Daniel Bernoulli's ``immensely fertile equation'': notes on relations between a nonlinear and a linear second order equation (Q6121101)

The author discusses a paper of Daniel Bernoulli (1767) on the vibration of strings of non-uniform thickness and parallel investigations by Euler, based on the Truesdell's outstanding treatise (1960). He points out two contributions towards a proof of a conjecture of Euler's concerning the inhomogeneous string. Then he presents some results related to products of solutions of Bernoulli's equation \[u''=Vu,\tag{1}\] which satisfy a linear third order equation. The author also discusses a paper of Johann Walter (1968) who noted that pairs of solutions of equation \(\frac{r''}{r}-\frac{1}{r^4}=V\) satisfy certain common properties, which can be used to deduce the self-adjointness property of a Sturm-Liouville operator associated to equation \((1)\).