TITLE:
First Theoretical Constructions to the Fluid Mechanics Problem of the Discharge
AUTHORS:
Sylvio R. Bistafa
KEYWORDS:
History of Fluid Mechanics, First Theories Applied to Fluid Flow, Torricelli’s Law, Bernoulli’s Law
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Historical Studies,
Vol.4 No.3,
June
30,
2015
ABSTRACT: After the publication of Hydrodynamics by Daniel Bernoulli in 1738, there was a fierce competition
for priority with his father, Johann Bernoulli, and controversies with Jean le Rond D’Alembert, in
which Leonard Euler seemed to have tacitly accepted the role of presiding over the disputes. These
disputes were aroused by the almost simultaneous publications of Hydraulics by J. Bernoulli in
1743 and of Traité de l’équilibre et du mouvement des fluides by D’Alembert in 1744. It would be
shown that despite the fact that the Bernoullis and D’Alembert used their own principles and approaches
to the fluid mechanics problem of discharge, they essentially reached the same end. Nonetheless,
it was Euler who brought the fluid mechanics problem of discharge to a new and definitive
level with two publications. In these publications, for the first time, the pressure force and the
friction force appeared explicitly in the formulations. However, the friction force was built under
the wrong assumption that, as for the case of solid friction, the fluid friction force was proportional
to the pressure. Finally, Lagrange’s memoir on the theory of fluid motion of 1781 is presented as
a sequel to these first theoretical constructions.