The Genius of Euler: Reflections on his Life and Work

Celebrating the 300th birthday of Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), one of the brightest stars in the mathematical firmament, this book stands as a testimonial to a mathematician of unsurpassed insight, industry, and ingenuity. The collected articles, aimed at a mathematically literate audience, address aspects of Euler’s life and work, from the biographical to the historical to the mathematical. The oldest of these was written in 1872, and the most recent dates to 2006. Some of the papers focus on Euler and his world, others describe a specific Eulerian achievement, and still others survey a branch of mathematics to which Euler contributed significantly. Among the 34 contributors are some of the most illustrious mathematicians and mathematics historians of the past century, e.g. Florian Cajori, Carl Boyer, George Polya, Andre Weil, and Paul Erdoes. And there are a few poems and a mnemonic just for fun.