Daniel Bernoulli was a Swiss physicist and mathematician who made important discoveries in hydrodynamics. Born into a family of mathematicians on February 8, 1700, he was the only member of the family to make a mark in physics. He was educated and received his doctorate in Basle, Switzerland.
Bernoulli's most famous work, Hydrodynamica, was published in 1738; it is both a theoretical and a practical study of equilibrium, pressure, and velocity of fluids. He showed that as the velocity of fluid flow increases, its pressure decreases. Referred to as "Bernoulli's principle," his work is used to produce a vacuum in chemical laboratories by connecting a vessel to a tube through which water is running rapidly. Bernoulli's principle is an early formulation of the idea of conservation of energy.
Bernoulli's Hydrodynamica also attempted the first explanation of the behavior of gases with changing pressure and temperature; this was the beginning of the kinetic theory of gases.