Euler on Your Own

1. Euler on Your Own How to use the available sources without learning Latin first Friday, August 11, 2006

2. Original sources • Journals from St. Petersburg and Berlin • Archives in Berlin, St. Petersburg and Moscow • 1 or 2 new letters discovered each year • Latin, French, German and Russian • Rare and expensive

3. Opera Omnia • coming out since 1915 • 80 volumes in 4 series

4. Opera Omnia • Series I – Mathematics – 29 volumes • Series II – Mechanics and Astronomy – 31 volumes • Series III – Optics, sound, miscellaneous – 12 volumes • Series IV – Letters and notebooks – projected to be 12 volumes of letters, 4 out

5. Opera Omnia • Birkhauser, 160 Euros/volume • 72 volumes in Series I-III for 14000 Euros • Mostly in Latin (80%) with introductions in German • In many libraries

6. East Germany – 1960’s • Euler-Goldbach letters • 3 volumes of other correspondence • Registres of the Berlin Academy • two Festschriften (1957, 1983)

7. In English • Euler: The Master of Us All • available from the MAA • AMS – Varajaradan • MAA – four books in 2007 • Elsevier – Bradley/Sandifer

8. In Translation • John Blanton’s Introductio (2 vol) and Calculus Differentialis (first part only) • Algebra • Letters to a German Princess • Konigsburg Bridge Problem • Continued Fractions • Artillery (very rare) • Maneuvering of Ships (very, very rare)

9. On Line • The Euler Archive • www.EulerArchive.org

10. www.EulerArchive.org • Dominic Klyve and Lee Stemkoski at Dartmouth • Scanned images of over 800 original papers from the Commentarii • Electronic Eneström and Fuss indices

11. The Euler Archive • Tables of Contents for the Commentarii • Links to translations • More useful stuff is to come. • “With the Euler Archive, we hope to move 18th century scholarship into the 21st Century.”

12. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften • www.bbaw.de, www.bbaw.de/pub/historisch.html • early serial publications • Miscellanea Berolinensia • Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres.(over 100 Euler papers

13. Rechenkunst • in German • Christian Siebeneicher’s site • www.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de/~sieben/euler/rechenkunst.html

14. Gallica • http://gallica.bnf.fr • Bibliothèque National du France • Over 70,000 digital documents • ten random volumes of the Opera Omnia, • I.2, I.7, I.8, I.17, I.18, I.20, I.21, II.1, II.2, III.1 • two of Euler’s papers • French and Latin editions of the Introductio

15. The Euler Society • www.EulerSociety.org • annual conferences • Part of MathFest 2007 • San Jose, CA, August 3-5

16. Eulerama • 2007 celebrations begin at JMM in New Orleans • Short course • MAA tour of St. Pete, Berlin, Basel • BBAW events in Berlin • Euler Society 2007

17. Learning Latin • "Latin is easy."

18. Hurdles to Latin • "Help" doesn't always help much • textbooks are about Romans • Latin teachers tell you "puncta" means "prompt"

19. "Mathematical Latin is easy" • written for a second-language audience • limited vocabulary and grammar

20. Hints • Use your context • Pretend it's English • works well for nouns and adjectives • Pretend it's French (or Spanish) • works well for verbs and pronouns • Study some Latin • Wheelock • Google - Latin language lessons • pronouns

21. Dive right in • You only have to read. • No writing, speaking or listening • Impress your friends!