ABSTRACT
Modern mathematical hydrodynamics was born in the 18th century. In 1750, Euler [135] expressed the conviction that the mechanics of continuous media could be reduced to the application of Newton’s law to the infinitely small elements constituting the continuum. In 1755, Euler [136] presented a memoir (published in 1757) entitled Principes généraux du mouvement des fluides [General principles concerning the motion of fluids], where he could derive the equations for a general fluid, compressible or not, in the presence of arbitrary external forces. The Euler equations use Newton’s law when the fluid element is submitted only to the external forces and to the pressure exerted by the other elements.
