Translation of Gauss's Theoria Attractionis Corporum Sphaeroidicorum Ellipticorum Homogeneorum methodo novo tractata (1813)

This is a translation into English of Gauss's famous Theoria attractionis corporum sphaeroidicorum ellipticorum homogeneorum methodo novo tractata published in the Commentationes Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Gottingensis recentiores in 1813 (Abbreviated variously as Societ. Reg. Scient., or Comm. Got. recent.), a publication of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen. It was also published in Werke vol. V, pp. 1-22. See this link on HathiTrust. 

This is a rough draft, it should be accurate but may have typos or awkward wording. I have plenty of notes to share to explain what's going on in more modern language, so I'll update this page as I go. I have typeset the original Latin and the English translation in LaTex, so I'll post the sources as usual. 

ENGLISH


LATIN


Comments

  1. MCJune 6, 2023 at 6:13 PM

    Thanks for this translation. Very interesting. On page 2 (footnote), the cited document by Lagrange is not from 1739 and is likely from after 1781.

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    Replies
    1. Sam GallagherJune 7, 2023 at 5:21 AM

      You're correct, it's supposed to be 1793. I'll fix this tonight. It would be impressive if Lagrange published that at the tender age of three years old...

      Delete

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