MacLaurin's Physical Dissertations

Colin MacLaurin

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The Scottish mathematician Colin MacLaurin (1698-1746) is best known for developing and extending Newton's work in calculus, geometry and gravitation; his 2-volume work "Treatise of Fluxions" (1742) was the first systematic exposition of Newton's methods. It is well known that MacLaurin was awarded prizes by the Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris, for his earlier work on the collision of bodies (1724) and the tides (1740); however, the contents of these essays are less familiar and the essays themselves often hard to obtain. This book presents these important works in translation for the first time, preceded by a translation of MacLaurin's MA dissertation on gravity (Glasgow, 1713). A general introduction puts the works in context and gives an outline of MacLaurin's career. Each translation is then accompanied by an introduction and a series of notes and appendices in which individual results are analysed, both in modern terms and from a historical point of view. Background material is also provided.