Work · Science & Human Sciences
The Science of Mechanics
A historical-critical account of mechanics: absolute space and time are metaphysical; inertia must be understood relative to the masses of the universe.
Introduction
Ernst Mach, professor of experimental physics in Prague, published Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwickelung historisch-kritisch dargestellt in 1883; it went through many revised editions. Following the history of statics and dynamics from Archimedes through Stevin, Galileo and Huygens to Newton, he tries to show which concepts arose from experience and which are metaphysical additions. Science, on his view, serves the economy of thought: it summarises experience as briefly as possible. His best-known critique concerns Newton’s rotating bucket, whose curved water surface need not prove motion relative to absolute space but might result from rotation relative to the distant masses of the universe. Einstein acknowledged the influence of this idea and named it “Mach’s principle”.
Connections
Criticizes
- Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Principia)1687 · Isaac Newton
More works by Ernst Mach
Sources: Wikidata
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