THE WAVE EQUIATION FOR AERIAL ACOUSTICS DISCOVERED

EULER, LEONHARD. - FUNDAMENTAL PAPERS IN ACOUSTICS.

De la Propagation du Son (On the Propagation of Sound). (And same author:) Supplement aux Recherches sur la Propagation du Son (Supplement to the Research on the Propagation of Sound). (And same author:) Continuation des Recherches sur la Propagation du Son (Continuation into the Propagation of Sound). 3 Bde.

(Berlin, Haude et Spener, 1766). 4to. Without wrappers as issued in "Mémoires de L'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres", tome XV, pp. 185-209 a. 1 engraved plate, pp.210-240 a. 2 engraved plates, pp. 241-264 and 1 engraved plate.

First editions of Eulers three main papers on the theory of sounds in which he formulated the WAVE EQUATION for the propagation of sounds in the air. In the first paper Euler analyzes the forces that act on a slice of air that is in a disturbed state at y but was initially at x. The analysis is customary in the modern elementary works. In the second paper Euler gets a result that is equivalent to the general formula ofinversion for partial differentiations, noting in addition that cylindrical and spherical waves also follow it.
"Euler, Lagrange, and others worked on the propagation of sound in air. Euler wrote on the subject of sound frequently from the time he was twenty years old (1727) and established this field as a branch of mathematical physics...Three fine and definitive papers were read to the Berlin Academy in 1759 (the papers offered here). (Morris Kline). - Eneroth: E 305, E 306, E 307.

Order-nr.: 39046