The first mathematical study of heat diffusion

FOURIER, Jean Baptiste Joseph.

Theorie analytique de la chaleur.

Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1822.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #102022

4to (254 x 200 mm). [4], xxii, 639 [1] pp., including half title and two engraved plates at end. Contemporary half leather over marbled boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt (spine very little rubbed, head of spine chipped), endpapers and cut edges marbled. Internally crisp and unmarked, about 20 leaves with insignificant pale damp staining, very little spotting in places. A clean, well-margined copy of a milestone work in mathematics. ----

Dibner 154; Sparrow 68; Norman 824; DSB V, pp. 93-99; Bibliotheca Mechanica, p.118; En Français dans le Texte 232; Honeyman 1358; Evans 37. - FIRST EDITION of the first mathematical study of heat diffusion, originally presented as a paper to the Academie des Sciences in 1807. Fourier showed that heat diffusion was subject to simple observable physical constants that could be expressed mathematically. While Galileo and Newton had revolutionized the study of nature by discerning mathematical laws in the movement of solids and fluids, this approach had not been satisfactorily applied to the study of heat before Fourier. His work had major repercussions for the development of both physics and pure mathematics: first, he extended the range of rational mechanics beyond the fields defined in Newton's Principia, establishing an essential branch of modern physics. Secondly, his invention of unprecedentedly powerful mathematical tools for the solution of equations "raised problems in mathematical analysis that motivated much of the leading work in that field for the rest of the century and beyond" (DSB).
"Fourier's most celebrated work in which he succeeded in putting the science of heat on an analytical or mathematical basis" (Honeyman).
"Fourier's application of new methods of mathematical analysis to the study of heat extended rational mechanics to fields outside of those defined in Newton's Principia, enabling the systematization of a wide range of phenomena. To further his study of heat, Fourier introduced the Fourier series and Fourier integrals." (Norman).
"Fourier's methods find their widest application to problems of vibration such as in heat, sound and in fluid motion" (Dibner).- Visit our website to see more images!

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