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A History of the Mathematical Theories of Attraction and the Figure of the Earth 2 Volume Set

A History of the Mathematical Theories of Attraction and the Figure of the Earth 2 Volume Set

A History of the Mathematical Theories of Attraction and the Figure of the Earth 2 Volume Set

From the Time of Newton to that of Laplace
Isaac Todhunter
April 2015
Temporarily unavailable - available from TBC
Multiple copy pack
9781108084598
$113.00
USD
Multiple copy pack
2 Paperback books

    Newton's Principia paints a picture of the earth as a spinning, gravitating ball. However, the earth is not completely rigid and the interplay of forces will modify its shape in subtle ways. Newton predicted a flattening at the poles, yet others disagreed. Plenty of books have described the expeditions which sought to measure the shape of the earth, but very little has appeared on the mathematics of a problem which remains of enduring interest even in an age of satellites. Published in 1874, this two-volume work by Isaac Todhunter (1820–84), perhaps the greatest Victorian historian of mathematics, takes the mathematical story from Newton, through the expeditions which settled the matter in Newton's favour, to the investigations of Laplace which opened a new era in mathematical physics. Several of Todhunter's other works, including his History of the Mathematical Theory of Probability (1865) are also reissued in this series.

    Product details

    April 2015
    Multiple copy pack
    9781108084598
    1036 pages
    220 × 143 × 67 mm
    1.15kg
    Temporarily unavailable - available from TBC

    Table of Contents

    • Volume 1: Preface
    • 1. Newton
    • 2. Huygens
    • 3. Miscellaneous investigations up to the year 1720
    • 4. Maupertuis
    • 5. Stirling
    • 6. Clairaut
    • 7. Arc of the meridian measured in Lapland
    • 8. Miscellaneous investigations between the years 1721 and 1740
    • 9. Maclaurin
    • 10. Thomas Simpson
    • 11. Clairaut
    • 12. Arc of the meridian measured in Peru
    • 13. D'Alembert
    • 14. Boscovich and Stay
    • 15. Miscellaneous investigations between the years 1741 and 1760
    • 16. D'Alembert
    • 17. Frisi
    • 18. Miscellaneous investigations between the years 1761 and 1780. Volume 2:
    • 19. Laplace's first three memoirs
    • 20. Legendre's first memoir
    • 21. Laplace's treatise
    • 22. Legendre's second memoir
    • 23. Laplace's fourth, fifth, and sixth memoirs
    • 24. Legendre's third memoir
    • 25. Legendre's fourth memoir
    • 26. Laplace's seventh memoir
    • 27. Miscellaneous investigations between the years 1781 and 1800
    • 28. Laplace, Mécanique céleste, first and second volumes
    • 29. Laplace's theorem
    • 30. Laplace's equation
    • 31. Partial differential equation for V
    • 32. Laplace's second method of treating Legendre's problem
    • 33. Laplace's memoirs
    • 34. Fifth volume of the Mécanique céleste
    • 35. Poisson
    • 36. Ivory
    • 37. Plana
    • 38. Miscellaneous investigations between the years 1801 and 1825
    • Index.
      Author
    • Isaac Todhunter