Contributions to Dynamics - China

[JTC]

Hello,

To ensconce this question properly, we know that some of the major contributions to the discipline of rigid body and classical particle dynamics came from: Newton, Euler, Hamilton, Lagrange and so on... (no need to suggest other western names right now - I am aware of them).

However I am searching for contributors from China (long story, would rather not go into it).

Can you suggest some names? I am not interested in who did what first. I just would like to expand the list with contributions from China.

Also, in this particular case, I am looking for Chinese contributors exclusively -- yes, I am aware there are contributors from India, Middle East, etc. But my focus is China.

 

[Andrew Mason]

Yang Chen-Ning and Tsung-Dao Lee were the first Chinese physicists to win the Nobel Prize (1957). Going back to Newton's time there was Song Yingxing who was a natural philosopher type who developed theories about space and cosmology. Going back a thousand years, Shen Kuo, astronomer and physicist charted stars, studied magnetism and made the first compass. A contemporary of Shen Kuo were astronomers Su Song and Wei Pu. 1000 years before that there were Chinese engineers and astronomers such as Zu Chongzhi, Zhang Heng, Zhang Sixun. Imagine what might have developed if these scientists had been able to communicate with the Middle East and Europe ...

AM