Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T22:27:13.054Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Laws of Mechanics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

M. D. Dampier
M. D. Dampier*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, The University, Leicester LE1 7RH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The two great monuments of Western science are Euclid’s Elements and Newton’s Principia. Both are severely mathematical works; both set forth cosmological theories; in their day both were considered daring and speculative; both achieved unprecedented accuracy in application, so much so that at one time they were thought to be based upon a priori truths of reason, and even today are preferred to experiment over a wide range of phenomena. These two theories remain indispensable as elements of modern scientific thought despite the fact that they were simultaneously superseded in 1915 when Einstein published his theory of gravitation, a theory even more mathematical and boldly speculative than its predecessors. (One must, of course, remember that the nineteenth century discovery of non-euclidean geometry, whilst destroying the belief that Euclid’s geometry was true a priori, did not shake the belief that it was true as a matter of fact.)

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 63 , Issue 423 , March 1979 , pp. 19 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Popper, K. R., The nature of philosophical problems and their roots in science, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 3 (1952). Reprinted in Conjectures and refutations. Routledge, and Paul, Kegan (1963).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Truesdell, C., A program towards rediscovering the rational mechanics of the Age of Reason, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 1 (1960). Reprinted in [6].Google Scholar
3. Mach, E., The science of mechanics. Open Court (1902).Google Scholar
4. Noll, W., La mécanique classique, basée sur un axiome d’objectivité, in La méthode axiomatique dans les mécaniques classiques et nouvelles. Gauthier-Villars (1963). Reprinted in [5].Google Scholar
5. Noll, W., The Foundations of mechanics and thermodynamics. Springer-Verlag (1974).Google Scholar
6. Truesdell, C., Essays in the history of mechanics. Springer-Verlag (1968).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7. Noll, W., The foundations of classical mechanics in the light of recent advances in continuum mechanics, in The axiomatic method. North-Holland (1959). Reprinted in [5].Google Scholar
8. Truesdell, C. and Noll, W., The non-linear field theories of mechanics, in Flugge, S. (ed.), Encyclopedia of physics (Vol. III/3). Springer-Verlag (1965).Google Scholar
9. Noll, W., Lectures on the foundations of continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis 52, (1973). Reprinted in [5].Google Scholar
10. Truesdell, C., A first course in rational continuum mechanics (Vol. 1). Academic Press (1977).Google Scholar
11. Dampier, M., Mach’s principle in classical space-time (forthcoming).Google Scholar