Re: [HM] Physics in Mathematics

Roger Cooke (cooke@emba.uvm.edu)
Sun, 18 Oct 1998 23:12:13 -0400 (EDT)

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Well, I believe the brachistochrone is the example par excellence, is it
not? John Bernoulli solved it by assuming light was traveling through a
medium whose index of refraction was inversely proportional to (the square
root of?) the distance from the boundary. Have I got that right? I
haven't seen the original papers.

Roger Cooke

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