Readings in the History of Science

The history of science meetup group has opened a new chapter. We've now discussed scientific developments up to and including Newton at some length. The focus going forward will be post-Newton. The 19th century was a golden age for analytical work in mathematics. Correspondingly analytical mechanics and thermodynamics also developed and, not surprisingly, these met the needs of the burgeoning industrial revolution. New concepts of work and energy were developed. These and related issues will be the focus of our new chapter.

The history of science meetup normally meets every two weeks. Our next
meeting is October 8th from 6pm to 8pm (Pacific time). We are reading and
discussing Judith Grabiner’s book, The Origins of Cauchy’s Rigorous Calculus
.
We are in chapter 5. Last meeting we made it up to page 123. We will continue in
chapter 5 .Chapter 5 is on the derivative and is arguably the most important
chapter in the book. We will finish chapter 5 and likely begin chapter 6 on the
definite integral. If you wish to join us you can get a pdf of the book by requesting
it from kachelme@gmail.com.

Subsequent readings will include:
Jan Rychlewski, ‘The origins of Newton’s mechanics. mass, force, and gravity’
Sandro Caparrini and Craig Fraser, ‘Mechanics in the Eighteenth Century’
Helmut Pulte, ‘Jacobi’s Criticism of Lagrange: The Changing Role of Mathematics. If you need a copy of the Janiak or Ducheyne articles send a note to [kacheolme@gmail.com](mailto:kacheolme@gmail.com) with Janiak Ducheyne in the subject line.