Related papers: Notes on angles and solid angles, in relation with…
In the 1770s, Euler wrote a series of papers (E563, E691 and E692) about finding the ellipse with minimal area or perimeter in the family of all ellipses passing through a fixed set of points. This is a translation of all three papers from…
This paper looks at how ancient mathematicians (and especially the Pythagorean school) were faced by problems/paradoxes associated with the infinite which led them to juggle two systems of numbers: the discrete whole/rationals which were…
This text is the extended version of a talk given at the conference Geometry, Topology, QFT and Cosmology hold from May 28 to May 30, 2008 at the Observatoire de Paris. We explore the notion of solder (or soldering form) in differential…
We survey the main ideas in the early history of the subjects on which Riemann worked and that led to some of his most important discoveries. The subjects discussed include the theory of functions of a complex variable, elliptic and Abelian…
This paper challenges some of the common assumptions underlying the mathematics used to describe the physical world. We start by reviewing many of the assumptions underlying the concepts of real, physical, rigid bodies and the translational…
Initial results from new calculations of interacting anti-parallel Euler vortices are presented with the objective of understanding the origins of singular scaling presented by Kerr (1993) and the lack thereof by Hou and Li (2006). Core…
Starting from Greg Moore's description about Physical Mathematics, a framework is proposed in order to understand it, based on Gilles Ch\^atelet's philosophy. It will be argued that Ch\^atelet's ideas of inverting, splitting, augmenting and…
These are expanded notes for a short series of lectures, presented at the University of Luxembourg in 2017, giving an introduction to some of the ideas of supersymmetry and supergeometry. In particular, we start from some motivating facts…
The aim of this paper is to develop a new axiomatization of planar geometry by reinterpreting the original axioms of Euclid. The basic concept is still that of a line segment but its equivalent notion of betweenness is viewed as a…
We present a characterization of the completeness of the field of real numbers in the form of a \emph{collection of several equivalent statements} borrowed from algebra, real analysis, general topology, and non-standard analysis. We also…
We examine connections between the mathematics behind methods of drawing geographical maps due, on the one hand to Marinos and Ptolemy (1st-2nd c. CE) and on the other hand to Delisle and Euler (18th century). A recent work by the first two…
The solid angle subtended by a right circular cylinder at a point source located at an arbitrary position generally consists of a sum of two terms: that defined by the cylindrical surface ($\Omega_{cyl}$) and the other by either of the end…
"Symmetry" was one of the most important methodological themes in 20th-century physics and is probably going to play no lesser role in physics of the 21st century. As used today, there are a variety of interpretations of this term, which…
In this work we consider a finite dimensional approximation for the 2D Euler equations on the sphere, proposed by V. Zeitlin, and show their convergence towards a solution to Euler equations with marginals distributed as the enstrophy…
Geometry is essentially a global language, which is fully understood in different times, countries and cultures. The proof of a geometric theorem (e.g. the Pythagorean Theorem) or a geometric construction (e.g. the construction of an…
E731 in the Enestrom index. Originally published as "Solutio problematis ob singularia calculi artificia memorabilis", Memoires de l'academie des sciences de St-Petersbourg 2 (1810), 3-9. For $z$ the distance from the origin, and $v$ a…
The complex morphologies exhibited by spatially confined thin objects have long challenged human efforts to understand and manipulate them, from the representation of patterns in draped fabric in Renaissance art to current day efforts to…
This is a point of view of the work of Herbert Busemann (1905-1994), seen as a return to the geometry of Ancient Greece. The importance of this work, its recognition and its relation with other works are discussed. The final version of this…
Eugene Wigner famously argued for the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" for describing physics and other natural sciences in his 1960 essay. That essay has now led to some 55 years of (sometimes anguished) soul searching ---…
This is an English translation from the Latin original of Leonhard Euler's ``Solutio facilior problematis Diophantei circa triangulum, in quo rectae ex angulis latera opposita bisecantes rationaliter exprimantur''. In this paper, Euler…