What do you think?
Rate this book
A History of Mechanics
Monumental study traces the history of mechanical principles chronologically from their earliest roots in antiquity through the Middle Ages to the revolutions in relativistic mechanics and wave and quantum mechanics of the early 20th century. Contributions of ancient Greeks, Leonardo, Galileo, Kepler, Lagrange, many other important figures. 116 black-and-white illustrations.
688 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1988
8 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 19, 2015
This... is a monumental book. But only if:
1. You are big into history of science, especially physics,
2. You have adequate background (presumably college) in physics or engineering
Rene Dugas' A History of Mechanics traces the development of mechanics from the days of Ancient Greece up to modern day's Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Now this means one thing: it won't -- and perhaps should never -- be an easy read.
Indeed, having familiarized myself with history of science for some years, I find Dugas' breadth and depth intimidating. Here we are treated with natural philosophers' (and early scientists') effort to understand force and motion. Some of them were wrong; some of them got it right. The thing about Dugas is, he simply details them -- and their often-convincing arguments -- for us to discern.
And that is precisely why this book is invaluable. It truly shows how science progressed through trial and error; bad ideas discarded and accurate ones retained. Mistakes were made even by figures as brilliant as Galileo. Yet even after all that, mechanics as a science were able to progress, somehow becoming "less wrong" through the ages.
Perhaps fittingly, the book's foreword is given by Louis de Broglie, who helped developing wave theory of Quantum Mechanics. There's something poignant about that...
1. You are big into history of science, especially physics,
2. You have adequate background (presumably college) in physics or engineering
Rene Dugas' A History of Mechanics traces the development of mechanics from the days of Ancient Greece up to modern day's Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Now this means one thing: it won't -- and perhaps should never -- be an easy read.
Indeed, having familiarized myself with history of science for some years, I find Dugas' breadth and depth intimidating. Here we are treated with natural philosophers' (and early scientists') effort to understand force and motion. Some of them were wrong; some of them got it right. The thing about Dugas is, he simply details them -- and their often-convincing arguments -- for us to discern.
And that is precisely why this book is invaluable. It truly shows how science progressed through trial and error; bad ideas discarded and accurate ones retained. Mistakes were made even by figures as brilliant as Galileo. Yet even after all that, mechanics as a science were able to progress, somehow becoming "less wrong" through the ages.
Perhaps fittingly, the book's foreword is given by Louis de Broglie, who helped developing wave theory of Quantum Mechanics. There's something poignant about that...
Displaying 1 of 1 review