History of mechanics

L'Epicureismo è forse il caso più eclatante tra quelle filosofie antiche nei confronti delle quali è avvenuta se non una sistematica damnatio memoriae, per lo meno una deliberata sottovalutazione tanto dell'importanza quanto dell'influenza. Un esame perfino superficiale, tuttavia, mostra con palmare evidenza che la storia della filosofia non è riducibile alla fortuna di Platone, di Aristotele e del Cristianesimo. Parallela a essa esiste, infatti, una storia dell'Epicureismo che di quella storia attraversa, a volte in maniera più carsica, il lungo percorso e che determina snodi cruciali delle vicende della filosofia e della scienza. Malgrado il quasi totale naufragio degli scritti di Epicuro, l'Epicureismo sopravvive a varie vicissitudini, fraintendimenti ed ostilità e riaffiora prepotentemente agli esordi della modernità influenzandone in maniera decisiva l' etica, la scienza naturale e anche la riflessione politica. Questa raccolta di saggi originali, scritti da specialisti e da giovani studiosi, si propone di mostrare questo travagliato percorso dall'antichità alla modernità, mirando a metterne in luce tanto i caratteri generali quanto quelli che sono i punti di svolta di un'influenza che può ben dirsi rivoluzionaria. E che tuttora attende un'indagine più sistematica. € 34,00 Raimondo Cubeddu, già professore ordinario di Filosofia politica all'Università di Pisa, è attualmente Senior fellow dell'Istituto Bruno Leoni. Francesco Verde è professore associato di Storia della filosofia antica presso Sapienza Università di Roma. Raimondo Cubeddu e Francesco Verde (a cura di) 104 EPICUREISMO ANTICO E MODERNO

The third book of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica Philosophia Naturalis rigourously established the case for heliocentrism by integrating observations and Kepler's laws. It is structured around two main hypotheses: first, that the cosmos has a static centre located at the centre of planetary motion, and second, that if the Earth itself moved, this would concord with observational data. The first hypothesis directly mentions the possibility of having the Earth as a centre, even if all the propositions claim that the correct centre is the Sun. The Minim Friars Thomas Le Seur (1703-1770) and François Jacquier (1711-1788), along with their editor Jean-Louis Calandrini, chose to collaborate and publish their influential commentary in Geneve [Newton I. 1822 Philosophiae naturalis mathematica principia, auctore isaaco newtono, eq. aurato, perpetuis commentariis illustrata, communi studio pp. thomae le seur et francisci jacquier ex gallicana minimorum familia, matheseos professorum. vol. 4. Glasgow, Scotand: Duncan]probably to avoid the Catholic prohibition on promoting heliocentrism. This article examines key contributions by these commentators, highlighting their strong scientific focus and commitment to strengthening heliocentric principles in astronomy. It also discusses the educational aim evident in many extensive notes, especially on propositions that stress the transition from geo-heliocentric to heliocentric perspectives (notably propositions 4, 13, 14 and 16). This article is part of the theme issue 'Newton, Principia, Newton Geneva Edition (17th-19th) and

This article analyses Borelli’s account of gravity, magnetism and the
elasticity of air in the De vi percussionis (1667) and De motionibus naturalibus a gravitate pendentibus (1670), with the aim of elucidating the ontological status of moving forces in his mechanical philosophy. Borelli criticizes Gassendi’s and Descartes’s reduction of all physical action to contact action, and argues for the existence of intrinsic motive virtues,
which he locates in the spirituous particles composing physical bodies. At the same time, however, he insists on the material character of these virtues (for his spirits are material), and rejects explanations that invoke immaterial attractive forces acting at a distance.
This double polemical target explains why Borelli’s language oscillates between teleology (“The movement of heavy bodies is intended to achieve a purpose”) and necessitarianism (heavy bodies move “by blind necessity”). The article also explores the connection between Borelli’s analysis of the spontaneous motions of physical bodies and his account
of physiological processes, such as the respiration or the heartbeat, in the De motu animalium (1680).

We lost Prof. Dr. Atilla Bir, who had foregrounded his identity as an engineer in his official professional life, yet sustained a profound intellectual and academic engagement with the history of science for 48 years, on October 7, 2024, following a period of illness. We bade him farewell with the funeral prayer held at Levent Afet Yolal Mosque on Thursday, October 10, timed to follow the moment when the gnomon of a sundial —an instrument he was particularly devoted to throughout his 48-year involvement— cast its shortest shadow. He was laid to rest in Section Five of Ayazağa Cemetery. This article has been written by one of his students, who came to know him during the final chapter of his life, with the intent of documenting his life, work, character, and comportment.

My paper aims to show that in De anima II 10 Aristotle
finds some difficulty in applying to taste the standard model of expla-
nation of perceptual processes, according to which the sense organ
needs to be in a state of pure potentiality in relation to the object.
In order to prove that the tongue, unlike the other sense organs, has
an active role to play, I will extend my analysis to Aristotle’s account
of flavours in De sensu 4; then I will investigate the peculiar overlap-
ping of the gustatory process with the first stage of the nutritive pro-
cess. In the last section of my paper I will address the inconsistency
that seems to appear in De an. II 11, where Aristotle argues that the
tongue is rather the “medium” than the “organ” of taste, just as the
flesh is the medium of touch. I will conclude that these (very implicit)
theoretical problems are a symptom of the ongoing Aristotle’s read-
justment of the theoretical apparatus of his biological work to acco-
modate the ever-growing stock of his empirical observations (and the
other way round).

Parmi les diverses éditions séparées des Éloges écrits et lus par Fontenelle, l di ion de 1731-1740, à La Haye, retient l a en ion par sa composition 1 . Selon la présentation q en fait Fontenelle luimême dans l avertissement en tête du premier volume, la logique constitutive de cet ouvrage est de réunir ce qui est « à la portée de tout le monde, et n appar [ien ] à aucune des sciences dont l Acad mie occ pe ». Elle comprend ainsi la Préface sur l utilit des mathématiques et de la physique et sur les travaux de l Acad mie ; l Histoire du Renouvellement de l Acad mie Royale des Sciences ; le Règlement ordonné par le Roi ; enfin une trentaine d loge , c e -à-dire une petite moitié des soixante-neuf qui ont été prononcés et publiés de 1699 à 1740 (éloges prononcés qui, en outre, ne recouvrent pas exactement le nombre d académiciens de tous statuts qui sont morts dans cette période, comme le remarquera D Alember dans l ar icle de l Encyclopédie consacré aux éloges académiques 2 ). Fontenelle ajoute, pour présenter la partie qui contient les éloges : « Le titre d Éloges n e pas trop juste, celui de Vies l e été davantage, car ce ne sont proprement que des Vies, telles q on les aurait écrites, en rendant simplement justice. J en puis garantir la vérité au public. » Sans creuser la référence aux Vies parallèles des hommes illustres de Plutarque, je propose d approfondir cette indication de lecture des Éloges 3 . Que signifie, au sein de l Acad mie, écrire avec justice des vies vraies ? Il est évident que l indica ion est d abord une précaution, plus exactement une défense préalable contre un soupçon de partialité. C e aussi l affichage d ne distinction d a ec certaines pratiques. D apr Fontenelle, en effet, ses éloges ne sont pas des panégyriques ou, comme le rappellera D Alember encore, il faut distinguer entre « éloges oratoires » et « éloges historiques ». Les premiers, exemplairement ceux prononcés à l Acad mie française par le récipiendaire et le directeur, consistent à louer, tandis que les seconds, exemplairement prononcés à l Acad mie royale des sciences par le secrétaire perpétuel et dans nombre d académies de province, consistent à retracer une histoire de la personne et de l a e r telle q elle élève l loge à une dimension « philosophique 4 ». Comme Fontenelle avant lui, D Alember brandit l e igence de la « vérité » de ces derniers « mémoires 5 », une vérité historique individuelle que Fontenelle dit « garantir » au public revendication délicate à honorer par elle-même autant que dans la pensée de Fontenelle et a fortiori dans ce contexte d noncia ion institutionnel et public. Dans l loge de Parent, Fontenelle écrit encore : « nous suivons en quelque sorte une loi de l ancienne Égypte, où l on discutait devant des juges les actions et le caractère des Morts, pour régler ce qu on devait à leur mémoire 6 ». Est-ce la question de la mémoire qui articule la « vérité » et la « justice » évoquées par Fontenelle, agi -il de constituer une tradition, d in a rer une mémoire collective via les mémoires individuels ? S agi -il d al er une dette, ce q on « doit » aux académiciens morts, mais de quel point de vue ? À de nombreuses reprises dans les éloges, Fontenelle répète q il est « historien », par opposition explicite avec une position de savant ou de membre d ne école. Ainsi, dans l loge de Malebranche, faisant état de la querelle entre Malebranche et Régis sur la grandeur apparente de la Lune, Fontenelle écrit : « sans me mêler de décider la question, ce qui n appar iendrai pas à un

xiv / C. Arrighi tions are the articles "Pragmatism and Mathematical Logic," "A Study of Platonic Terminology," "The Attack on Distinctions," and "On Material Representations of Deductive Processes" (chap. 12, 13, 14, and 15)-these articles were translated and published by contemporaries of Vailati (as indicated at the beginning of each article in this volume), and we are just reprinting them for the reader's convenience. In Vailati's work we can see an abundance of quotations, many of which are reported in their original languages, including ancient Greek and Latin. Given that the ability to read several foreign languages is not common, we have opted, in general, for quoting the same passages from an English edition, as indicated in a footnote. The original passages in French, German, Italian, Latin and Greek have generally been omitted with some minor exceptions: . well known passages as the one from Moliére's The imaginary In- valid ; . quotations and terms that are relevant for the understanding of Vailati's thesis, as some excerpts from Leibniz, and many words in ancient Greek (especially chap. 7 and 13); . verses from poems, as in the case of Michelangelo, Dante, Schiller and Berni.

The controversy over living forces is often presented as one of clashing metaphysical notions of conservation. Here, I argue there was another side to the controversy. What was also at stake, was a range of practical problems within mecanica, the sciences of machines and motion. These problems dealt with cases in which a body lost motion while it moved against some form of resistance—situations described in modern physics by the concept of work. These problems remained poorly understood around 1700, as is illustrated by the difficulties Newton had in dealing with them in Book II of the Principia.
I argue that Willem Jacob ’s Gravesande’s intervention in the living-forces controversy is best understood through the specter of such mechanical problems. ’s Gravesande’s Essai de une nouvelle theorie du choc des corps, fondée sur l’expérience (1722) is generally read as a empirical defence of Leibniz’s concept of force. While it confirmed the importance of that concept, it did more than just that. ’s Gravesande’s Essai does not develop a theoretical point of view from scratch. Instead, it is a discussion of varying mechanical experiments, aiming to determine in what cases the velocity of a body explains the experiments best, and in what cases it works better to abstract from the velocity and instead consider the body’s total displacement. Velocity and displacement map on ‘quantity of motion’ and Leibniz’s ‘force’ respectively.
Throughout, the Essai uses notions from both Newton’s and Leibniz’ mechanics. It ends up defending the usefulness of both ‘quantity of motion’ and ‘force’. While ’s Gravesande’s account certainly includes metaphysically-laden notions, both implicitly and explicitly, ’s Gravesande seems to have taken little interest in defending these notions: they were the means of his mechanical investigations, not their ends. That ’s Gravesande’s understanding of forces was closely tied to mechanical machines such as pulleys and wedges, however, becomes clear from a remarkable shift in his dealing with such machines in his Physices elementa mathematica between the editions before (1720) and after (1725) his Essai.
In the final part of this paper, I argue that ’s Gravesande’s is far from a unique case. It is insightful here to look at pre-history of the vis viva controversy, particularly to Leibniz’s Brevis demonstratio and even further, to Descartes’ Explication des engins, colloquially known as the Treatise on Mechanics (1637). While Leibniz’s notion of force was developed in juxtaposition with Descartes’ Principia (1644), it shows remarkable similarities to Descartes earlier Explication. Both these treatises deal with cases in which objects are lifted and in which the gravity of these objects creates resistance. Both Descartes and Leibniz described these cases by considering the height over which a body moves, while ignoring its velocity along the trajectory. While metaphysics was never irrelevant, I argue that the decision to ignore velocity and its quantity was, in the dealings with machines of ’s Gravesande, Descartes, and Leibniz, as much about practical problems as fundamental principles.

IN GALILEO'S WORD: COLOURS DO NOT EXIST... This essay  focusses on the famous statement present in Galileo's "Saggiatore", according which colours (as other sensory modalities - including sounds, tastes, odours) do not have an univocal and objective existence in the real world. On one side the authors  connects Galileo's sensorial attitude to the conceptions of atomists, as opposed to those of Aristotle, On the other side they show how Galieo's statements in the "Saggiatore" resound in modern sensory physiology. As a matter of fact, it has taken exactly four centuries to decipher the extraordinary modernity of Galileo's bold and apparently paradoxical conception of senses. The paper in indeed a follow up of a text presented at the conference held in Rome in October 2024, and sponsored by the "Accademia dei Lincei" on the occasion of the quadricentennial from the publication of Galileo's famous work.

Il documento di Nicola Pezzella esamina come la stampa trevigiana tra il XIX e XX secolo abbia documentato i dibattiti sulla conservazione o demolizione di due importanti porte rinascimentali della città: Porta San Tomaso e Porta Santi Quaranta, parti delle mura storiche di Treviso.
Punti chiave:

Nella seconda metà dell'800, sorsero intensi dibattiti sull'opportunità di mantenere o demolire queste porte, in particolare Porta Santi Quaranta (1871-1874), considerata meno monumentale di San Tomaso.
La stampa locale, principalmente la "Gazzetta di Treviso", fu teatro di discussioni tra intellettuali difensori del patrimonio e cittadini che chiedevano l'abbattimento delle porte per facilitare il transito e "migliorare" l'aspetto urbano.
Studiosi illustri come Matteo Sernagiotto, Alvise Semenzi e Annibale Forcellini difesero il valore storico-artistico delle porte.
La salvezza di entrambi i monumenti fu dovuta sia alla difesa di pochi intellettuali sia al fatto che furono teatro di importanti eventi del Risorgimento italiano.
Il documento mostra come, nonostante i cambi di nome (Porta San Tomaso venne anche chiamata Porta Mazzini) e gli interventi, i dibattiti sul loro utilizzo e conservazione siano continuati fino ai giorni nostri, specialmente riguardo all'impatto del traffico moderno su queste strutture storiche.

Il testo rappresenta un'interessante analisi di come la conservazione del patrimonio storico e le esigenze di modernizzazione urbana siano stati temi di dibattito pubblico per oltre un secolo a Treviso.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.

Roof and slab structures in the Italian tradition make commonly use of timber elements; the conservation of this typology also in common residential buildings is nowadays perceived as a value, and strengthening of existing structures is preferred, when possible, to substitution with new elements and materials, not belonging to the tradition. In this study the use of steel elements as reinforcement of timber beams is addressed; through a detailed analysis of the literature, it is shown that this technique belongs to tradition, and may provide an effective way to increasing both strength and resistance. Through the experimental testing of a timber beam specimen coming from an old building, a reinforcing technique has been analyzed and the effect of the design parameters is discussed. KEY-WORDS: timber, beam, steel, cable, slab, reinforcing. Introduzione. L’impiego del legno per la realizzazione delle strutture resistenti di solai e coperture costituisce un aspetto caratterizzante dell...

This article reproduces a text in which Galileo describes preinertia, although without using this word but expressions such as "natural instinct", or "primary instinct", or even a "marvelous effect in Nature". Preinertia is a universal property of all physical objects by virtue of which they inherit the motion of the proper reference frame from which they are set in motion, making it impossible to detect the possible absolute motion of that frame, an impossibility to which Galileo also refers. It is surprising that 393 years after Galileo's publication, physicists (prisoners of mechanical relativism) have not yet rediscovered preinertia. The article includes bibliographical references dealing with preinertia as the fundamental property of all physical objects that makes it possible to demonstrate in formal terms that motion is really absolute, and through the same real physical space.

Contrary to widely held beliefs, it could be said that there is no principle of inertia in Galileo's Discorsi (Two New Sciences) on the grounds that although one can find a conception of inertia in this masterpiece, this conception does not act in the Discorsi as a principle or as any kind of demonstrative tool, except inside a "scholium", in which Galileo argues, in mathematical terms and by two different "approaches", for the truth of the so-called "double-distance rule". Galileo's conception of inertia appears only in the second of these "approaches"; the first of them, however, is the most important one as Galileo tries to relate the mentioned rule to the development of the second "new science", based upon just one principle, which is not a principle of inertia. Given that Galileo himself, subsequently to that scholium, mentions twice the double-distance rule as obtained "ex demonstratis", it is probably safe to say that this rule works as a theorem of inertia in the Discorsi. It is this theorem, instead of any law of inertia, that is used for demonstration in Galileo's science of motion, especially in its projectiles theory. Last but not least, the theorem also provides a definition for instant speed in a fall and a measure for horizontal speed in a projectile motion.

Patricia Radelet-de Grave, professeur a l’Universite catholique de Louvain La Nova methodus, texte fondateur du calcul differentiel publie par Leibniz en 1684, est un texte tres succinct qui demande d’ulterieures elaborations. Ce travail fut effectue principalement au moyen de problemes de mecanique par Jacob et Johann Bernoulli d’abord et poursuivit au siecle suivant par Daniel Bernoulli, Leonhard Euler et d’Alembert. Les conferences ont porte plus precisement sur Le traitement de la courbe ...

The aim of this article is to analyse the correspondence between the mathematicians Angelo Genocchi (1817-1889) and Felice Casorati (1835-1890), in order to investigate the impact that they had on the innovation of mathematics teaching and research in Italy after its Unification. The correspondence covers twenty years (1865-1886), with a total of 26 letters, of which 11 were sent by Casorati and 15 by Genocchi, plus a letter from Emil Weyr to Casorati. Recent historiography, which also agrees with the opinion of Vito Volterra, brings out a portrait of Casorati as a man who "lived almost exclusively for his pupils and his school". The same cannot be said of Genocchi: an innovator, but one to be downplayed, according to other historians. Therefore, it is precisely to shed light on this ambiguity that the analysis of the correspondence with Casorati is inserted, whose topics are solely concerned with teaching and research. It is also intended to highlight how Genocchi's contribution improved mathematical teaching at the University of Turin, as well as the original results he achieved in number theory. In this regard, after retracing their respective biographies, the panorama of mathematical teaching at the dawn of Unity will be given, without neglecting the Analysis courses they held in Pavia and Turin. Casorati and Genocchi interacted rather well one with another: a first example is the Casorati's treatise Teorica delle funzioni a variabile complessa to which Genocchi made a notable contribution, and the active commitment of both in supporting excellent young scholars, both for candidacies in competitions and for career opportunities abroad. Finally, evidence from this correspondence will clarify how their divergences in practical approach to the subjects were due to cultural and generational factors, as their objectives are often aligned, at least in their teaching and research intentions.

L'ipotesi atomistico-corpuscolare sulla struttura della materia e sulla natura del calore e della luce che emerge in particolare dalle pagine del Saggiatore di Galileo deve molto alla filosofia naturale del medico istriano Santorio Santorio, amico e allo stesso tempo rivale dello scienziato pisano.
Secondo la teoria in questione tutti i corpi materiali sarebbero aggregati di composti a loro volta riducibili a combinazioni dei quattro elementi tradizionali, e i corpuscoli “elementari” ad essi associati sarebbero ulteriormente risolvibili nei veri e propri atomi, unità fondamentali e tra loro identiche di materia prima senza altre determinazioni se non di tipo quantitativo. Tutte le proprietà degli elementi sarebbero dovute alle differenti configurazioni con cui gli atomi di base si combinano per dar luogo ai corpuscoli elementari. Analogamente per le proprietà di secondo livello dei composti e per quelle derivate dei loro aggregati.
Per quanto si tratti di una ricostruzione su basi puramente indiziarie, la teoria “ibrida” atomistico-corpuscolare della materia appena descritta, che identifica il calore con gli effetti meccanici prodotti dal fluire dei corpuscoli di fuoco attraverso i vuoti interstiziali dei corpi e la luce con gli stessi atomi fondamentali non confinati nei corpuscoli elementari ma liberi di muoversi nello spazio vuoto, porta in definitiva la firma di Giordano Bruno.
Si tratta infatti di un modello unico nel suo genere, una variante peculiare dell'atomismo/corpuscolarismo moderno, riconducibile ai poemi francofortesi pubblicati da Bruno nel 1591 (De minimo, De monade, De immenso). Il matematico e filosofo naturale tedesco Joachim Jung, allievo di Santorio a Padova, riproporrà esattamente questo modello con alcune variazioni, nel solco di quanto elaborato dal maestro.
Galileo tratta nel Saggiatore di tutto questo in forma puramente congetturale e senza alcun riferimento a Santorio, la sua fonte diretta. I due si erano conosciuti a Venezia, frequentando il circolo intellettuale di Andrea Morosini, di cui facevano parte anche Paolo Sarpi e Giovan Francesco Sagredo, e che aveva accolto per un breve periodo lo stesso Bruno. Non possiamo affermare con certezza che il modello bruniano sia stato oggetto di discussione durante le riunioni nella villa di Morosini, ma tutti gli elementi a nostra disposizione sembrano convergere verso l'ipotesi che il ridotto del patrizio veneziano abbia svolto un ruolo chiave nella sua ricezione proprio tra alcuni dei più importanti membri del cenacolo.

Si la communauté acadienne de l'Ile-du-Prince-Edouard n 'a fourni q u 'un nombre infirme de littérateurs, en revanche elle peut s'enorgueillir d 'avoir produit au cours des siècles une pléiade de poètes populaires. Ceux-ci ont composé et chanté à leur manière une quantité de chansons sur des sujets les plus divers. De ces com positions se dégagent bien des traits du caractère acadien tels un sens d 'hum our raffiné, un attachement profond à la religion, un goût marqué pour la fête et une sympathie irréprochable pour les affligés. Les artistes populaires acadiens de l'Ile-du-Prince-Edouard nous ont légué un répertoire relativement im portant de leurs com positions. Certains de ces poètes traditionnels sont heureusement encore parmi nous, alors que de nombreux autres, d'heureuse mémoire, sont passés à la postérité. Parm i les plus connus men tionnons

Lectures de Potentia Restitutiva or Of Spring: Explaining the Power of Springing Bodies ( ) is an important book for the history of science. This book is better known for Hooke's presentation of the law that bears his name. This law, or "Rule of Nature" as the author states, is commonly taught within the context of the analysis of elastic bodies and their deformations. However, the framework in which this law was introduced goes beyond the context in which it is currently taught. Alongside the presentation of Hooke's experiments with springs, the author established his vibratory theory of matter, in which the concepts of congruence and incongruence, initially presented in his Micrographia ( ), would be defined in greater detail. These concepts aimed to theoretically justify the movements of attraction and repulsion in nature. This paper seeks to study the Lectures de Potentia Restitutiva once again to better understand Hooke's thoughts about the rule which bears his name and his conception of gravity, which the author considered a force. Here Hooke's definitions of body and motion will be presented, as well as his actual objective when he formulated the so-called Hooke's Law. As we will see, Hooke intended to create a "philosophical scale" to measure the gravitational attraction between bodies. By considering his previous publications, such as An attempt to prove the motion of the Earth from Observations or Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies, or even unpublished works such as On the inflection of a direct motion into a curve by supervening Attractive principle, it becomes clear that Hooke was already opening a path toward an understanding of gravity before Newton's Principia (1687) were published. By taking into account the controversy between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke, we also intend to strengthen the idea that Hooke was an indispensable contributor to the elaboration of a law of universal gravitation. In addition to all this, it will also be argued that the conclusions achieved by Hooke in Of Spring may have also anticipated Newton's third law of motion.

This paper examines the works on pure mathematics (geometry and algebra) published by Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Carlo Rinaldini, and Vincenzo Viviani during or shortly after the period of activity of the Accademia del Cimento. By examining the content and motivations of these treatises, as well as their authors’ epistemological conceptions concerning the nature of mathematical knowledge and its relation to natural philosophy, I aim to show that, although mathematics played a minimal role within the Cimento’s scientific programme, it was not a minor parallel topic of research for the Academicians. Beside contributing to the political image of the founders of the Cimento as promoters of science, mathematics played a role in defining the intellectual processes that govern the production of scientific knowledge in both mathematics and the new science of nature, and in maintaining the Galilean assertion of the ontological and epistemic connection between mathematics and nature.

Resumen: Entre fines del invierno de 1678 y comienzos del verano de 1679 Leibniz proyectó la redacción de un libro sobre física, para lo cual esbozó apuntes y, como era frecuente en él, esquemas sintéticos de su contenido. El texto finalmente no fue escrito, aunque sí una introducción general a dicha obra. Con ese propósito, Leibniz nos procura una magnífica síntesis acerca de la visión que hacia esa época sostenía acerca de los fines, los métodos y los fundamentos de la ciencia natural en general y de la física en particular. De esta manera, Leibniz cubre un amplio espectro de problemáticas que van desde los fines y la utilidad de la

Este artigo tem por objetivo explorar como a disputa entre Isaac Newton e Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz sobre o cálculo influenciou a percepção da gravidade e o progresso na física, além de examinar as repercussões dessa disputa no reconhecimento científico das contribuições de cada cientista. A metodologia adotada pra tanto se dá pela análise histórica e revisão de literatura sobre o impacto da controvérsia na física e nas descobertas sobre a gravidade, a fim de mensurar o impacto desta disputa na aceitação das teorias de gravidade e o reconhecimento das contribuições de Newton e Leibniz. A conclusão expõe uma revisão dos principais pontos sobre como a disputa influenciou a percepção da gravidade e o progresso na física, e considerações sobre a importância histórica da controvérsia e as lições aprendidas para a prática científica.

WATER SYSTEMS IN THE ASSUMPTIONS OF RENAISSANCE GARDENS Streszczenie. Renesans w Europie przypadał na XV i XVI wiek, a w rozwoju kompozycji ogrodowych przodowały Włochy, Francja, Anglia i Niemcy. Początkowo w kompozycjach układów wodnych można wyróżnić trzy rozwiązania: baseny, kaskady lub fontanny z przelewającą się wodą. Od 1600 roku w układach wodnych uwidoczniła się preferencja do stosowania wysokiego słupa wody, co wymagało specjalnych urządzeń ciśnieniowych. Z fontann tworzono piramidalne kompozycje, podobne do drzew-"drzewa życia". W renesansie woda musiała być w nieustannym ruchu. Fontanny miały trzon, na którym zawieszano zbiorniki, przez które przelewała się woda. Fontanny były trzyczęściowe i ewoluowały architektonicznie w kierunku smukłych form, z wysokim trzonem i zdobieniami z rzeźb. Głównym tematem oprawy rzeźbiarskiej wodotrysków był człowiek, motywy antyczne, np. antyczni filozofowie oraz antyczne bóstwa wody, mórz i oceanów-trytony i nimfy. Obecnością fontann podkreślano dekoracyjność i ważność kompozycyjną poszczególnych miejsc w ogrodzie. W XVI wieku pojawiła się moda na sztuki wodnenieświadome nadepnięcie czy dotknięcie ręką powodowało niespodziewany wytrysk wody, skrapiającej gości. Stosowano również schody wodne-stopnie pozwalające przejść do niższej części ogrodu z wykorzystaniem wody w kamiennej rynnie. Polska sztuka ogrodowa okresu renesansu charakteryzowała się dominującą rolą czynnika użytkowego wody nad formą estetyczną. Charakterystyczną cechą polskich ogrodów był mały udział elementów dekoracyjnych. Sztuka ogrodowa rozwijała się głównie przy klasztorach i zamkach. W Oliwie znajdował się wodotrysk w kształcie drzewa oliwnego wyrzucającego z liści i owoców strumienie wody do marmurowego zbiornika. Badania do przedstawionej pracy wykonano na podstawie kwerendy materiałów archiwalnych, tj. ikonografii i dawnych planów, oraz wizji terenowej wybranych dawnych zespołów architektury rezydencjonalnej.

This paper presents the first formulations and proofs of the rule of composition of forces. In particular, those by Leonardo da Vinci and Simon Stevin, both centered on the static conception of forces that are represented by means of ropes taut by weights.

The law of virtual work (VWL) is probably the first law in the history of mechanics; it is previous to the one on the lever, though not completely distinct from it. Here I will discuss the logical status of VWL, that is whether it is an autonomous principle or a theorem of some sort of mechanics. The problem is complicated by the fact that up to now no universally recognised expression has been accepted for it. From this article the problematical nature of VWL demonstrability is quite clear when the mechanics does not characterise completely the constraints. Italian schools in the XVIII century, even if we do not take Lagrange into consideration, had an important role, both in the development of VWL and in the discussion of its role.

Contrary to widely held beliefs, it could be said that there is no principle of inertia in Galileo's Discorsi (Two New Sciences) on the grounds that although one can find a conception of inertia in this masterpiece, this conception does not act in the Discorsi as a principle or as any kind of demonstrative tool, except inside a "scholium", in which Galileo argues, in mathematical terms and by two different "approaches", for the truth of the so-called "double-distance rule". Galileo's conception of inertia appears only in the second of these "approaches"; the first of them, however, is the most important one as Galileo tries to relate the mentioned rule to the development of the second "new science", based upon just one principle, which is not a principle of inertia. Given that Galileo himself, subsequently to that scholium, mentions twice the double-distance rule as obtained "ex demonstratis", it is probably safe to say that this rule works as a theorem of inertia in the Discorsi. It is this theorem, instead of any law of inertia, that is used for demonstration in Galileo's science of motion, especially in its projectiles theory. Last but not least, the theorem also provides a definition for instant speed in a fall and a measure for horizontal speed in a projectile motion.

Se trata de un escrito inconcluso de Leibniz sobre cuestiones mecánicas de los primeros años de la década de 1670. Aunque Leibniz no prosiguió con él, proporciona una visión bastante característica de la importancia que Leibniz concedía ya desde sus años de juventud a los estudios mecánicos para comprender las propiedades de la materia, así como a la necesidad (apenas referida en el texto) de la introducción de causas no materiales para conservar el orden y la armonía del mundo sometido a la causalidad mecánica, es decir, por contacto.

Questo volume offre un affresco, al femminile, della cultura e della ricerca in Piemonte nei vari rami delle scienze matematiche, fi siche, chimiche e naturali, comprensive, queste ultime, della botanica e dell'agraria, della zoologia e dell'antropologia, e delle scienze della terra (geologia, paleontologia, mineralogia, …) attraverso 115 profi li biografi co-scientifi ci di laureate e ricercatrici che hanno operato prevalentemente nella Facoltà di Scienze MFN dell'Ateneo torinese dal 1840 agli anni sessanta del Novecento. Nel caleidoscopio dei loro percorsi scientifi ci e umani si ravvisano alcuni leitmotif ricorrenti: la cospicua presenza nell'ambito della ricerca nella didattica disciplinare: un'attività certo non sporadica, né occidua; l'impegno profuso in attività sociali, sorto talora da sofferte vicende personali, talaltra dalla consapevolezza etica del mestiere di docente, ed infi ne il ricorrente incontro di 'coppie speciali' che hanno lavorato gomito a gomito, coppie unite nella vita scientifi ca oltre che in quella famigliare:

Philosophia Scientiae est une revue scientifique à comité de lecture qui publie des travaux originaux en épistémologie, en histoire et en philosophie des sciences, en philosophie analytique. Ouverte aux travaux portant sur l'ensemble des disciplines scientifiques, elle accueille notamment des études traitant de la logique, des mathématiques et de la physique. L'un des thèmes forts de la revue porte sur les contributions allemandes ou franco-allemandes à l'épistémologie et à l'histoire des sciences. Il paraît trois numéros par an, consacrés à des travaux de recherche ou à l'oeuvre d'auteurs passés ou contemporains. Des dossiers thématiques sont également publiés, sous la responsabilité d'éditeurs invités, à la suite d'appels à contribution. Philosophia Scientiae est disponible en libre accès intégral et immédiat sur les plateformes OpenEdition et Cairn. Ses archives sont disponibles sur Numdam. Ce projet est financé avec le soutien du Fonds National pour la Science Ouverte (projet PhSc-SO-2020). La revue est référencée par plusieurs bases de données internationales (Philosopher'

This paper re-examines the first documented attempts to establish the quantitative law of motion for a body oscillating about a fixed axis (a compound pendulum). This is quite a complex problem as weight and motion are not concentrated in a point, but are spread over a volume. Original documents by René Descartes and Gilles Personne de Roberval, who made the first contributions to solving the problem, are discussed. The two scientists had important insights into the problem which, although they were incomplete, nevertheless somehow complemented each other – at least when seen from the viewpoint of modern mechanics. Descartes was right in considering only the absolute value of the inertia forces, Roberval was right in assuming that the force of gravity should also be taken into account.


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What led Evangelista Torricelli to publish his one and only printed book in 1644? This article answers that question by situating Torricelli and his work within the social milieu that joined mathematicians and geometry with elite status as intellectuals in seventeenth-century Europe, showing how book publication and authorship did and did not advance those connections. Moving in four parts, it shows first how Galileo was not, as he was in so many other aspects of Torricelli's work, the model for his idea of book authorship, and then turns instead to several other seventeenth-century examples-Roberval, Huygens, and Newton in particular-as better comparative examples for understanding Torricelli. The article then turns to the precise logics informing Torricelli's career as a published author, setting up his book as a culminating event in his ascent as the esteemed mathematician in service to the court of the Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. The article concludes by using this frame to read the contents of Torricelli's opus, namely his puzzling inclusion of 21 different proofs of the same proposition already demonstrated by Archimedes.

This study discusses the role of mechanics in the Ottoman classical period spanning the 14th and 18th centuries. Firstly, it is asserted that the science of mechanics in the Islamic world was based on the works of the Ancient Greeks, and then Muslim scholars contributed further on this field. Secondly, it is emphasised that Ottoman science inherited the classical Islamic scientific tradition and demonstrating the mathematical nature of mechanics through the encyclopaedic work of Tashkopruluzade, a prominent Ottoman scholar from the 16th century. Additionally, Tashkopruluzade’s definition of mechanical disciplines is analysed to understand Ottoman perspectives on sciences. Thirdly, the study explains how mathematics and physics were taught in the Ottoman classical/scholastic education system, introducing some books on these subjects. Moreover, the practical knowledge of mechanics applied by Ottoman architects and engineers is reviewed. Finally, the works on mechanics written by the Ottomans are discussed, illustrating the subjects studied up to the modern period. In conclusion, it is stated that the Ottomans developed the Islamic mechanical tradition and sustained it until the 18th century. They established new Western-style schools and included modern Newtonian mechanics into their education system in the 19th century.

l'oeuvre de Coriolis. La seconde difficulté réside dans la complexité des mathématiques utilisées par Coriolis dans ses articles et ouvrages. Nous n'avons pas pu, à cet égard, prendre de point de comparaison-nous ne nous sommes pas plongés, en sus de celle de Coriolis, dans l'oeuvre mathématique de ses contemporains, mais il nous a semblé que la lecture et la compréhension de ses oeuvres était particulièrement difficile. Une autre caractéristique de son oeuvre rend l'approche de sa carrière malaisée : la quasi-totalité de son oeuvre est publiée entre 1829 et 1836. C'est-à-dire qu'il ne publie rien de significatif avant l'âge de trente-sept ans, et que son oeuvre s'étend sur environ huit années. Ceci ne signifie pas que la période suivante, entre 1837 et sa mort en 1843, soit inintéressante : simplement Coriolis, devenu directeur des études à Polytechnique fin 1838, n'a quasiment plus d'oeuvre scientifique à partir de cette date (en fait à partir de 1836)-il se le reproche d'ailleurs amèrement dans sa correspondance. Cette dernière période est toutefois très documentée, puisqu'elle correspond à ce qui nous reste de ses lettres à sa cousine Benoist. Ce fut un point positif dans notre recherche : même si l'on doit décrypter ce que dit Coriolis dans ces lettres, et ne pas surestimer leur importance par rapport à la réalité effective (en effet Coriolis, dans sa correspondance privée, a une propension à se plaindre de manière lancinante sur de nombreux sujets, tant personnels que professionnels), elles apportent un éclairage bienvenu sur cette période de sa vie, ainsi que sur ses relations avec ses collègues. Les dissensions commencent avant la Révolution. Les deux frères aînés-l'aîné Honoré-Gaspard (1735-1824), ecclésiastique, et le second Édouard-Laurent (1745-1806), conseiller au Parlement de Provence-s'en prennent au troisième frère, Gabriel de Coriolis (1750-1832) 9. Après avoir été exilé dans les Colonies par sa mère, qui lui reprochait d'avoir démissionné de l'armée en 1769, il devient lieutenant dans l'artillerie de Saint-Domingue en 1770. Or, « l'idée d'avoir une grande fortune et de mener grande vie 7. [AEP], dossier Coriolis. 8. Ancien port sur la côte vénézuelienne. 9. Notes [GC-AAS]. Les derniers porteurs masculins du nom Coriolis descendent de Gabriel de Coriolis. Ils sont au nombre de 4 (source Régis Vallette, Anthologie de la noblesse française contemporaine, Robert Laffont, 1977), Jean de Coriolis (né le 5 juin 1929) et ses trois fils le contre-amiral Charles-Édouard, Alban-Gabriel et Gontran. Cette branche a relevé vers 1885 le titre de baron de Limaye (Lettre patente de 1646), qu'elle porte encore de nos jours. Nous avons pu rencontrer à plusieurs reprises M. Jean de Coriolis, avec qui nous nous nous sommes entretenus de sa famille, et qui nous a fait copie de correspondances et notes familiales [archives-JDC]. Les autres descendants de la fratrie du père de Coriolis sont : 1°/ pami les descendants de Thérèse de Coriolis, la famille Orieulx de Laporte (Mme Gabrielle de Préville) ; la branche Georget La Chesnais est éteinte 2°/ parmi les descendants d'Édouard-Laurent, la famille turinoise Villonova. 10. « Note sur le chevalier Gabriel de Coriolis de Limaye », par sa petite-fille, Mme du Bois de Beauchêne, née Bolle d'Elmont [archives-JDC]. 11. « Note sur le chevalier Gabriel de Coriolis… », ibid. 12. Source site de l'Assemblée Nationale. Ainsi Coriolis, pour des raisons de santé, voit échapper la possibilité de la succession de Fresnel 26 ; il reste en état de maladie pendant un an, d'octobre 1812 à octobre 1813. Il ne compte pas non plus retourner auprès de Prony, jugeant le travail trop « appliquant », sans doute cela ne l'intéresse-t-il que peu (lettre du 18 février 1813) : Si je n'ose pas prendre cette place [Fresnel] à plus forte raison je ne me soucie pas non plus de retourner près de Mr de Prony. Je compte lui écrire. Le nouvel ingénieur en chef de Nancy, Mangin, arrivant d'Anvers, semble considérer lui aussi Coriolis comme non valide pour le service : Mr Mangin ne paraît pas vouloir me donner beaucoup à faire. Ce n'est que le 20 octobre 1813 qu'il écrit à nouveau au comte Molé 27 pour faire part de l'amélioration de son état de santé et demander une affectation : Vous avez bien voulu me laisser provisoirement dans le département de la Meurthe, pour achever dans ma famille le rétablissement de ma santé, à la suite d'une maladie grave. Aujourd'hui je me 24. Cette adresse nancéenne est 68 faubourg de Bonsecours. 25. Sur la lettre en question ne figure pas l'année ; mais elle fait partie des premières lettres, et comme Coriolis y parle de sa nomination comme aspirant au 1 er mars, nous l'avons datée de 1813. 26. Nous pensons qu'il s'agit du jeune frère d'Augustin Fresnel, Léonor Fresnel, X1807, ingénieur des Ponts et chaussées ; nous n'avons pu retrouver de quel poste il s'agissait. 27. [AN] Dossier Coriolis.

More than two thousand years ago the first hydrostatic balance with a rudimentary structure was invented by the Greek sage “Archimedes.” Iranian scholars would later develop balances that were used not only for weighing but also for determining the density and titration of alloys.To appraise the path of evolution of these balances as well as their potentials, an experimental research program was undertaken by the Iranian Research Organisation for Science and Technology (IROST). Therefore, five different balances were selected, ranging from the oldest known in the history of science, the Archimedes balance, to the most sophisticated one, the balance of wisdom by Al-Khazini, which are separated by a lapse of time of about fourteen hundred years. Balances designed by Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, Zakariya Al-Razi, and Omar Khayyam were the other three. In the course of the research, replicas of the selected balances were designed and fabricated according to the remaining design details in the related literature. The article covers the detailed design of each balance, their construction and functional test details as well as a comparison of their functions and their precision in densitometry and titration.

Récemment, une équipe de Pierre Tallet, avec le tailleur de pierre professionnel, Franck Burgos a tenté de reproduire la taille et le transport de blocs de pierre du calibre de ceux de la grande pyramide. Si la première expérience de Franck Burgos fut un échec, ne dépassant pas une vitesse de 35 mètres à l’heure, une seconde expérience est présentée comme un succès par Pierre Tallet sur son compte Twitter 1. Nous allons examiner cette expérience et voir si elle est applicable au chantier de la grande pyramide en 20 ou 30 ans. Notre angle d’analyse est celui de l’énergie nécessaire au déplacement et à l’élévation de la masse de la grande pyramide dans un laps de temps aussi court 2. Nous allons intégrer les aspects bioénergétiques de cet effort. Officiellement, aucune preuve archéologique ne permet d’affirmer qu’il y avait plus de 2000 hommes 3 sur le chantier toutes taches confondues. Admettons, qu’il y en ait eu 5000 ou 6000, car des preuves ont peut-être disparu sous la ville du Caire.

The Accademia del Cimento in seventeenth-century Florence has traditionally been seen as the first European organization to employ an experimental programme, thus becoming a major participant in the so-called ‘birth of modern experimental science’. Such traditional accounts have also detailed the cultural, political and religious environment of the period that contributed to the Accademia's use of a supposedly atheoretical experimental method. However, despite the merits of such cultural histories, these stories do not portray the full details behind the Accademia's intellectual workings – how knowledge claims were constructed, interpreted and presented by the academicians according to their natural philosophical concerns. It is argued here that such an analysis will provide a more accurate account of the Accademia's activities than existing stories about the birth of an experimental programme or method. By looking past the experimental rhetoric produced by the academici...