Whittaker's analytical dynamics: a biography (Q2249439)

The author states that, due to the development of the symplectic geometry as the perfect language of mechanics, in the 20th century mechanics has undergone such a dramatic change that books written before the 1930s ``look hopelessly dated to present day readers''. Therefore, the question arises: what caused the longevity of \textit{E. T. Whittaker}'s [A treatise on the analytical dynamics of particles and rigid bodies; with an introduction to the problem of three bodies. Cambridge: At the University Press; London: Clay (1904; JFM 35.0682.01)] written already in 1904. To answer this question the author follows the development from \textit{E. T. Whittaker}'s [``Report on the progress of the solution of the problem of three bodies'', Brit. Ass. Rep., 121--159 (1899; JFM 30.0649.01)] over the influence it had on Dirac's version of quantum mechanics up to the meaning it has in our days. The paper starts with biographical notes that can help to understand how Whittaker approached this topic. It follows a chronology of the book ``Analytical Dynamics'' itself [\textit{E. T. Whittaker}, Analytische Dynamik der Punkte und starren Körper. Berlin: Springer (1924; JFM 50.0528.05)], i.e., its editions and translations. In the next section, the content of the book is discussed, where, in virtue of its great role for modern mechanics, those chapters of the book that concern Hamiltonian mechanics are in the centre of interest. This great role shows in the mentioned meaning for the Dirac's work and, moreover, in that these chapters ``present, in incipient form, the symplectic approach that we now use''. After ``a state-of the-art introduction to principles of dynamics as they stood in the first years of the twentieth century'' and a section on Hamiltonian systems and contact transformations (building essentially the contents of Part I of Whittaker's book) it follows, as a second part, a description of applications of the principles to celestial mechanics, in particular to the problem of three bodies. In a fourth section of the paper, the reaction of the mathematical community to ``Analytical dynamics'' is examined by presenting and commenting reviews of its different editions. The final section is devoted to the book's style (influenced by Jacobi, Lie and Poincaré) and its impact on the development of mechanics, which was always given, but whose character changed with the passing of time.