Essays on the History of Mechanics, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2003 In Memory of Clifford Ambrose Truesdell and Edoardo Benvenuto

The history of mechanics, and more particularly, the history of mechanics applied to constructions, constitutes a field of research that is relatively recent. This volume, together with the recent publication "Towards a History of Construction", is intended as an homage to the two eminent scholars who made a determinant contribution to the history of mechanics: Edoardo Benvenuto and Clifford Truesdell.

Truesdell and the History of the Theory of Structures.- Development of Studies in the History of Elasticity Theory and Structural Mechanics.- Coping With Error in the History of Mechanics.- The Development of the Deformation Method.- The Mechanics of Timbrel Vaults: a Historical Outline.- The Use of a Particular Form of the Parallelogram Law of Forces for the Building of Vaults (1650-1750).- Rose Windows.- Early Theories of Vectors.- The Ancients’ Inferno: The Slow and Tortuous Development of ‘Newtonian’ Principles of Motion in the Eighteenth Century.- A Historical Survey of Impact Theories.- What Can the Historian of Science Learn from the Historian of Fine Arts?.- Index of Names.

International board of contributors New field of research