One of the eighteenth century's greatest mathematicians, Lagrange made significant contributions to all fields of analysis and number theory. He survived the French Revolution to deliver these lectures in 1795 at the Ecole Normale, a training school for teachers. An exemplar among elementary expositions, Lagrange's talks feature both originality of thought and elegance of expression.
The five lectures begin with discussions of arithmetic that focus on fractions and logarithms as well as theory and applications. Subsequent talks consider algebra, with emphasis on the resolution of equations...

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736 1813), one of the notable French mathematicians of the Revolutionary period, is remembered for his work in the fields of analysis, number theory and mechanics. Like Laplace and Legendre, Lagrange was assisted by d'Alembert, and it was on the recommendation of the latter and the urging of Frederick the Great himself that Lagrange succeeded Euler as the director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. The two-volume Mecanique analytique was first published in 1788; the edition presented here is that of 1811 15, revised by the author before his...

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736 1813), one of the notable French mathematicians of the Revolutionary period, is remembered for his work in the fields of analysis, number theory and mechanics. Like Laplace and Legendre, Lagrange was assisted by d'Alembert, and it was on the recommendation of the latter and the urging of Frederick the Great himself that Lagrange succeeded Euler as the director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. The two-volume Mecanique analytique was first published in 1788; the edition presented here is that of 1811 15, revised by the author before his...

The M canique analytique presents a comprehensive account of Lagrangian mechanics. In this work, Lagrange used the Principle of Virtual Work in conjunction with the Lagrangian Multiplier to solve all problems of statics. For the treatment of dynamics, a third concept had to be added to the first two - d'Alembert's Principle - in order to develop the Lagrangian equations of motion. Hence, Lagrange was able to unify the entire science of mechanics using only three concepts and algebraic operations.