First peerson to define work as W = F d.

carvajal57 · Nov 23, 2009

Please, can someone tell me who was the first person to define work as we currently use, that is, W = F d? Thank you.

mc

arildno · Nov 23, 2009

carvajal57 said:

Please, can someone tell me who was the first person to define work as we currently use, that is, W = F d? Thank you.

mc

According the article below, it was Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis (1792-1843) who:
"The modern statement: "work is force times path" is due to French physicist Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis,[1] who gave the correct formula for change in kinetic energy associated with work[/quote]
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Work_(Physics)

The acclaimed website, MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/

has the following biography on him:
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Coriolis.html

arildno · Nov 24, 2009

From the MacTutor biography, we learn of an article from 1984 that examines in detail the relative contributions of Poncelet, Navier and Coriolis to the concept of "work":

"I Grattan-Guinness, Work for the workers : advances in engineering mechanics and instruction in France, 1800-1830, Ann. of Sci. 41 (1) (1984), 1-33."

First peerson to define work as W = F d.

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First peerson to define work as W = F d.

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