The elder Mayer, a well-known Göttingen professor of geography, physics, and astronomy, died in 1762, when Johann was only ten.

Johann Tobias Mayer studied theology and philosophy since 1769 at the Georg-August University of Göttingen (founded 1737) under Abraham Gotthelf Kästner and later also with Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.

He later taught mathematics and physics at Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, and in 1799, he succeeded Lichtenberg at Göttingen.

Mayer's research in experimental physics and astronomy was published in Annalen der Physik.

A proof of the Pythagorean theorem ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci is now claimed to have been authored by Mayer in 1772.