Customer Reviews

Absolute or Relative Motion?: Volume 1, The Discovery of Dynamics: A Study from a Machian Point of View of the Discovery and the Structure of Dynamical Theories

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Has no competitor in sight in the field. Nowhere else can you, e.g., find out what Huyghens and Descartes did, and also what Galileo and Copernicus really did, and in such clear, concise language. Reads like a good novel! Also im[portant: the author does not at all color his treatment of the history of mechanics by 'cheerleading' for Mach.

Julian B. Barbour did an excellent job. His overview of the history of celestial ans terrestrial mechanics is really a must have. But I noticed he often uses a kind of sketchy reconstruction. For example what he says about Huygens who did not succeed in creating the very notions of a modern dynamics. This is true, but in the case of Huygens there are strong philosophical reasons for that. Huygens did NOT want to use dynamical concepts. So what is pictured here as a failure seems to be more complex. On that point, JB Barbour follows Richard Westfall. Both, in my opinion, are wrong. Anyway : one must have the book. As I said, it's a masterpiece.