A Study of Coulomb’s Application of the Rules of Maxima and Minima to Problems of Statics

This chapter is a study of the “Essai sur une application des règles de Maximis et Minimis à quelques problèmes de statique, relatifs à l’architecture” published by Charles-Augustin CoulombCoulomb, Charles Augustin in 1773. The aim of the study is to extract the structure of the Essai and to underline the new method of calculation presented by Coulomb. We will try, in the comment, to give the ins and outs of the main ideas in order to get an overview of the study of the stability of arched structures during the eighteenth century.