Qualifying the Received View on the Birth of Analytical Mechanics: The Case of Johann Bernoulli’s Study of Motion in Resisting Media
speaker: Niccolò Guicciardini (Università di Bergamo)abstract: In standard accounts of the "Birth of Analytical Mechanics," Newton is said to have approached the science of motion in terms of "geometrical methods," whereas the Leibnizians approached it in terms of differential equations. In this context, the contributions of Pierre Varignon, Johann Bernoulli, and Jacob Hermann are often mentioned as emblematic of the shift from a geometrical to an analytical treatment of the science of motion. There is, of course, a great deal of wisdom in this view and reliable historical accounts of the events following the publication of Huygens's Horologium in 1673 and Newton's Principia in 1687 can be constructed from this premise. But I would like to suggest that a more nuanced view might capture the historical record even better. To pursue this revision, I will consider the approach to motion in resisting media carried out by Newton and Johann Bernoulli in the early 1710s. It will be apparent that Newton did use series and fluxions, and that while Bernoulli showed greater ability in applying the calculus to motion in resisting media, geometry still played a role in his work. He also published some of his papers on resisted motion in a style where geometrical diagrams and proportion theory are still heavily deployed.
timetable:
Wed 15 Sep, 15:00 - 16:30, Sala Conferenze Centro De Giorgi
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