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Birkhäuser

Discovering the Principles of Mechanics 1600-1800

Essays by David Speiser

  • Book
  • © 2008

Overview

Editors:
  1. Kim Williams

    1. Torino, Italy

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Sandro Caparrini

    1. Orbassano, Italy

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • First book of collected essays of David Speiser
  • The essays, two of which are previously unpublished, have all been re-edited and include updated references, bibliographies, and editors' notes
  • Essays previously pubished in French, German and Italian are translated for the first time into English

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Keywords

  • Galileo Galilei
  • History of Mathematics
  • Isaac Newton
  • Mechanics
  • Rigid body
  • Speiser, David
  • classical mechanics

About this book

Kim Williams invited me to publish a selection of conferences which I had presented at various occasions during my stay at the UCL and elsewhere. She selected some papers which refer to topics on the history of science, especially on the history of mechanics. My occupation with the history of science began through the mathematician Andreas Speiser, my uncle, at the time the General Editor of the Opera Omnia of Leonhard Euler, who invited me to edit volume III, 5 of the Opera, containing Euler’s work on physical optics. I accepted this offer with great pride and indeed, the task gave me much pleasure and satisfaction. Of all the scientists with whom I entered into contact, aside from Andreas Speiser, I must mention especially Alexandre Koyré. I had the great fortune to meet him at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton where we were both guests during the same period. Koyré also introduced me into questions dealing with philosophy of science, an important field, though one that plays a minor role in this present volume. Later I was invited more and more often to give lectures concerning a given subject, or one I working on at the moment.

Reviews

From the reviews:

“The book contains essays of David Speiser on the discovery of the principles of mechanics. These essays were written in the course of several decades and re-edited, in part translated and are presented here in a chronological order. … These essays will make a highly interesting reading and yield many and beautiful insights for anyone taking care for the development of one of the most important scientific fields.” (H. Muthsam, Monatshefte für Mathematik, Vol. 157 (1), May, 2009)

“This book features a selection of David Speiser’s best papers on the history and foundations of early modern mechanics. … The chapters are independent of one another, but the editors have chosen them so as to achieve good thematic unity and a good sense of historical development. Speiser’s historical work is well informed by his technical expertise as a practicing physicist.” (Dean Rickles, Mathematical Reviews, January, 2013)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Torino, Italy

    Kim Williams

  • Orbassano, Italy

    Sandro Caparrini

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Discovering the Principles of Mechanics 1600-1800

  • Book Subtitle: Essays by David Speiser

  • Editors: Kim Williams, Sandro Caparrini

  • Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel

  • Copyright Information: Birkh�user Basel 2008

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-7643-8564-4Published: 18 September 2008

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 331

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