"Analytic mechanics... was brought to the highest degree of perfection by Lagrange. Lagrange's aim is ('... 1788) to dispose, once and for all, of the reasoning necessary to resolve mechanical problems, by embodying as much as possible of it in a single formula. This he did. Every case... can now be dealt with by a very simple, highly symmetrical and perspicuous schema; and whatever reasoning is left is performed by purely mechanical methods. The mechanics of Lagrange is a stupendous contribution to the economy of thought."
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Ernst Mach, Die Mechanik in Ihrer Entwicklung Historisch-Kritsch Dargestellt (1883, 1888) Tr. Thomas J. McCormick as The Science of Mechanics (1893). See also, 4th edition (1919) pp. 466-467.
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Joseph Louis Lagrange
Joseph-Louis Lagrange, comte de l'Empire (January 25, 1736 – April 10, 1813) was an Italian-French mathematician and astronomer who made important contributions to all fields of analysis and number theory and to classical and .
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