E42 -- De linea celerrimi descensus in medio quocunque resistente

(On the curve of fastest descent in whatever resistent medium)

Summary:

According to the records, it was presented to the St. Petersburg Academy on February 4, 1734.

Euler mentions that he read this treatise in the conference, in his letter to Daniel Bernoulli on February 16, 1734 (Bibl. math. 73, 1906/7, p. 136).

Publication:

Originally published in Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae 7, 1740, pp. 135-149
Opera Omnia: Series 1, Volume 25, pp. 41 - 53
Reprinted in Comment. acad. sc. Petrop. 7, ed. nova, Bononiae 1748, pp. 123-137 + 1 diagram [E42a]

Documents Available:

Original publication: E042 (in the Commentarii)
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 E42 include:
- Calinger R., “Leonhard Euler: The first St Petersburg years (1727-1741).” Historia Mathematica, 23 (2), pp. 121-166 (May 1996).
- Fraser CG., “The origins of Euler's variational calculus.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 47 (2), pp. 103-141 (1994).

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