MACLAURIN, Colin. Traité des fluxions. 1749.
MACLAURIN, Colin.
Traité des fluxions.
Paris, Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1749.
Two 4to (255x190 mm), xvi-li-344-(4) pages and 18 folding plates / viii-322-(6) pages and 12 folding plates. binding : Contemporary full calf, spine with six compartments. Headcap worn on volume I, little wormhole in the spine and the inner margin of volume I. Light waterstain on few leaves on volume II.
First french edition.
Mathematical defense of Newton's work against the Berkeley attacks, Maclaurin also proposes there a particular use of the Taylor theorem which is since called Taylor-Maclaurin formula and the first test of convergence of an infinite series.
references: Norman [(first ed. in english. 1742) : "Maclaurin published his Treatise of fluxions, in which he attempted to establish the rigor of the calculus using the geometrical methods favored by Newton. The Treatise is noteworthy for its solutions to a number of problems in geometry, statics and the theory of attractions; its presentation of "Maclaurin's test" for convergence of infinite serie; its elaboration, using Euclidean geometry, of many of the principles stated in Newton's Principia; its presentation of the first correct theory for distinguishing between maximum and minimum values of a function; and its discussion of the attraction of an ellipsoid on an internal point, in which Maclaurin proved that the oblate spheroid is an equilibrium shape for a fluid of uniform density under constant angular rotation."]
DSB [VIII, 609 : "the earliest logical and systematic publication of the Newtonian methods. It stood as a model of rigor until the appearance of Cauchy's Cours d'Analyse in 1821"].
Price : 3500 €
