James Bernoulli

After the problem of the brachistochrone had been solved, James Bernoulli, brother of John, proposed another variety of problem—the so-called isoperimetrical problem—of which the fol-... 

Figure 2.2 Family tree of the Bernoullis (based on Boyer, 1991). Nicholas Senior and Nicholas I were not mathematicians. James I, Nicholas II and Daniel I are particularly important in the history of statistics. Daniel II, Christopher and John-Gustave are not included by Bell (1953) but are included by Boyer (1991) and Stigler (1986).

Despite the dominance of Newton s view, some people followed the kinetic interpretation. In 1738, Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician and physicist, gave a quantitative explanation of Boyle s law using the kinetic interpretation. He even suggested that molecules move faster at high temperatures, in order to explain Amontons s experiments on the temperature dependence of gas volume and pressure. However, Bernoulli s paper attracted little notice. A similar kinetic interpretation of gases was submitted for publication to the Royal Society of London in 1848 by John James Waterston. His paper was rejected as nothing but nonsense. ... 

Rayleigh, 1899. On James Bernoulli s theorem in probabilities, Phil. Mag., 47, 246-251. 

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