Related papers: Aristotle, projectiles and guns
This work presents a group-theoretic interpretation of the historical evolution of mechanics, proposing that each fundamental theory of motion corresponds to a distinct geometry in the sense of Felix Klein. The character of each geometry is…
The following translation of Leonhard Euler's "Examination of an Artifice for Propelling a Ship by the Principle of Internal Motion," originally published in 1750, offers a glimpse into a fascinating historical debate in the field of…
The information-theoretic point of view proposed by Leibniz in 1686 and developed by algorithmic information theory (AIT) suggests that mathematics and physics are not that different. This will be a first-person account of some doubts and…
A simple general relativity theory for objects moving in gravitational fields is developed based on studying the behavior of an atom in a gravitational field. The theory is applied to calculate the satellite time dilation, light deflection…
In 1717 Halley compared contemporaneous measurements of the latitudes of four stars with earlier measurements by ancient Greek astronomers and by Brahe, and from the differences concluded that these four stars showed proper motion. An…
I offer a revisionist interpretation of Galileo's role in the history of science. My overarching thesis is that Galileo lacked technical ability in mathematics, and that this can be seen as directly explaining numerous aspects of his life's…
Archery lends itself to scientific analysis. In this paper we discuss physics laws that relate to the mechanics of bow and arrow, to the shooting process and to the flight of the arrow. In parallel, we describe experiments that address…
The law of centripetal force governing the motion of celestial bodies in eccentric conic sections, has been established and thoroughly investigated by Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica. Yet its profound implications on the…
Einstein was in many ways like a detective on a mystery trail, though in his case he was on the trail of nature's mysteries and not some murder mystery! And like all good detectives he had a style. It consisted of taking facts that he knew…
In 1651 Giovanni Riccioli reported the earliest accurate measurements the acceleration due to gravity, g, from pendulum-timed free fall experiments. The use of Huygens' pendulum formula (published 1673) allows one to deduce the pendulum…
We consider three problems of selecting optimal gun barrel direction (or those of selecting optimal semiaxis position) when firing an unguided artillery projectile on the assumption that the gun barrel semiaxis can move in a connected…
Pythagoras' theorem lies at the heart of physics as well as mathematics, yet its historical origins are obscure. We highlight a purely pictorial, gestalt-like proof that may have originated during the Zhou Dynasty. Generalizations of the…
Ancient astronomers faced the problem of dealing with arcs and angles in their observations and predictions without the help of modern trigonometry. The usual method to deal with such problems was the Menelaus Theorem, explicitly discussed…
In teaching the physical sciences, a significant challenge lies in the student's tendency to consider the scientific world and the "real" world as separate. For example, Newton's 1st Law of Motion states that an object in motion remains in…
It will be shown in this article that an ontological approach for some problems related to the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics could emerge from a re-evaluation of the main paradox of early Greek thought: the paradox of Being and…
Euler considers the following problem: A boat with a perfect rudder moves at constant speed across a stream flowing in straight fillets at assigned speeds. Assuming that the downstream velocity of the boat equals that of the river, how…
The pursuit problem is a historical issue of the application of mathematics in physics, which has been discussed for centuries since the time of Leonardo Da Vinci, and its applications are wide ranging from military and industrial to…
The projection postulate is a description of the effect on a quantum system, assumed to be in a pure state, of a measurement of an observable with a discrete spectrum, in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. It is often called "von Neumann's…
In this work, an attempt is presented to understand the contribution of Galileo Galilei in the field of the History of Ideas, from the moment he points a spyglass to the sky. For that, it was previously necessary that Giotto painting the…
The technological discoveries and developments since dawn of civilization that resulted in the modern wristwatch are linked to the evolution of Science itself. A history of over 6000 years filled with amazing technical prowess since the…