Jonathan Stone wrote:
> In article <3A5E4252.525566D7 at research.bell-labs.com>,
> Ken Cox <kcc at lucent.com> wrote:
> >zOz wrote:
>
[snip]
>> >his physics and optics founded new fields.
>> and the calculus went a fair way, too. (Didn't Newton invent
> the calulus of variations overnight, to solve what was essentially
> a dinner-table puzzle? or is that academic legend?)
>
That would be the problem of the curve of least time connecting
two points in a gravitational field, to which the solution is
a brachistochrone? The way I heard this story was as follows:
Euler was told an unattributed solution, pronounced it correct, and
said that it had the stamp of `the lion' on it. `The lion,' of course,
was Isaac Newton.
I don't know whether documentary evidence exists to support the
story or not. Newton was notoriously reluctant to publish his
work on calculus.
cheers,
- dave k.
