Publisher's Synopsis
This book examines related developments in the history of 18th-century exact science, focusing on the writings of such major continental figures as Jean dÆAlembert, Leonhard Euler and Joseph Louis Lagrange. A study of their work on the principles of the calculus and the theory of motion serves to clarify the conceptual foundations of analysis and mechanics in the century following Newton. Subjects which receive particular attention include the theory of constrained motion as formulated by dÆAlembertÆs principle; EulerÆs investigation of the elastica; LagrangeÆs work on the principles and methods of mechanics; the development of the calculus of variations from the Bernoullis to the end of the century; and conceptions of algebraic analysis that guided work on the calculus before Cauchy. The book provides a detailed historical and critical study of conceptual change involving fundamental links between pure and applied mathematics.
