES OF LEONHARD EULER