Euler as Physicist

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XXIII

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2. The Predecessors: Descartes, Newton and Leibniz

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 1-32

3. Newton and Leibniz on Time, Space and Forces

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 33-64

4. Newton and Leibniz on the Foundation of the Calculus

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 65-100

5. Euler’s Program for Mechanics

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 101-194

6. The Foundation of the Calculus

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 195-233

7. Euler’s Early Relativistic Theory

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 235-267

8. Euler’s Wirksamkeit, Helmholtz’s Treatment of Energy Law and Beyond

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 269-283

9. Euler’s Mechanics and Schrödinger’s Quantum Mechanics

   • Dieter Suisky

   Pages 285-312

10. Back Matter

    Pages 313-338

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In this book the exceptional role of Leonhard Euler in the history of science will be analyzed and emphasized, especially demonstrated for his fundamental cont- butions to physics. Although Euler is famous as the leading mathematician of the 18th century his contributions to physics are as important and rich of new methods and solutions. There are many books devoted to Euler as mathematician, but not as physicist. In the past decade, special attention had been directed at the development of science in the 18th century. In three distinguished tercentenary celebrations in - casion of the births of Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698–1759), Emilie du Chatelet ˆ (1706–1749) and Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) the merits of these scholars for the development of the post-Newtonian science had been highly acknowledged. These events were not only most welcome to remember an essential period in the past, but are also an opportunity to ask for the long lasting in uence on the further development of science until present days.

• Euler
• Foundation of classical mechanics
• Hermann von Helmholtz
• Isaac Newton
• Physics
• calculus
• classical mechanics
• mathematics
• mechanics

From the reviews:

"A leading mathematician of the 18th century, Leonhard Euler made innovative contributions to mechanics that laid the foundations of mathematical physics that are still in use today. … In this work written for professionals in the physical sciences, Suisky … lays out the details of simultaneous 18th-century advances in both mechanics and mathematics, with some later chapters devoted to 19th- and 20th-century applications. … Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers, faculty, and professionals." (F. Potter, Choice, Vol. 46 (11), August, 2009)

• Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Institut für Physik, Germany

  Dieter Suisky

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