André-Marie Ampère was always a staunch supporter of Newton's Third Law, and for this reason, opposed theories put forward by Jean-Baptiste Biot, Michael Faraday and Hermann Graßmann. For example, in response to a letter addressed to him in 1822 by Faraday, Ampère wrote:
A fundamental and obvious principle of physics is that, the action always being equal to the reaction, it is impossible that a rigid system be put in motion in any way by a mutual action between two of its particles, as this action produces on the two particles two equal and opposite forces which tend to move the body in opposite senses. It then follows that, when the particles of a magnet traversed by an electric current which puts them in the same state of the conducting wire act on the pole or on any other part of the magnet, no motion in this body can result from this action, [...]
From this observation, the rotation of a floating magnet around its axis can only be explained as I did in the memoir included in the May issue of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, which I sent to you recently.
Interesting. I've heard Assis speak and didn't realize he'd written some books. I've ordered this one. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll have much more to say about Ampère in a few weeks.
When did Physics separate from Biology? Did anyone ever try and draw a distinction? Galileo?
Is Newton the beginning of a "Scientific" assumption or belief that all of the universe operates mechanically?
I think a better narrative is that they were distinct fields that only over time began to be connected though their respective conceptual growth.
André-Marie Ampère was always a staunch supporter of Newton's Third Law, and for this reason, opposed theories put forward by Jean-Baptiste Biot, Michael Faraday and Hermann Graßmann. For example, in response to a letter addressed to him in 1822 by Faraday, Ampère wrote:
A fundamental and obvious principle of physics is that, the action always being equal to the reaction, it is impossible that a rigid system be put in motion in any way by a mutual action between two of its particles, as this action produces on the two particles two equal and opposite forces which tend to move the body in opposite senses. It then follows that, when the particles of a magnet traversed by an electric current which puts them in the same state of the conducting wire act on the pole or on any other part of the magnet, no motion in this body can result from this action, [...]
From this observation, the rotation of a floating magnet around its axis can only be explained as I did in the memoir included in the May issue of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, which I sent to you recently.
A.K.T. Assis and J.P.M.C. Chaib, Ampère's Electrodynamics, Montreal: Apeiron, 2015, p.271.
Interesting. I've heard Assis speak and didn't realize he'd written some books. I've ordered this one. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll have much more to say about Ampère in a few weeks.
André Assis organized translations of Coulomb, Ampère and Weber. Please see my post below.
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnplaice/p/english-translations-of-coulomb-ampere