Details
ALEMBERT, Jean le Rond d' (1717-1783). Trait de dynamique, dans lequel les lois de l'equilibre & du mouvement des corps sont rduites au plus petit nombre possible. Paris: David l'an, 1743.
4o (219 x 164 mm). Engraved title-vignette, 4 engraved folding plates at end. (A few minor marginal stains on title-page and preliminaries.) Contemporary French mottled calf, spine gilt (upper joint cracked, some wear to corners). Provenance: Gautier (engraved signature stamp on title-page); faint library stamp on title-page (unidentified).
FIRST EDITION OF D'ALEMBERT'S IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE FORMALIZING OF NEWTON'S NEW SCIENCE OF MECHANICS. The Trait de dynamique, one of d'Alembert's most famous scientific works, demonstrates d'Alembert clearly recognized that a scientific revolution had occured and sets out to formalize the new science of mechanics--an accomplishment often mis-attributed to Newton. The first part of the treatise comprises d'Alembert's own three laws of motion: inertia, the parallelogram of motion, and equilibrium. The second part contains the first statement of what has come to be known as "d'Alembert's Principle," which states that the internal forces of inertia must be equal and opposite to the forces that produce the acceleration--a theory which is applied to many mechanical and technical problems, in particular to the theory of the motion of fluids. "The 'Treatise on Dynamics' was d'Alembert's first major book and it is a landmark i the history of mechanics. It reduces the laws of the motion of bodies to a law of equilibrium" (PMM). PMM 195; Poggendorff I, 28; Wellcome II, p. 28; Norman 31.
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FIRST EDITION OF D'ALEMBERT'S IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE FORMALIZING OF NEWTON'S NEW SCIENCE OF MECHANICS. The Trait de dynamique, one of d'Alembert's most famous scientific works, demonstrates d'Alembert clearly recognized that a scientific revolution had occured and sets out to formalize the new science of mechanics--an accomplishment often mis-attributed to Newton. The first part of the treatise comprises d'Alembert's own three laws of motion: inertia, the parallelogram of motion, and equilibrium. The second part contains the first statement of what has come to be known as "d'Alembert's Principle," which states that the internal forces of inertia must be equal and opposite to the forces that produce the acceleration--a theory which is applied to many mechanical and technical problems, in particular to the theory of the motion of fluids. "The 'Treatise on Dynamics' was d'Alembert's first major book and it is a landmark i the history of mechanics. It reduces the laws of the motion of bodies to a law of equilibrium" (PMM). PMM 195; Poggendorff I, 28; Wellcome II, p. 28; Norman 31.