Before to discuss the dAlemberts Paradox , I would like to present the life and the work of this extraordinary man. His work in various fields of Science, makes of him one of the man who contributed the most to our modern Mathematics, Aerodynamics thats why I would like to present the global life of this great scientist. The following information are issued from the encyclopaedia Britannica. Alembert, Jean Le Rond dHis work in Mathematics :In 1739, he read his first paper to the Academy of Sciences, of which he became a member in 1741. in 1743, at the age of 26, he published his important Trait de dynamique, a fundamental treatise on dynamics containing the famous dAlemberts Principle, which states that Newtons third law of motion (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) is true for bodies that are free to move as well as for bodies rigidly fixed. Other mathematical works followed very rapidly; in 1744, he applied his principle to the theory of equilibrium and motion of fluids, in his trait de lquilibre et du mouvement des fluides. This discovery was followed by the development of partial derivative equations, a branch of the theory of calculus, the first papers on which were published in his Rflexions sur la cause gnrale des vents (1747). It won him a prize at the Berlin Academy, to which he was elected the same year. In 1747 he applied his new calculus to the problem of vibrating strings, in his Recherches sur les cordes vibrantes ; in 1749 he furnished a method of applying his principles to the motion of any body of a given shape; and in 1749 he found an explanation of the precession of the equinoxes (a gradual change in the position of the Earths orbit), determined its characteristics, and explained the phenomenon of the nutation (nodding) of the Earths axis, in Recherches sur la prcession des quinoxes et sur la nutation de laxe de la terre. In 1752 he published Essai dune nouvelle thorie de la rsistance des ...
