Re: Late 17th-century physics question

srp@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Front Office a écrit :


srp@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Front Office a écrit :



Isaac Newton's Universal Gravitation was maligned during his life
as "invoking occult agencies" because of its force-at-a-distance
aspect.


Actually, the point that was more specifically maligned was the
"instantaneity" of the force-at-a-distance that underlies his theory.



In those days, force was considered to be conveyed ONLY by
actual physical contact between material bodies.


He was the first indeed to postulate a force acting without a
physical medium being the vehicle. At the time, it was still
unclarified whether or not vacuum involved a possibly carrier
underlying medium or not.



Does anyone know how the forces associated with magnetism
and electricity were explained in those days?


They were unknown at the time. Coulomb, for example who
measured the electrostatic force came much later. Then
came Faraday for magnetic force and Maxwell who synthesized
the work of Ampere, Gauss, Coulomb and Faraday.

What do you mean? Magnetic force was evident in the action
of compasses and lodestone, and electrostatic force could
do the usual little tricks of attacking hair and pieces of paper.
Descartes must have tried to explain those forces.


Yes. Known and documented as existing since the Greek,
but not measured nor really theorized about.

André Michaud


Thank you, André. Your statement is consistent with my
unproductive search on the topic.

b

.

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