scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1263460

Publication date 16 March 1999

This book is about the life and outstanding achievements of Leonard Euler (1707-1783) -- one of the greatest mathematicians of all times. Euler made significant contributions to such branches of mathematics as number theory, analysis, algebra, geometry. He was the greatest applied mathematician of his century. His works in mechanics, optics, and acoustics are outstanding. As the famous twentieth century mathematician André Weil notes: ``No mathematician ever attained such a position of undisputed leadership in all branches of mathematics, pure and applied, as Euler did for the best part of the eighteenth century. \textit{André Weil} [Number theory. An approach through history. From Hammurapi to Legendre. Boston-Basel-Stuttgart: Birkhäuser. XXI, p. 169 (1984; Zbl 0531.10001)]. The quality of his achievement was extraordinary, and the quantity of his works was extraordinary, too. At present, 73 volumes of the ``Opera Omnia (his collected works) are in print -- and many volumes of scientific correspondence and other manuscripts are to appear. (See, for example, Zbl 0899.01033; Zbl 0587.01022; Zbl 0462.01022; Zbl 0323.01018; Zbl 0289.01029; Zbl 0068.34901.) He produced classic texts in algebra, differential and integral calculus, the calculus of variations -- works that continue to influence the background of their subjects to the present day. The reputation of Leonard Euler is summarized in Laplace's famous admonition: ``Read Euler, read Euler. He is the master of us all. This excellently written book by \textit{William Dunham} provides a sample of Euler's most significant contributions to eight different topics: number theory, logarithms, infinite series, analytic number theory, complex variables, algebra, geometry, and combinatorics. Each of the eight chapters begins with a discussion of what was known before Euler. This provides an opportunity to introduce results of such famous mathematicians as Euclid, Heron, Bernoulli. Then, the examination of an Eulerian ``great theorem is proposed. Each chapter concludes with an epilogue describing how mathematicians further developed Euler's ideas. An introductory biographical sketch is proposed at the beginning of the book. A brief outline of Euler's collected works, the ``Opera Omnia, is presented at the end of the book. It should be noted that it is impossible to discuss all of Euler's works in one book. For this reason (I suppose) the author did not mention Euler's contributions to differential equations, calculus of variations, modern graph theory (Euler's solution to the Königsberg bridge problem, for example), combinatorial topology, etc. The ``Opera Omnia contains nearly forty volumes of ``applied mathematics, ranging from mechanics to optics, from music to naval science. No mention is made of Euler's contributions to these fields for the same reason. We have to wait for the next good book about amazing achievements of one of the undisputed geniuses of mathematics, Leonard Euler.

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