Newton : The genius

It’s June 1696.

Johann Bernoulli publishes a mathematical problem in the Scientific journal, Acta Eruditorum (Latin for “Acts of the Erudite”) which is now known as the Brachistochrone problem.

Given two points A and B in a vertical plane, what is the curve traced out by a point acted on only by gravity, which starts at A and reaches B in the shortest time.

Bernoulli allowed six months for the solutions but none were received during this period.

Leibniz asks Bernoulli to extend the time upto a year and half. Bernoulli agrees. As nobody could find the solution, Bernoulli writes a letter to Newton about the problem.

At 4 p.m. on 29 January 1697 when he arrived home from the Royal Mint, Isaac Newton found the challenge in a letter from Johann Bernoulli.

Newton stayed up all night to solve it and mailed the solution anonymously by the next post.

Upon reading the solution, Bernoulli immediately recognized its author, exclaiming that he “recognizes a lion from his claw mark”.

This story gives some idea of Newton’s power, since Johann Bernoulli took two weeks to solve it.

Newton also wrote, “I do not love to be dunned [pestered] and teased by foreigners about mathematical things…”