27 lives in this collection worked in mechanics, from 428 BC to today. Each has a full course on their life and the mathematics and physics they made.
Often together with: geometry, natural philosophy, astronomy, optics, algebra, analysis, number theory, philosophy, calculus, calculus of variations. All fields
Pythagorean mathematician and general of Tarentum who defined the three musical means, proved that superparticular ratios have no mean proportional, and gave the first solution of the doubling of the cube.
geometry, theory of proportion, music theory
Greek geometer of Syracuse who measured areas and volumes of curved figures by exhaustion and founded statics and hydrostatics.
geometry, mechanics, hydrostatics
Alexandrian geometer whose Mathematical Collection preserved much of Greek geometry and contains the hexagon theorem, the cross-ratio lemma and the centroid rule for solids of revolution.
geometry, projective geometry, mechanics
Alexandrian Christian commentator on Aristotle who proposed an impressed force for projectiles, argued that falling times barely depend on weight, defined place as extension, denied the aether, and argued from the infinite that the world had a beginning.
natural philosophy, mechanics, cosmology
Persian physician and philosopher whose Book of the Cure recast Aristotelian physics, including a theory of imparted inclination (mayl) for projectiles, and whose Canon of Medicine organized medicine as a science and was taught in Europe for five centuries.
natural philosophy, medicine, logic
Paris arts master who named and developed the theory of impetus, a motive power growing with quantity of matter and speed, weighed the daily rotation of the Earth, and wrote the most widely taught nominalist logic of the late Middle Ages.
natural philosophy, mechanics, logic
Self-taught Venetian abacus master who independently found the solution of the cubic in 1535, founded mathematical ballistics, and made the first translation of Euclid's Elements into a modern European language.
algebra, ballistics, mechanics
Renaissance physician and polymath whose Ars Magna published the solutions of the cubic and quartic and the first computations with square roots of negative numbers, and who wrote the first book on the mathematics of chance.
algebra, probability theory, medicine
Founder of the mathematical science of motion and of telescopic astronomy, condemned by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 for defending the Copernican system.
mechanics, astronomy, strength of materials
Minim friar who established the laws of the vibrating string, gave his name to the primes 2^p − 1, and ran the correspondence network at the centre of European science in the 1630s and 1640s.
acoustics, music theory, number theory
Philosopher and mathematician who joined algebra to geometry, published the sine law of refraction and the theory of the rainbow, and built a mechanical physics of inertia and vortices.
analytic geometry, algebra, optics
Holder of the Ramus chair at the Collège Royal who squared the cycloid, drew tangents by composing motions, integrated powers and the sine, and invented the Roberval balance.
geometry, method of indivisibles, kinematic geometry
Galileo's successor at the Medici court who invented the mercury barometer, found the law of efflux, and showed that an infinitely long solid can have finite volume.
geometry, mechanics, hydrodynamics
Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford whose Arithmetica infinitorum extended quadrature to fractional powers, gave the infinite product for π and led Newton to the binomial series.
analysis, infinitesimal methods, number theory
Dutch mathematician and physicist who invented the pendulum clock, discovered Titan and the ring of Saturn, founded probability theory in print and proposed the wave theory of light.
mechanics, optics, astronomy
English mathematician and astronomer who rectified the cycloid, stated the law of elastic collision and proved the hyperboloid ruled, then became the architect of St Paul's Cathedral and of London rebuilt after the Great Fire.
geometry, astronomy, mechanics
Author of the laws of motion and universal gravitation in the Principia, co-inventor of the calculus, and founder of the modern theory of colours.
mechanics, gravitation, calculus
Basel mathematician who developed and taught Leibniz's calculus, posed the brachistochrone problem and taught Leonhard Euler.
calculus, differential equations, calculus of variations
French mathematician and philosopher who led the Lapland expedition that showed the Earth is oblate, proposed the principle of least action, and presided over the Berlin Academy.
geodesy, mechanics, variational principles
Natural philosopher who defended Leibniz's vis viva, wrote the Institutions de physique and produced the only complete French translation of Newton's Principia.
natural philosophy, mechanics, mathematics
The most prolific mathematician in history, who shaped modern analysis and notation, founded graph theory, and wrote the equations of rigid bodies and ideal fluids.
analysis, number theory, graph theory
French mathematician and philosopher who founded dynamics on d'Alembert's principle, solved the wave equation, and co-edited the Encyclopédie.
mechanics, partial differential equations, fluid dynamics
Engineer, geometer and revolutionary statesman who founded the theory of machines, proved the law of energy loss in inelastic shocks, and organized the armies of the French Republic.
mechanics, geometry, foundations of calculus
Engineer and mathematician who gave work and kinetic energy their modern definitions and derived the compound centrifugal force, now called the Coriolis force, in rotating frames.
mechanics, engineering, mathematical physics
Experimental physicist who demonstrated the Earth's rotation with his pendulum and gyroscope, showed that light is slower in water than in air, measured the speed of light in the laboratory, discovered eddy-current heating, and created the silvered-glass reflecting telescope and the knife-edge test.
experimental physics, optics, mechanics
First woman to earn a modern doctorate in mathematics and to hold a full chair, known for the Cauchy–Kovalevskaya theorem and the integrable Kovalevskaya top.
partial differential equations, mechanics, abelian functions
Experimental physicist who produced and detected electromagnetic waves, confirming Maxwell's theory, and founded the theory of elastic contact.
electromagnetism, contact mechanics, mechanics