Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] History of MASS



There is a relevant article in this month's Physics Today:

---------------------------
The vis viva dispute: A controversy at the dawn of dynamics
The need to augment Newtonian mechanics to encompass systems more
complex than collections of point masses engendered a century-long
dispute about conservation principles.

George E. Smith
October 2006, page 31

http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-10/p31.shtml
------------------------------


Larry Woolf
General Atomics
www.ga.com
www.sci-ed-ga.org

-----Original Message-----
From:David Abineri
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 1:58 PM
Subject: [Phys-l] History of MASS

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?