论文标题
克莱拉特（Clairaut），欧拉（Euler）和地球人物
Clairaut, Euler and the figure of the Earth
论文作者
论文摘要
地球形式的球形性是在1687年左右质疑的，主要是由艾萨克·牛顿（Isaac Newton）从他的普遍吸引力理论中得出的，地球的形式是在杆子上扁平的球体形式，并在赤道处伸长。在法国，牛顿的论点并没有使某些杰出的地理学家说服，并且大约在同一时期，基于经验测量，他们发出了另一种理论，声称相反，地球具有在赤道上扁平的球体形式，并在极点延伸。为了找到地球的真实人物成为18世纪地理学家，天文学家，数学家和其他科学家所研究的主要问题之一，围绕这个问题所做的工作对所有这些领域的发展产生了影响。在本文中，我们回顾了18世纪法国数学家，天文学家和地理学家Alexis-Claude Clairaut与地球人物问题有关的工作。我们报告了这项工作与莱昂哈德·欧拉（Leonhard Euler）的关系。同时，我们评论地球人物问题的影响对数学，天文学和静水压学的影响。最后，我们回顾了一些后来的数学发展，这些发展是由这个问题激励的各种作者所致。有趣的是，关于地理问题的问题是如何对理论科学产生如此影响的。本文的最终版本将出现在ganita bh {ā} r {ā} t {ī}，（印度数学）印度数学历史学会公报。
The sphericity of the form of the Earth was questioned around the year 1687, primarily, by Isaac Newton who deduced from his theory of universal gravitation that the Earth has the form of a spheroid flattened at the poles and elongated at the equator. In France, somepreeminent geographers were not convinced by Newton's arguments, and about the same period, based on empirical measurements, they emitted another theory, claiming that on the contrary, the Earth has the form of a spheroid flattened at the equator and elongated at the poles. To find the real figure of the Earth became one of the major questions that were investigated by geographers, astronomers, mathematicians and other scientists in the eighteenth century, and the work done around this question had an impact on the development of all these fields. In this paper, we review the work of the eighteenth-century French mathematician, astronomer and geographer Alexis-Claude Clairaut related to the question of the figure of the Earth. We report on the relation between this work and that of Leonhard Euler. At the same time, we comment on the impact of the question of the figure of the Earth on mathematics, astronomy and hydrostatics. Finally, we review some later mathematical developments that are due to various authors that were motivated by this question. It is interesting to see how a question on geography had such an impact on the theoretical sciences. The final version of this paper will appear in Ganita Bh{ā}r{ā}t{ī}, (Indian Mathematics) the Bulletin of the Indian Society for History of Mathematics.
