E9 -- De linea brevissima in superficie quacunque duo quaelibet puncta jungente
(On the shortest line joining two points on a surface)
Summary:
This article arose out of a homework assignment that Euler did for Johann Bernoulli. Bernoulli
asked Euler to find "the shortest line between two points on a surface." Together with a paper
that Euler later published based on this homework assignment, this laid the first analytical
foundations for the calculus of variations. For a more detailed look at this paper, see
Ed Sandifer's
notes.
Publication:
-
Originally published in Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae 3, 1732, pp. 110-124
-
Opera Omnia: Series 1, Volume 25, pp. 1 - 12
- Reprinted in Comment. acad. sc. Petrop. 3, ed. nova, Bononiae 1742, pp. 99-111 + 1 diagram
[E9a]
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