The origin of the mechanical sciences can be traced to the studies of Aristotle and Archimedes, who set forth the principles that are the basis of mechanics. However, development in successive centuries advanced but slowly, with notable progress made during the Middle Ages, and would find its complete formal development and linguistic expression only in the Renaissance.The use of elementary static systems followed different courses, tied more to empiricism and constructive technologies than to theoretical science, resolving the problems that were mentioned from time to time by the architects and builders of antiquity. Such problems, formulated from the constructive practices of architecture and by the machines for building, were resolved using those very mechanical devices that are at the basis of the discipline, without a precise knowledge of their general semantic value, but rather with a awareness of statics and constructive empiricism that validated the choices made on the building site.

Provides a broad framework for engaging with ideas relevant to ancient Greek and Roman science, medicine and technology.

"A remarkable work which will remain a document of the first rank for the historian of mechanics." — Louis de Broglie In this masterful synthesis and summation of the science of mechanics, Rene Dugas, a leading scholar and educator at the famed Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, deals with the evolution of the principles of general mechanics chronologically from their earliest roots in antiquity through the Middle Ages to the revolutionary developments in relativistic mechanics, wave and quantum mechanics of the early 20th century. The present volume is divided into five parts: The first treats of the pioneers in the study of mechanics, from its beginnings up to and including the sixteenth century; the second section discusses the formation of classical mechanics, including the tremendously creative and influential work of Galileo, Huygens and Newton. The third part is devoted to the eighteenth century, in which the organization of mechanics finds its climax in the achievements of Euler, d'Alembert and Lagrange. The fourth part is devoted to classical mechanics after Lagrange. In Part Five, the author undertakes the relativistic revolutions in quantum and wave mechanics. Writing with great clarity and sweep of vision, M. Dugas follows closely the ideas of the great innovators and the texts of their writings. The result is an exceptionally accurate and objective account, especially thorough in its accounts of mechanics in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the important contributions of Jordanus of Nemore, Jean Buridan, Albert of Saxony, Nicole Oresme, Leonardo da Vinci, and many other key figures. Erudite, comprehensive, replete with penetrating insights, AHistory of Mechanics is an unusually skillful and wide-ranging study that belongs in the library of anyone interested in the history of science.

In this volume I have attempted to give especial and marked attention to the fate of Greek science in late antiquity. Elementary texts in the past have long ignored this aspect of Greek science. The importance of the course of Greek science in late antiquity is evident, for it was during this period that much of the Greek scientific corpus was put into the form in which it passed to the medieval Latin West. We are justified, then, in considering this volume as an introduction to medieval and early modern science—that science being considered as a transformation of Greek science.

This book consists of 24 papers on ancient Greek science and technology. It covers such areas as mathematics, physics, engineering, astronomical methods and instruments, and environmental issues. A great variety of topics are discussed, including medical care in ancient Olympiads, mathematical concepts in Plato, the concept of the rate of change in various mathematical areas and the concept of symmetry in ancient Greece. Aristotle’s Physics on free falling bodies, world-structure formation and matter according to the Presocratics, acoustic phenomena in archaeological sites, Trojan Horse reconstruction, offensive and defensive weapons in Homer’s epics, and telecommunications in ancient Greece are also some of the issues addressed here. This book will be an important resource to physicists, mathematicians, engineers, archaeologists, historians, and philologists.

This volume deals with a variety of moments in the history of mechanics when conflicts arose within one textual tradition, between different traditions, or between textual traditions and the wider world of practice. Its purpose is to show how the accommodations sometimes made in the course of these conflicts ultimately contributed to the emergence of modern mechanics.

Nearly every aspect of daily life in the Mediterranean world and Europe during the florescence of the Greek and Roman cultures is relevant to engineering and technology. This text highlights the accomplishments of the ancient societies, the research problems, and stimulates further progress in the history of ancient technology.