Clik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXI
In the last episode of this series, we looked at two popular sixteenth century texts on statics, the oft published and widely read pseudo-Aristotelian Questiones Mechanicae, and Guidobaldo dal Monte’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXII
As should be clear by now the renaissance in awareness and study of the works of Archimedes, which had been largely ignored in the medieval period, played a major role in the new developments in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXIV
Possibly the biggest ever upheaval in the history of optics was the emergence of the telescope at the end of the first decade of the seventeenth century, closely followed by that of the microscope....
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXV
The sixteenth century saw major changes in astronomy and in particular in cosmology. These changes was go on to have a major influence on the development of the theory of mechanics in the seventeenth...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXVI
In 2007, the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy to mark the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXVII
When it comes to Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) and his publications people tend to automatically think first of the Dialogo (1632) and the problems that it caused him with the Catholic Church or the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXVIII
In the last episode of this series, I started to examine Galileo’s last book his Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche, intorno a due nuove scienze (Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XXXIX
With his Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, Quibus Astronomiae Pars Optica Traditur (Supplement to Witelo, in Which Is Expounded the Optical Part of Astronomy), published in 1604 and his Dioptrice,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XL
Until the publication of his Sidereus Nuncius in 1610, Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was basically a nobody on the European scientific scene. Professor for mathematics, the lowest of the low in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – XLI
Many moons ago when I studied mathematics at university in Germany, the first two years (four semesters) essentially consisted of two ninety minute lectures, starting at eight o’clock, four days a...
View Article