d'Alembert's principle

/ dalɑ̃bɛr /

noun

1. physics the principle that for a moving body the external forces are in equilibrium with the inertial forces; a generalization of Newton's third law of motion

Word History and Origins

Origin of d'Alembert's principle¹

C18: named after Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (1717–83), French mathematician, physicist, and rationalist philosopher

Example Sentences

Gauss's own principle, now, possesses all the requisites of universality, but its difficulty is that it is not immediately intelligible and that Gauss deduced it with the help of D'Alembert's principle, a procedure which left matters where they were before.

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As we know, the principle of the conservation of the centre of gravity is now sometimes deduced from D'Alembert's principle with the help of that remark.

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