4to (243 x 190 mm), pp [viii] 304, title in red and black, with engraved vignette and 12 folding engraved plates by Johann Martin Weis; margins of title a bit dustsoiled, some very occasional light spotting as usual, a very good copy in contemporary sheep panelled in silver-gilt, with monogram 'M R' on covers, edges gauffred and gilt, binding a bit worn at corners and foot of spine, copy of the mathematician Michel Chasles with his bookplate. £11,000
First edition of Bernoulli's epochal work on fluid dynamics and kinetic gas theory. 'Bernoulli's Hydrodynamica [was] one of the major works initiating the mathematical study of fluid flow. Bernoulli presents the following equation for steady, non viscous, incompressible flow: p + p v2/2 + p gy = A, where p symbolizes pressure, p density, v velocity, g the acceleration of gravity, y height, and A a constant. He also examines the equilibrium oscillation of an inertialess ocean, and explicitly states that the flow equations are appropriate not only for the more common applications of fluid dynamics but also for the flow of blood in veins and arteries. Bernoulli, like Galileo Galilei in 1638 and Christiaan Huygens, assumes conservation of mv2 rather than conservation of momentum mv, m and v symbolizing a body's mass and velocity respectively' (Parkinson, Breakthroughs).
The Hydrodynamica also 'initiates the mathematical study of the kinetic theory of gases... and analytically deduces Boyle's Law that the volume and pressure of a gas are inversely related, a law originally obtained empirically. To establish the analytical derivation, Bernoulli follows Robert Hooke in visualizing the pressure of a gas as resulting from huge numbers of impacts on the walls of the container by hard, fast-moving gas particles. Bernoulli's explanation, based on random motions of the gas particles, is more modern than an earlier attempt by Isaac Newton to explain Boyle's Law by assuming relatively motionless particles which repel each other with a force inversely proportional to the distance between them' (ibid).
Barchas 175; Norman 215; Parkinson pp 155-6; Roberts and Trent pp 34-5
GBP 11000.00
This item is listed on Bibliopoly by W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books; click here for further details.