E309 -- Solution d'une question curieuse que ne pariot soumise a aucune analyse

E309 -- Solution d'une question curieuse que ne paroit soumise a aucune analyse

(Solution of a curious question which does not seem to have been subjected to any analysis)

Summary:

This is one of Euler's more famous papers and a good example of his work in an area usually called "recreational mathematics." It was the first mathematical paper on knight's tours (A knight's tour is a path that a knight chesspiece can follow to visit every square on the chessboard without revisitng any sqaure.).

This paper, although presented in 1759, did not appear in print until 1766, and the first review of it, quoting his first two tours, appeared in the Journal Encyclopédique in 1767.

According to C. G. J. Jacobi, a treatise with this title was presented to the Berlin Academy on March 2, 1758.

Publication:

Originally published in Mémoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres, Année 1759, vol.15, pp.310-337, Berlin 1766
Also appears in the Commentationes arithmeticae 1, 1849, pp. 337-355
Opera Omnia: Series 1, Volume 7, pp. 26 - 56
Edition with the title: “An account of Euler’s method of solving a problem, relative to the move of the knight at the game of chess,” The journal of science and the arts 3, London 1817, pp. 72-77 [E309b]

Documents Available:

Original publication: E309
E309 can be viewed or downloaded from Digitalisierte Akademieschriften und Schriften zur Geschichte der Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, which includes serial publications of the Prussian Academy of Science in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
English translation (Todd Doucet): E309
E309 is discussed in Ed Sandifer's How Euler Did It April 2006 column published online by the MAA.

Return to the Euler Archive