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Re: [Phys-l] History of MASS



David Abineri wrote:
I wonder if someone can comment on the historical development of the concept of mass. When was such a concept first used and what was the original motivation for a concept that tell us what we understand mass to be today. Galileo and Newton surely understood the need for such a concept but when and why did it first arise?

Thanks for any insights on this, David Abineri




Although it's been on my "To read" list for a long time I never got to read
Max Jammer's *Concepts of Mass in Classical and Modern Physics.
*But I suspect you can probably find quite a bit of information on the subject in that book.

Karim Diff

*Book Description (From Amazon.com)*
Prize-winning exposition of the historical development of the concept of mass rigorously, concisely, and provocatively analyzes such topics as the ancient concept of mass, the neoplatonic concept of inertia, the conceptualization of inertial mass, the modern concept of mass, mass and energy, the concept of mass in quantum mechanics and field theory, and much more. "Graduate students in physics should find this book a unique introduction to a very vexing problem in their chosen field." --- /American Scientist./