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Article ID: CBB198666566

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and the Origin of the Principle of Least Action – a Never Ending Story (2016)

Hecht, Hartmut (Author)

Annalen der Physik
Volume: 528
Issue: 9-10
Pages: 641-646
Publication date: 2016
Language: English

URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/andp.201600239

DOI: 10.1002/andp.201600239

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Principle of least action Mechanics Mathematical physics Gravitation Motion (physical) Dynamics Mechanics 18th century Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von

The priority dispute between Leibniz and Newton on the invention of the calculus was just finished as another quarrel of similar vehemence occupied the scientific community. From the middle of the 18th century on, scholars and historians of science intensively discussed the question, if Leibniz, the great german polyhistor, or Maupertuis, the president of the Berlin Academy of Science under the governance of Frederic the Great, has formulated the principle of least action for the first time. Most of them have voted for the one or the other, and the discussion is not yet finished. In the following survey the relevant papers of Leibniz and Maupertuis will be analyzed, and it will be demonstrated that a definitive and final answer to the priority question is impossible, because it depends on the methodological strategies of the historians as well as on the understanding of the principle itself.

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