Grant Kimmerling

In 1696, Johann Bernoulli set a public challenge for the mathematicians of Europe: the brachistochrone… find the shape of the fastest slide between two points. It was partly a trap, aimed at Newton. The problem reached him one January afternoon in 1697, after a full day running the Royal Mint… by four the next morning he had it solved, and he sent the answer in without a name on it. Bernoulli read the unsigned page and called it anyway: tanquam ex ungue leonem… I know the lion by his claw.