CLAIRAUT, (ALEXIS-CLAUDE) - STATING THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVE MOTION.

Sur quelques Principes qui donnent la Solution d'un grand nombre de Problèmes de Dynamique.

Paris, L'Imprimerie Royale, 1745. 4to. Without wrappers. Extracted from "Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences. Année 1742". Titlepage to Année 1742/1745. - 52 pp. (pp. 1-52) and 5 folded engraved plates. Clean and fine.

First appearance of this importent paper on the relative movement and the dynamics of a body in motion. It is Clairaut's main contribution to mechanics.

The principle of "Galilean invariace" "was stated most clearly by Cairaut in a paper published in 1745 (the paper offered); in effect, it is the modern principle of relative motion, according to which a body seen from a non-inertial frame experiences an "apparent force" per unit mass equal to the negative ofthe acceleration of that frame relative to inertial frame."(Truesdell "Essays in the History of Mechanics", p. 131)

Order-nr.: 46580