The wedge and the vis viva controversy: how concepts of force influenced the practice of early eighteenth-century mechanics (Q524416)

This paper shows how difficult it was to reach consensus on the notion of force in the eighteenth century. Leibnizian and Newtonians vehemently disagreed. This paper shows that the different attempts to determine the mechanical advantage of the wedge illustrate that the conflict had substance: basically only those who followed Leibniz succeeded. Much earlier Descartes and Wallis had given the correct answer but their approach to the wedge was not generally accepted. The difficulties were not only theoretical. Executing a good experiment was not easy either. The author discusses the mathematical approach to the wedge by La Hire and by Varignon. He describes the experiments by Francis Hauksbee and William Whiston. Then, he discusses the work of Willem Jacob 's Gravesande. After the controversy had started s' Gravesande was the first to get the correct solution. The author continues with J. T. Desaguliers' views on the wedge, Petrus van Musschenbroek's treatment of the problem and the experiments by Jean Antoine Nollet. Moreover, the author argues that the discussion of the problem in the Geneva edition of the \textit{Principia} (1739--1742) was written by Jean-Louis Calandrini, who tried to reconcile the two approaches. Calandrini got the right answer.