LUCIA GRUGNETTI

Il problema inverso delle forze centrali: l'apporto del calcolo differenziale

Pages 187-194
Received: 17 September 1993  
AMS Classification : 01A50

Abstract In a section of the Principia (1687), Isaac Newton states the inverse problem of central forces and shows how to determine the orbit, given the initial conditions, but no justification is offered. Johann Bernoulli and Jacob Hermann independently proved, by the differential calculus, that the conic sections were the only possible orbits in the case of an inverse square law of force.