Abstract

Summary This article intends to propose new hypotheses concerning the origin of the ?Principe général? of mechanics of Jean Le Rond D'Alembert expressed in its Traité de dynamique in 1743. The examination of the statics of Pierre Varignon and its inheritance suggests that D'Alembert retains, through a case of oblique collision on a hard surface, a method of decomposition and equilibrium of forces which is close to its principle. On the other hand, this principle requires a definition of the equilibrium widely spread in the 17th and 18th centuries, D'Alembert seeming then more to innovate from an epistemological point of view that on a technical one. Finally, the determination of rules of collision based at the same time on decompositions of movements at the level of the centre of mass and on appeal to a principle of relativity constitutes a know-how at the beginning of the 18th century which can be moved closer to methods developed by D'Alembert. These three aspects try then to replace the science of D'Alembert in a context by insisting on the essential role of the collisions of body and on that of the notion of equilibrium concerning the birth of its principle