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De Beghinselen der Weeghconst (lit. "The Principles of the Art of Weighing") is a book about statics written by the Flemish physicist Simon Stevin in Dutch. It was published in 1586 in a single volume with De Weeghdaet (lit. "The Act of Weighing"), De Beghinselen des Waterwichts ("The Principles of Hydrostatics") and an Anhang (an appendix). [1] In 1605, there was another edition.
The importance of the book was summarized by the Encyclopædia Britannica : [2]
In De Beghinselen der Weeghconst (1586; “Statics and Hydrostatics”) Stevin published the theorem of the triangle of forces. The knowledge of this triangle of forces, equivalent to the parallelogram diagram of forces, gave a new impetus to the study of statics, which had previously been founded on the theory of the lever. He also discovered that the downward pressure of a liquid is independent of the shape of its vessel and depends only on its height and base.
The first part consists of two books, together account for 95 pages, here divided into 10 pieces.
Start: panegyrics, Mission to Rudolf II, Uytspraeck Vande Weerdicheyt of Duytsche Tael, Cortbegryp Bepalinghen and Begheerten (definitions and assumptions)
Statics is the branch of classical mechanics that is concerned with the analysis of force and torque (also called moment) acting on physical systems that do not experience an acceleration (a=0), but rather, are in static equilibrium with their environment. The application of Newton's second law to a system gives:
In fluid mechanics, hydrostatic equilibrium is the condition of a fluid or plastic solid at rest, which occurs when external forces, such as gravity, are balanced by a pressure-gradient force. In the planetary physics of Earth, the pressure-gradient force prevents gravity from collapsing the planetary atmosphere into a thin, dense shell, whereas gravity prevents the pressure-gradient force from diffusing the atmosphere into outer space.
Simon Stevin, sometimes called Stevinus, was a Flemish mathematician, scientist and music theorist. He made various contributions in many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. He also translated various mathematical terms into Dutch, making it one of the few European languages in which the word for mathematics, wiskunde, was not a loanword from Greek but a calque via Latin. He also replaced the word chemie, the Dutch for chemistry, by scheikunde, made in analogy with wiskunde.
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may be applied to cause a linear acceleration without an angular acceleration. Calculations in mechanics are often simplified when formulated with respect to the center of mass. It is a hypothetical point where the entire mass of an object may be assumed to be concentrated to visualise its motion. In other words, the center of mass is the particle equivalent of a given object for application of Newton's laws of motion.
Capillary action is the process of a liquid flowing in a narrow space without the assistance of, or even in opposition to, any external forces like gravity. The effect can be seen in the drawing up of liquids between the hairs of a paint-brush, in a thin tube, in porous materials such as paper and plaster, in some non-porous materials such as sand and liquefied carbon fiber, or in a biological cell. It occurs because of intermolecular forces between the liquid and surrounding solid surfaces. If the diameter of the tube is sufficiently small, then the combination of surface tension and adhesive forces between the liquid and container wall act to propel the liquid.
In physics, a moment is a mathematical expression involving the product of a distance and physical quantity. Moments are usually defined with respect to a fixed reference point and refer to physical quantities located some distance from the reference point. In this way, the moment accounts for the quantity's location or arrangement. For example, the moment of force, often called torque, is the product of a force on an object and the distance from the reference point to the object. In principle, any physical quantity can be multiplied by a distance to produce a moment. Commonly used quantities include forces, masses, and electric charge distributions.
Archimedes' principle states that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces. Archimedes' principle is a law of physics fundamental to fluid mechanics. It was formulated by Archimedes of Syracuse.
Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body "fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an immersed body".
In the theory of general relativity, the equivalence principle is the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass, and Albert Einstein's observation that the gravitational "force" as experienced locally while standing on a massive body is the same as the pseudo-force experienced by an observer in a non-inertial (accelerated) frame of reference.
Clairaut's theorem characterizes the surface gravity on a viscous rotating ellipsoid in hydrostatic equilibrium under the action of its gravitational field and centrifugal force. It was published in 1743 by Alexis Claude Clairaut in a treatise which synthesized physical and geodetic evidence that the Earth is an oblate rotational ellipsoid. It was initially used to relate the gravity at any point on the Earth's surface to the position of that point, allowing the ellipticity of the Earth to be calculated from measurements of gravity at different latitudes. Today it has been largely supplanted by the Somigliana equation.
The study of fluid mechanics, a branch of physics that studies the movement of fluids and the forces that act upon them, dates back to pre-history. The Ancient Greeks developed many of the basics of the field, while most concepts and theories used in modern physics were discovered in 17th and 18th century Europe.
Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids and the forces on them. It has applications in a wide range of disciplines, including mechanical, aerospace, civil, chemical and biomedical engineering, geophysics, oceanography, meteorology, astrophysics, and biology.
Jordanus de Nemore, also known as Jordanus Nemorarius and Giordano of Nemi, was a thirteenth-century European mathematician and scientist. The literal translation of Jordanus de Nemore would indicate that he was an Italian. He wrote treatises on at least 6 different important mathematical subjects: the science of weights; “algorismi” treatises on practical arithmetic; pure arithmetic; algebra; geometry; and stereographic projection. Most of these treatises exist in several versions or reworkings from the Middle Ages. We know nothing about him personally, other than the approximate date of his work.
Between 1589 and 1592, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped two spheres of the same volume but different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that their time of descent was independent of their mass, according to a biography by Galileo's pupil Vincenzo Viviani, composed in 1654 and published in 1717. The basic premise had already been demonstrated by Italian experimenters a few decades earlier.
The year 1586 in science and technology included a number of events, some of which are listed here.
Vertical pressure variation is the variation in pressure as a function of elevation. Depending on the fluid in question and the context being referred to, it may also vary significantly in dimensions perpendicular to elevation as well, and these variations have relevance in the context of pressure gradient force and its effects. However, the vertical variation is especially significant, as it results from the pull of gravity on the fluid; namely, for the same given fluid, a decrease in elevation within it corresponds to a taller column of fluid weighing down on that point.
De Thiende, published in 1585 in the Dutch language by Simon Stevin, is remembered for extending positional notation to the use of decimals to represent fractions. A French version, La Disme, was issued the same year by Stevin.
On Floating Bodies is a Greek-language work consisting of two books written by Archimedes of Syracuse, one of the most important mathematicians, physicists, and engineers of antiquity. On Floating Bodies, which is thought to have been written around 250 BC, survives only partly in Greek, the rest in medieval Latin translation from the Greek. It is the first known work on hydrostatics, of which Archimedes is recognized as the founder.
On the Equilibrium of Planes is a treatise by Archimedes in two volumes. The first book contains a proof of the law of the lever and culminates with propositions on the centre of gravity of the triangle and the trapezium. The second book, which contains ten propositions, examines the centres of gravity of parabolic segments.
In 1586, scientists Simon Stevin and Jan Cornets de Groot conducted an early scientific experiment on the effects of gravity. The experiment, which established that objects of identical size and different mass fall at the same speed, was conducted by dropping lead balls from the Nieuwe Kerk in the Dutch city of Delft. The experiment is considered a foundational moment in the history of statics, which Stevin's work helped to codify.