RICCATI, Giordano.

Delle Corde ovvero Fibre Elastiche Schediasmi Fisico-Matematici.

Seven folding engraved plates & one folding printed table. xxiv, 246 pp., 1 leaf. Large 4to, modernmarbled boards. Bologna: T. d'Aquino, 1767. First edition of an important book. Giordano Riccati (1709-90), one of the brilliant sons of the noted scientist Jacopo Riccati, was the first to study the laws of a vibrating membrane. Giordano was instructed by his father in the physical sciences and mathematics and settled in Trebbia. "The text of this work is divided into eight 'Schediasmi' and five dissertations. The first are devoted to the proportion between the distension of the cord and the force that it produces, compression of air, the proportion between the force applied to the middle of a stretched cord and the various effects, the vibration of a sonorous cord, the vibration of an aerial cord, the proportions of the cord of a musical instrument, the factors governing the frequency of the vibration generated by a natural or artificial instrument, and the propagation of sound in the air... "Of the five dissertations at the end, the first two discuss the propagation of sound by line and radius from a central source, the first making the assumption that the vibration will remain constant throughout the range and the second assuming that the vibration will decrease as the distance from the source becomes greater. The third dissertation concerns the propagation of sound in spherical sectors. In the fourth dissertation, Riccati presents Euler's formula from his work on the nature of fire, on the means of determining the velocity with which sound is propagated in the air... "The fifth, and final, dissertation is concerned with the hypothesis proposed by Frisi that the vibration is propagated through the air in a wave, the air molecules being set in motion by those already activated; this is in contrast to the notion that all of the air is set in motion simultaneously by the initial sound."­Roberts & Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, p. 278. Very good copy. Poggendorff, II, 625-27. Riccardi, II, 354­"Questa pregiata opera."

• USD 2,950.00 > otras divisas
• nº de pedido: HillBibl-480

• librero: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (USA)