"CLAIRAUT, (ALEXIS-CLAUDE) - STATING THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVE MOTION.
Reference : 46580
(1745)
Paris, L'Imprimerie Royale, 1745. 4to. Without wrappers. Extracted from ""Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences. Année 1742"". Titlepage to Année 1742/1745. - 52 pp. (pp. 1-52) and 5 folded engraved plates. Clean and fine.
First appearance of this importent paper on the relative movement and the dynamics of a body in motion. It is Clairaut's main contribution to mechanics.The principle of ""Galilean invariace"" ""was stated most clearly by Cairaut in a paper published in 1745 (the paper offered)"" in effect, it is the modern principle of relative motion, according to which a body seen from a non-inertial frame experiences an ""apparent force"" per unit mass equal to the negative ofthe acceleration of that frame relative to inertial frame.""(Truesdell ""Essays in the History of Mechanics"", p. 131)