A History of the Calculus of Variations from the 17th through the 19th Century

H. H. Goldstine

ISBN 10: 1461381088 / ISBN 13: 9781461381082

Edité par Springer New York, Springer New York Okt 2011, 2011

A propos de cet article

This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -The calculus of variations is a subject whose beginning can be precisely dated. It might be said to begin at the moment that Euler coined the name calculus of variations but this is, of course, not the true moment of inception of the subject. It would not have been unreasonable if I had gone back to the set of isoperimetric problems considered by Greek mathemati cians such as Zenodorus (c. 200 B. C. ) and preserved by Pappus (c. 300 A. D. ). I have not done this since these problems were solved by geometric means. Instead I have arbitrarily chosen to begin with Fermat's elegant principle of least time. He used this principle in 1662 to show how a light ray was refracted at the interface between two optical media of different densities. This analysis of Fermat seems to me especially appropriate as a starting point: He used the methods of the calculus to minimize the time of passage cif a light ray through the two media, and his method was adapted by John Bernoulli to solve the brachystochrone problem. There have been several other histories of the subject, but they are now hopelessly archaic. One by Robert Woodhouse appeared in 1810 and another by Isaac Todhunter in 1861.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 432 pp. Englisch.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9781461381082

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: A History of the Calculus of Variations from the 17th through the 19th Century
• Éditeur: Springer New York, Springer New York Okt 2011
• Date de parution: 2011
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 1461381088
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781461381082
• Reliure: Taschenbuch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 235 L x 155 H x 24 P (en millimètres) 235 millimètres de largeur par 155 millimètres de hauteur par 24 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 651 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

The calculus of variations is a subject whose beginning can be precisely dated. It might be said to begin at the moment that Euler coined the name calculus of variations but this is, of course, not the true moment of inception of the subject. It would not have been unreasonable if I had gone back to the set of isoperimetric problems considered by Greek mathemati- cians such as Zenodorus (c. 200 B. C. ) and preserved by Pappus (c. 300 A. D. ). I have not done this since these problems were solved by geometric means. Instead I have arbitrarily chosen to begin with Fermat's elegant principle of least time. He used this principle in 1662 to show how a light ray was refracted at the interface between two optical media of different densities. This analysis of Fermat seems to me especially appropriate as a starting point: He used the methods of the calculus to minimize the time of passage cif a light ray through the two media, and his method was adapted by John Bernoulli to solve the brachystochrone problem. There have been several other histories of the subject, but they are now hopelessly archaic. One by Robert Woodhouse appeared in 1810 and another by Isaac Todhunter in 1861.