d'Alembert's principle

British  

/ 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

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Etymology

Origin of d'Alembert's principle

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

Example Sentences

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.

From Project Gutenberg

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.

From Project Gutenberg