ABSTRACT
In Basel in 1723, 16-year-old Leonhard Euler had completed his master’s degree in philosophy at the university . Having learned all the mathematics that was off ered by his mentor Johann Bernoulli, the most important mathematician in Europe, Euler was ready to pursue mathematics on his own. Unfortunately, the university at the time off ered no formal degree program in mathematics. In 1726, he published his fi rst essay in the Acta Eruditorum . It was three pages long, and in it he explored the construction of isochronal curves within a medium that presents friction. e study of this curve, which had been begun by Huygens and continued by Jacob and Johann Bernoulli, originally concerned the curve followed by the bob of a pendulum clock. Euler ’s excellent essay on the subject, written in Latin , as was the custom, carried the study of the isochrone further and deeper.
