THE CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS

LA GRANGE (LAGRANGE), JOSEPH LOUIS. - MAXIMA AND MINIMA.

Sur les Courbes Tautochrones. (and ) Nouvelles Réflexions sur les Tautochrones.

(Berlin, Haude et Spener, 1767 and Berlin, Ch. Fr. Voss, 1774). 4to. Without wrappers as issued in "Mémoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres" Tome XXI, pp. 364-380 and " Nouveau Mémoires...", pp. 97-122.

Both first edition in the journal form. Huygens proved Geometrically in 1659 that the tautochrone was a cycloid curve. This solution was later used to attack the problem of the Brachistochrone curve. Jacob Bernoulli solved the problem by using calculus in a paper from 1690, which for the first time used the term 'integral'. Both Lagrange and Euler loked for an analytical solution to the problem. Lagrange, in the papers offered here, developed a formal calculus based on the analogy between Newton's theorem and the successive differentiations of the product of two functions. He also communicated this to Eule in a letter written in Latin slightly before the Italian publication. In a letter to D'Alembert in 1769 Lagrange confirmed that this method of maxima and minima was the first fruit of his studies - he was only 19 when he divised it - and that he regarded it as his best work.
A paper by Leonhard Euler:¨Éclaircissement plus détailles sur La generation et Propagation du Son et sur la Formation de L'Echo" Berlin Academy Royale 1767" in first edition withbound.

Order-nr.: 39044