Fundamental Measurement of Force and Newton's First and Second Laws of Motion
- 1 December 1973
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Philosophy of Science
- Vol. 40 (4) , 481-495
- https://doi.org/10.1086/288560
Abstract
The measurement of force is based on a formal law of additivity, which characterizes the effects of two or more configurations on the equilibrium of a material point. The representing vectors (resultant forces) are additive over configurations. The existence of a tight interrelation between the force vector and the geometric space, in which motion is described, depends on observations of partial (directional) equilibria; an axiomatization of this interrelation yields a proof of part two of Newton's second law of motion.The present results (which were derived from a curious and deep isomorphism between force measurement and trichromatic color measurement) yield a kind of subunit, which needs to be incorporated into more complete axiomatizations of mechanics that would fulfill the Mach–Kirchhoff program.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Axiomatization of Physical TheoriesPhilosophy of Science, 1970
- A “Fundamental” Axiomatization of Multiplicative Power Relations Among Three VariablesPhilosophy of Science, 1965