E16 -- Mechanica, volume 2

(Mechanics, volume 2)

Originally published with the full title: Mechanica sive motus scientia analytice exposita auctore Leonhardo Eulero academiae imper. scientiarum membro et matheseos sublimioris professore. Tomus II. Instar supplementi ad commentar. acad. scient. imper. Petropoli ex typographia academiae scientarum.

Summary:

(based on C. Truesdell's An idiot's fugitive essays on science: methods, criticisms, training, circumstances)

This is the second volume of Euler's work on mechanics. See the first volume, E15, for a description of this book. In this volume, Euler considers motion of a point-mass lying on a given curve or surface. He derives some differential equations of the geodesics governing the problem of free motion on a surface. In this way, he shows that the path of a mass-point that is free to move on a fixed surface is locally the shortest possible path between its initial and final points.

In addition to the “Praefatio,” it contains 4 chapters:

De motu non libero in genere.
De motu puncti super data linea in vacuo.
De motu puncti super data linea in medio resistente.
De motu puncti super data superficie.

Publication:

Originally published as a book in 1736
Opera Omnia: Series 2, Volume 2

Documents Available:

Because the Mechanica is a large book (500+ pages), the Euler Archive has split the original into several files for easier downloading:
- Title page and Introduction
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2 (first half)
- Chapter 2 (second half)
- Chapter 3 (first part)
- Chapter 3 (second part)
- Chapter 3 (third part)
- Chapter 4
- Figures
Ian Bruce has made both a translation and transcription of E15 available at his page Mathematical Works of the 17th Century.
The Euler Archive attempts to monitor current scholarship for articles and books that may be of interest to Euler Scholars. Selected references we have found that discuss or cite E16 include:
- Gaukroger, Stephen "The metaphysics of impenetrability: Euler's conception of Force", British Journal for the History of Science, 15 (1982), 132--154.
- Speiser D., “The Kepler problem from Newton to Johann Bernoulli.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 50 (2), pp. 103-116 (1996).

Return to the Euler Archive