This book provides the hitherto disregarded development of the principle of angular momentum, and aims at reconstructing its inception by analyzing Euler's relevant publications and correspondence, and using his unpublished manuscripts and notebook records. The derivation of the equations of motion for rigid body rotation is one of Euler's main achievements in mechanics and celestial mechanics. It enabled the foundation of later developments that became known as the angular momentum theorem or, as it is called here, the principle of angular momentum (PAM). Along with Euler's first mathematical formulation of Newton's law of motion, called the linear momentum theorem or the principle of linear momentum (PLM), modern historiography of science assigned these principles to Euler, honoring him by calling them Euler's principles or laws of mechanics. However, the history behind these principles, in particular the developing and establishing processes of PAM, remained in darkness until now. This is probably why Euler's achievements commonly are still subsumed in Newtonian physics or even labeled with it. A good deal of Euler's original documents relevant for unearthing these processes are presented and translated here for the first time.

Provides comprehensive reconstructions Analyzes and presents unpublished documents by Leonard Euler Uncovers key concepts and developments on Euler's principle of angular momentum

Inhalt

Volume 1 (Main Text).- Preface.- Acknowledgement.- Introduction.- The corpus of Euler's documents related to PAM.- Paraphrases of Euler's unpublished notebook records related to PAM.- Analysis and reconstruction of Euler's development of PAM.- Summary and Conclusions.- Volume 2 (Appendices and Index).- Translations of Euler's relevant publications (papers only).- Transcriptions of Euler's relevant correspondence.- References.- Name Index.- Subject Index.- Index of Cited Documents.- Index of Cited References.