The inception of symplectic geometry: The works of Lagrange and Poisson during the years 1808-1810 (Q844123)

In the years 1808--1810 there appeared five papers, three by \textit{J. Lagrange} and two by \textit{S. Poisson}, each of which relied upon preceding ones. It was the beginning of symplectic geometry, although the word ``symplectic'' has been coined by \textit{H. Weyl} only in 1939. The present paper is a presentation of those five in a modern mathematical setting with the ``point of view (\(\dots\)) of a working mathematician, rather than that of a specialist in the history of mathematics''. More precisely, ``Section 2 describes two closely related concepts: the flow and the manifold of motions of a smooth dynamical system. Section 3 describes the problem of the quantitative determination of the planets in the solar system, which was the main motivation for the work on dynamics by Lagrange and Poisson. Section 4 presents Lagrange's and Poisson's works on the method of varying constants. Finally, Section 5 offers a modern account of this method, using today's notations and concepts''.