E145 -- Recherches sur les plus grands et plus petits qui se trouvent dans les actions des forces
(Research into the largest and the smallest which are found in the action of forces)
Summary:
(based on C. Truesdell's An idiot's fugitive essays on science: methods, criticisms, training,
circumstances)
Euler shows that any discrete system obeys the Maupertuis principle; from this result, he
derives the general equation for the balance of moments in a plane elastica, which includes
the general catenary as a special case. He also proves that
Daniel Bernoulli's
principle for the elastica that is free of distributed loads is also a special case
of this general equation.
According to C. G. J. Jacobi, a treatise with this title was presented to the Berlin Academy on
December 19, 1748.
Publication:
-
Originally published in Mémoires de l'académie des sciences de Berlin 4, 1750, pp. 149-188
-
Opera Omnia: Series 2, Volume 5, pp. 1 - 37
- According to Jacobi, the manuscript of the printed treatise can be found in the archive of the
Berlin Academy.
Documents Available:
- Original publication: E145
- E145 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.
- 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 E145 include:
- Fraser C., “Lagrange, J. L. early contributions to the principles and methods of mechanics.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 28 (3), pp. 197-241 (1983).
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