Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE (Program 1)
- Chapter 2 THE LAW OF FALLING BODIES (Program 2)
- Chapter 3 THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE: DERIVATIVES AND INTEGRALS
- Chapter 4 INERTIA
- Chapter 5 VECTORS
- Chapter 6 NEWTON'S LAWS AND EQUILIBRIUM
- Chapter 7 UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION AND CIRCULAR MOTION
- Chapter 8 FORCES
- Chapter 9 FORCES IN ACCELERATING REFERENCE FRAMES
- Chapter 10 ENERGY: CONSERVATION AND CONVERSION
- Chapter 11 THE CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM
- Chapter 12 OSCILLATORY MOTION
- Chapter 13 ANGULAR MOMENTUM
- Chapter 14 ROTATIONAL DYNAMICS FOR RIGID BODIES
- Chapter 15 GYROSCOPES
- Chapter 16 KEPLER'S LAWS AND THE CONIC SECTIONS
- Chapter 17 SOLVING THE KEPLER PROBLEM
- Chapter 18 NAVIGATING IN SPACE
- Chapter 19 TEMPERATURE AND THE GAS LAWS
- Chapter 20 THE ENGINE OF NATURE
- Chapter 21 ENTROPY
- Chapter 22 THE QUEST FOR LOW TEMPERATURE
- Appendix A THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS
- Appendix B CONVERSION FACTORS
- Appendix C FORMULAS FROM ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, AND TRIGONOMETRY
- Appendix D ASTRONOMICAL DATA
- Appendix E PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index
Chapter 4 - INERTIA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE MECHANICAL UNIVERSE (Program 1)
- Chapter 2 THE LAW OF FALLING BODIES (Program 2)
- Chapter 3 THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE: DERIVATIVES AND INTEGRALS
- Chapter 4 INERTIA
- Chapter 5 VECTORS
- Chapter 6 NEWTON'S LAWS AND EQUILIBRIUM
- Chapter 7 UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION AND CIRCULAR MOTION
- Chapter 8 FORCES
- Chapter 9 FORCES IN ACCELERATING REFERENCE FRAMES
- Chapter 10 ENERGY: CONSERVATION AND CONVERSION
- Chapter 11 THE CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM
- Chapter 12 OSCILLATORY MOTION
- Chapter 13 ANGULAR MOMENTUM
- Chapter 14 ROTATIONAL DYNAMICS FOR RIGID BODIES
- Chapter 15 GYROSCOPES
- Chapter 16 KEPLER'S LAWS AND THE CONIC SECTIONS
- Chapter 17 SOLVING THE KEPLER PROBLEM
- Chapter 18 NAVIGATING IN SPACE
- Chapter 19 TEMPERATURE AND THE GAS LAWS
- Chapter 20 THE ENGINE OF NATURE
- Chapter 21 ENTROPY
- Chapter 22 THE QUEST FOR LOW TEMPERATURE
- Appendix A THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF UNITS
- Appendix B CONVERSION FACTORS
- Appendix C FORMULAS FROM ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, AND TRIGONOMETRY
- Appendix D ASTRONOMICAL DATA
- Appendix E PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Index
Summary
It has been observed that missiles, that is to say, projectiles follow some kind of curved path, but that it is a parabola no one has shown. I will show that it is, together with other things, neither few in number nor less worth knowing, and what I hold to be even more important, they open the door to a vast and crucial science of which these our researches will constitute the elements; other geniuses more acute than mine will penetrate its hidden recesses.
Galileo Galilei, Two New Sciences, Third Day (1638)IF THE EARTH MOVES: ARISTOTELIAN OBJECTIONS
In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus's book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) appeared in print. Copernicus, mindful of his personal safety, had waited until his deathbed to publish his ideas. Within the pages of De Revolutionibus Copernicus set the earth spinning on its axis and revolving around the sun. In his attempt to return the heavens to their simple beauty, Copernicus had to make the sun, not the earth, the center of the universe, and in doing so he tore the heart out of the Aristotelian world. Without the solid, immovable earth at the center of the universe, there could be no Aristotelian laws of motion. And without these laws, there were none at all, for Copernicus had no laws to replace those he destroyed.
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- The Mechanical UniverseMechanics and Heat, Advanced Edition, pp. 57 - 74Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986