XIII. Demonstration of the Fundamental Property of the Lever

Abstract

It is a singular fact in the history of science, that, after all the attempts of the most eminent modern mathematicians, to obtain a simple and satisfactory demonstration of the fundamental property of the lever, the solution of this problem given by Archimedes, should still be considered as the most legitimate and elementary. Galileo, Huygens, De la Hire, Sir Isaac Newton, Maclaurin, Landen, and Hamilton, have directed their attention to this important part of mechanics; but their demonstrations are in general either tedious and abstruse, or founded on assumptions too arbitrary to be recognised as a proper basis for mathematical reasoning. Even the demonstration given by Archimedes is not free from objections, and is applicable only to the lever, considered as a physical body.