Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Symbols
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Analysis of Low Speed Impact
- Chapter 2 Rigid Body Theory for Collinear Impact
- Chapter 3 Rigid Body Theory for Planar or 2D Collisions
- Chapter 4 3D Impact of Rough Rigid Bodies
- Chapter 5 Rigid Body Impact with Discrete Modeling of Compliance for the Contact Region
- Chapter 6 Continuum Modeling of Local Deformation Near the Contact Area
- Chapter 7 Axial Impact on Slender Deformable Bodies
- Chapter 8 Impact on Assemblies of Rigid Elements
- Chapter 9 Collision against Flexible Structures
- Chapter 10 Propagating Transformations of State in Self-Organizing Systems
- Appendix A Role of Impact in the Development of Mechanics During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- Appendix B Glossary of Terms
- Answers to Some Problems
- References
- Index
Appendix A - Role of Impact in the Development of Mechanics During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Symbols
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Analysis of Low Speed Impact
- Chapter 2 Rigid Body Theory for Collinear Impact
- Chapter 3 Rigid Body Theory for Planar or 2D Collisions
- Chapter 4 3D Impact of Rough Rigid Bodies
- Chapter 5 Rigid Body Impact with Discrete Modeling of Compliance for the Contact Region
- Chapter 6 Continuum Modeling of Local Deformation Near the Contact Area
- Chapter 7 Axial Impact on Slender Deformable Bodies
- Chapter 8 Impact on Assemblies of Rigid Elements
- Chapter 9 Collision against Flexible Structures
- Chapter 10 Propagating Transformations of State in Self-Organizing Systems
- Appendix A Role of Impact in the Development of Mechanics During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- Appendix B Glossary of Terms
- Answers to Some Problems
- References
- Index
Summary
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.
Francis BaconBefore publication of Newton's Principia (1687), dynamics was an empirical science; i.e., it consisted of propositions that described observed behavior without any explanation for the forces that caused motion. For example, Kepler's laws are kinematic relations that describe orbital motion. Kepler (1571–1630) discovered these relations by laboriously fitting various possibilities to the voluminous measurements of planetary motion that had been recorded by Tycho Brahe. Likewise Galileo stated propositions describing the motion of freely falling bodies. The propositions are based on relating transit times for different drop heights to clear ideas of distance, time and translational velocity. These savants, however, possessed only the vaguest notion of force.
While Galileo recognized that there must be some extended cause for acceleration or retardation, he did not realize that a uniform acceleration was a consequence of a steady force; he recognized that there was a cause for acceleration but was not able to relate cause and effect. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how there could be progress in this direction before the creation of calculus.
At the time of Galileo, the topics at the forefront of dynamics were percussion, projectile ballistics and celestial mechanics. Each of these topics had technological importance for warfare, industrial development or navigation. Percussion in particular was concerned with the terminal ballistics of musket balls as well as the effect of a forging hammer on a workpiece.
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- Impact Mechanics , pp. 248 - 265Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000