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Newton to Maxwell: the Principia and British physics. (English) Zbl 0637.01005

This is a remarkable article. It begins with the conventional use of opposing the period 1700–1900, beginning with Newton’s Principia, called “classical” or “Newtonian” physics, to “modern” physics, defined by the term “non-classical”, and characterized essentially by the advent of relativity and quantum theory. But, as stressed by the author, the typical conceptual innovations of the 19th century “cannot meaningfully be described as “Newtonian””. The article is concerned mainly with the development of mathematical physics from Euler to Maxwell, “in place of the geometric style of Leibniz and Newton”. The contrast between the two styles culminates with Lagrange’s works, which, well situated in the “continental tradition of calculus”, and where, in contrast with Newton, “illustrative diagrams are triumphantly renounced”. Newton’s laws of motion are not stated by Lagrange, and “d’Alembert’s principle and the principle of virtual work are given pride of place”. In this connection, it is to be added, worthwhile perhaps, that the famous “Newton’s second law of motion”, as given in our textbooks, was proclaimed, not by Newton himself, but by Euler in 1750, as a “new principle of mechanics”, in the form \(f=m\, dv/dt\), an equation familiar to the period (Newton’s successors), and first stated by Varignon in 1700. The interest of the author concerns principally the reaction of British (especially Cambridge) mathematicians and physicists against the “analytical” continental tradition, a reaction which is characterized by a position essentially favorable to Newton (MacLaurin, Maxwell, Kelvin, to cite here only a few number among many others, mentioned by the author), although some deviations in respect to Newton and even concessions to the “analytical” style occur. In conclusion – this is the opinion of the reviewer – “classical” physics is more properly characterized as the physics of the 19th century (with its own questions: see above), preceded by the “pre-classical” physics period, which comprises the “Newtonian” tradition and the “analytical” one, both being incorporated in their own way in the important conquests of the “classical” period: the “energetic” point of view, etc.

MSC:

01A50 History of mathematics in the 18th century
01A55 History of mathematics in the 19th century
01A72 Schools of mathematics
01A73 History of mathematics at specific universities
70-03 History of mechanics of particles and systems

Biographic References:

Newton, I.; Maxwell, J.
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