Leonhard Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1707, the son of a Calvinist pastor. After being trained by the Bernoullis in mathematics, Euler followed Daniel Bernoulli to the newly founded Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in 1727, where he became professor of physics in 1731 and then professor of mathematics in 1733 after Bernoulli retired from the position. In 1741 Frederick the Great invited Euler to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin (with Maupertuis serving as President). In 1744 he was appointed the director of the Academy's Mathematical Class. Euler remained in Berlin until 1766, when he returned to Russia after a disagreement with Frederick the Great. He died in St. Petersburg in 1783.

Euler is widely recognized as the greatest mathematician of the eighteenth century, publishing seminal works in algebra as well as differential and integral calculus, and writing on foundational issues in mathematical physics, such as Mechanica sive motus scientia analytice (Mechanics or the Analytical Science of Motion, 1736), Introductio in Analysin Infinitorum (Introduction to the Analysis of Infinites, 1744), Reflexions sur l'espace et les temps. (Reflections on Space and Time, 1748), Dissertatio de principio minae actionis (Dissertation on the Principle of Least Action, 1753), and Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra (Elements of Algebra, 1770). While in Berlin Euler wrote, in addition to technical mathematical treatises, works in natural philosophy such as Recherches sur l'origine des forces (Inquiry into the Origin of Force, 1770), and, most importantly, Lettres à une princesse d'Allemagne (Letters to a German Princess, 1768).