MacLaurin's physical dissertations (Q857445)

The book is devoted to three Colin MacLaurin's physical works: (1) his MA dissertation at Glasgow University (1713) (concerned largely with gravity), (2) his essay on the collision of bodies (for which he was awarded the prize by the Royal Academy of Sciences, Paris, in their competition of 1724), (3) his essay on the tides (which earned him a share of the prize in the corresponding competion of 1740). The book is opened by a general introduction in which MacLaurin's life and career are described and the plan of the book is presented. The main body of the volume consists of three parts devoted to three mentioned dissertations. In each of them the English translation of the given work is provided. The texts are proceeded by short introductions and at the end some useful appendices are given (they contain notes to the texts as well as some interesting historical material). The original Latin text of the first dissertation is provided as well. The book can be treated as a third part of author's work on Scottish mathematicians (volumes devoted to certain works of Simons (2000; Zbl 0946.01001) and Stirling (2003; Zbl 1031.01008) have been already published by Springer).