Conveners
Early modern Physics and astronomy
- Lucio Fregonese (Dipartimento di Fisica - Università di Pavia)
The Florentine Accademia del Cimento (1657-1667) was the first European academy of the Modern Era: its motto, “Provando e riprovando”, embodies the choice to put experimentalism at the core of the ten-year activity. From 1657 to 1667, the academicians carried out hundreds of experiments (during more than 600 academic sessions): while pneumatics and thermology were the predominant research...
What do a Neapolitan lawyer, a famous Italian astronomer, a Scottish instrument maker, the greatest French writer of adventure novels and a curious Belgian journalist have in common? Perhaps it may be surprising to discover that they all are main characters of a story concerning the mysterious satellite of Venus. And if the attentive reader must have immediately (and correctly) thought “But...
Generally, three scientists in the 17th century are associated to the concept of inertia: Galileo, Descartes and Newton. However, Christiaan Huygens developed a profound reflection on this fundamental notion. The Dutch scientist developed a train of thought which is less direct and clear than Newton’s, but not less interesting. The literature on Huygens’ concept of inertia is by far less...
