Emilie du Chatelet and Euler: A Rare Convergence on the Hypotheses of Physics

Abstract

Euler stressed the importance of hypotheses, which he thought were the only means of arriving at a certain knowledge of the physical causes, essential to establish the laws of physics. This thought was communicated to Emilie du Chatelet in response to hers when she debated the nature of forces, defending the Leibnizian concept of vis viva. After examining the Euler-Chatelet correspondence, I introduce a treatise discovered in 1844 where Euler provides the first analytical attempt to explain the difference between momentum and vis viva, and where he defined a new concept related to motion that can be considered the first idea of kinetic energy. These documents have received little attention. In this paper, I examine the topics Euler discussed in these manuscripts and place them in a context within the scientific and philosophical research of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that sought to establish the principles of nature, and that served as foundation for physics.