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Nicolaus II Bernoulli (also spelled asNiklaus orNikolaus; 6 February 1695 inBasel – 9 August 1726 inSaint Petersburg) was aSwissmathematician as were his fatherJohann Bernoulli and one of his brothers,Daniel Bernoulli. He was one of the many prominent mathematicians in theBernoulli family.
Nicolaus worked mostly oncurves,differential equations, andprobability. He was a friend and contemporary ofLeonhard Euler, who studied under Nicolaus' father. He also contributed tofluid dynamics.
He was older brother ofDaniel Bernoulli, to whom he also taught mathematics. Even in his youth he had learned several languages. From the age of 13, he studied mathematics and law at theUniversity of Basel. In 1711 he received his Master's of Philosophy; in 1715 he received a Doctorate in Law. In 1716-17 he was a private tutor inVenice. From 1719 he had the Chair in Mathematics at theUniversity of Padua, as the successor ofGiovanni Poleni. He served as an assistant to his father, among other areas, in the correspondence over the priority dispute betweenIsaac Newton andLeibniz, and also in the priority dispute between his father and the English mathematicianBrook Taylor. In 1720 he posed the problem of reciprocalorthogonal trajectories, which was intended as a challenge for the English Newtonians. From 1723 he was a law professor at the Berner Oberen Schule. In 1725 he together with his brother Daniel, with whom he was touring Italy and France at this time, was invited byPeter the Great to the newly foundedSt. Petersburg Academy. Eight months after his appointment he came down with a fever and died. His professorship was succeeded in 1727 byLeonhard Euler, whom the Bernoulli brothers had recommended. His early death cut short a promising career.
