ABSTRACT
The systematization of Mechanics in the eighteenth century was taken in hand chiefly by the Bernoullis, by D’Alembert, and by Euler, in the first instance, and the process was completed for the time being by the labours of Lagrange. The earlier writers on mechanics had been satisfied, for the most part, with solving numerous isolated problems in all branches of applied mathematics. During the eighteenth century, however, a number of general mechanical principles were formulated which could be applied to whole classes of problems. Daniel Bernoulli applied himself especially to solving, with the aid of the new analysis, difficult mechanical problems of which the geometrical methods adhered to by Huygens, and by Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia, offered no prospect of a successful solution. Among the mechanical problems investigated during the eighteenth century were those connected with the motions of falling bodies and of projectiles.
