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Abstract
Mechanics is the integral part of mechanical engineering. As a field of education, it started from the time of Aristotle. Many of the concepts provided by Aristotle are proven wrong, for example, his concept that the motion continues only as long as a force is applied on it. However, he started a tradition of logic in understanding the dynamics of bodies. During the third century BC, Archimedes contributed a lot to mechanics and invented many machines. His principle of buoyancy is taught in schools nowadays. The breakthrough in mechanics came since the time of Galileo. The principles of Galileo and Newton are used by mechanical engineers profoundly. Later on, a lot of developments took place in mechanics, notably the development of methods based on energy formulation, strength of materials and plasticity. Einstein developed a theory of relativity and established that Newton’s laws are not valid in all circumstances. Nevertheless, for the most of the day to day applications, Newton’s laws are good enough.
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Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, India
Uday Shanker Dixit
Assam Engineering College, Guwahati, Assam, India
Manjuri Hazarika
Campus Santiago, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
J. Paulo Davim
- Uday Shanker Dixit
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- Manjuri Hazarika
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- J. Paulo Davim
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Correspondence toUday Shanker Dixit.
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Dixit, U.S., Hazarika, M., Davim, J.P. (2017). History of Mechanics. In: A Brief History of Mechanical Engineering. Materials Forming, Machining and Tribology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42916-8_3
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