The origins of Euler's variational calculus (Q1334125)

Euler's `Methodus inveniendi curvas lineas' published in 1744 established the separate existence of the calculus of variations as a distinct branch of analysis. This paper is an attempt to identify some significant characteristics of the Bernoulli's (Jakob and Johann) and Taylor's theory and to document the substantial achievements of Euler's variational calculus that preceded Methodus inveniendi. In the second section of the paper, the author lays out in summary the salient points of the subject as it is developed in Methodus. In the next section, Bernoulli's research is examined with consideration of the ways in which their approach was similar to and differed from Euler's. (Incidentally, a brief note on the Bernoulli family is available in the Inst. Math. Stat. Bull. 23, No. 5, 609-611 (1994) extracted from Dictionary of Scientific Biography ed. C. C. Gillespie, Vol. 2 pub. Charles Scribner's Sons, N. Y. (1970)). Then a study of Taylor's solution to the isoperimetric problem is made. Lastly, the author discusses in some detail Euler's variational papers of 1738 and 1741. The main conclusions derived by the author are (1) on the relative importance of Johann Bernoulli and Taylor in the background to Euler's research (2) on some significant anomalies in the early history of the variational calculus and (3) that Lagrange developed his new method \((\delta\)-algorithm) exclusively in reference to the examples of Chapters 2 and 3 of Euler's treatise and as a result, in the later eighteenth century, the isoperimetric theory became somewhat marginalized within variational mathematics.