Talk:History of classical mechanics

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[edit] Calculus

Newton and Leibniz developed calculus independently of each other. Newton was first, but kept his method a secret, so Leibniz developed it a bit late, not knowing about Newtons calculus. Newton was miffed about this.DanielDemaret 11:14, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Classical mechanics?

The title of this article doesn't match its content. Classical mechanics refers to those traditions in mechanics that begin with Newton's laws of motion. By that criterion everyone from Aristotle to Galileo should be removed. I see three possible solutions, listed in my order of preference:

  1. Change the title to History of mechanics, which would allow room for everyone from Aristotle to Galileo and from Einstein to the present.
  2. Put the early figures in a "precursors to classical mechanics" section.
  3. Remove the early people and limit it to Newton and his successors.

Does anyone have any preferences?

--SteveMcCluskey 02:26, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi Steve, that's a good insight, although doesn't it depend on how you define "classical"? I see the term as being contrasted with "quantum", so I prefer solution #2. By that definition, the pre-Newton people did contribute some classical mechanics, e.g., the laws of static equilibrium for levers (Aristotle, Galileo and others), the theory of collisions (Descartes), and even Newton's first law (Galileo?). Interested in what others think, Willow 13:08, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

all the history before Newton should be listed as early ideas of motion or something to that effect.Tomasz Prochownik (talk) 07:43, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Expansion needed

This page needs expansion, or going into a more general mechanics' history page. A briefing on the possible points on this topic will be:

  1. Pre-Newton/Galileo.
  2. Classical of Newton and Galieo.
  3. Golden age of mechanicism, reformulations of classical mechanics: Lagrange, Euler, etc.
  4. End of Galilean paradigm -> Einstein.
  5. Einstein, relativity and so on.
  6. Small introduction to quantum mechanics, blablabla.

If I'll manage to have more time, I'll contribute here a few.--Patillotes (talk) 15:39, 28 January 2008 (UTC)