Collected works. Volume II: Calculus of variations, applied mathematics, and physics. Edited by Heinz-Dieter Ebbinghaus and Akihiro Kanamori (Q2276046)

The book under review is the second volume of Zermelo's collected works. The first volume [Zbl 1185.01054] contains Zermelo's works in set theory and the foundations of mathematics together with the isolated papers of an algebraic, analytic or number-theoretic character. The second one is devoted to his works in mathematical physics and fluid dynamics. They are hardly recognized despite their originality. They come from the decade around 1900 when Zermelo was in Berlin and Göttingen and about two years around 1930 when he was in Freiburg. They are accompanied by three items found in Zermelo's and in Hilbert's \textit{Nachlass}. The Berlin-Göttingen period comprises three topics: the calculus of variations, the kinetic theory of gases and hydrodynamics. The Freiburg period comprises his papers on the evaluation of chess tournaments and on optimal steering methods of airships. To show the controversy of Zermelo with Ludwig Boltzmann in the domain of the kinetic theory of gases, two papers by Boltzmann have also been included. All papers written in German are printed face to face with English translations. Both versions use the same layout. The layout tries to preserve the appearance of the original papers. Each paper (or coherent group of papers) is preceded by an introductory note written by an expert in the field. The volume contains a full bibliography of Zermelo and his schematic \textit{curriculum vitae}. As the first volume, the book under review was published in a very beautiful and careful way.