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CARNOT, LAZARE-NICOLAS-MARGUERITE (1753-1823), Reflexions sur la metaphysique du calcul infinitesimal.
Par Carnot. Paris: Bachelier, imprimeur-libraire, 1839. 3rd Edition. [First published 1797]. 254pp. + folding rear lithograped plate with 10 figures. Contemporary 1/2 polished black calf with gilt-stmaped spine and marbled boards and endpapers. Foxed, two 19th century French library rubber stamps to the title-page and one to the half-title, a very good copy with edges rubbed. Sadi Carnot's father who in his later life (after a political career) was a distinguished mathematician. Reprints the text of the revised 1813 second edition. Carnot substituted for the conventional division of quantities into determinate and indeterminate a tripartite classification into the invariant, the variant that acquired determinate values from the conditions of the problem being solved, and the always indeterminate. Infinite and infinitesimal quantities belong to the last class. Carnot called the first two kinds of quantities designated and the third type undesignated. Carnot showed how infinitesimals disappear in the solution and thus can be construed as willful errors introduced to help solve the problem. See DSB III: 75-76, where Charles D. Gillispie devotes nearly a page to discussing Carnot's book. 13.0 ounces = 370 grams. 8.9 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches = 22.2 x 13.5 x 2cm. Binding: HB.
Offered for US$ 125.00 by: John Gach Books - Book number: 082709