huygens
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Lever + Free Fall = Kinetic Energy
The creation (discovery?) of kinetic energy was a major step toward the creation of energy itself. It’s a pretty straight-forward concept: K.E. = ½ mv2 But how kinetic energy arrived wasn’t so straight-forward. The lever: weight x change in vertical height In their study of the lever, the Ancient Greeks identified the importance of the… Continue reading
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Newton: On whose shoulders did he stand?
No Newton, no Principia. That much is clear. But did Newton do it alone? He was naturally exposed to the ideas of such predecessors as Descartes and Galileo and such contemporaries as Leibniz and Huygens. That this collective influenced Newton is reflected in his own writing, “If I have seen further it is by standing… Continue reading
Block by Block – The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics. “Hanlon has written a masterpiece.” – Mike Pauken, Senior Engineer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and author of Thermodynamics for Dummies
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About Me
Hi! I’m Bob Hanlon. After earning my Sc.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and enjoying a long career in both industry and academia, I’ve returned to school, my own self-guided school, seeking to better understand the world of thermodynamics. Please join me on my journey.
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