Stevin's thought experiment
The Stevin's thought experiment is named after its author , the Flemish physicist Simon Stevin (1548–1620), who published it around 1605 to explain the balance of forces on inclined planes. It is of historical significance because it represents the first known thought experiment with which a knowledge gain could be achieved in a natural science.
Stevin gave his book Hypomnemata mathematica on this subject the Dutch phrase:
WONDER EN IS GHEEN WONDER ( wonder is no wonder ).
The diagram for the thought experiment was also on Stevin's tombstone.
Explanation
A closed ball chain lies on a triangle with two inclined planes of different inclination . Experience teaches that the chain does not rotate by itself if it is not pushed. Otherwise the device would be a perpetual motion machine , which Stevin thought was impossible and, according to today's view , is excluded due to the conservation of energy . Since the lower part of the chain hangs symmetrically under the triangle, it can be removed without disturbing the balance of the remaining chain. It follows directly from this that the weights of the chains on the two inclined planes behave in exactly the same way as the lengths of the two sides. It also follows that the two forces to the right and to the left at the vertex of the chain are equal in magnitude.
literature
- Bergmann-Schaefer: Textbook of Experimental Physics - Volume I - Mechanics, Acoustics, Warmth , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 9th edition 1974, Chapter II, 61f
- Feynman, Richard P .: The Feynman Lectures on Physics - Volume 1 ,, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1963, Chapter 4
Individual evidence
- ^ Julian Nida-Rümelin (editor): Rationality, Realism, Revision , Thought Experiments in Epistemology and Physics , page 461, Society for Analytical Philosophy, Walter de Gruyter, 2000, ISBN 9783110163933
- ↑ Nobel laureate Richard Feynman comments in his lectures on physics: If you are getting a diagram like this on your gravestone, you are doing fine