MacLaurin's Physical Dissertations

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.