The Mechanical Sciences in Antiquity

Book excerpt: The origin of the mechanical sciences can be traced to the studies of Aristotle and Archimedes, who set forth the principles that are the basis of mechanics. However, development in successive centuries advanced but slowly, with notable progress made during the Middle Ages, and would find its complete formal development and linguistic expression only in the Renaissance.The use of elementary static systems followed different courses, tied more to empiricism and constructive technologies than to theoretical science, resolving the problems that were mentioned from time to time by the architects and builders of antiquity. Such problems, formulated from the constructive practices of architecture and by the machines for building, were resolved using those very mechanical devices that are at the basis of the discipline, without a precise knowledge of their general semantic value, but rather with a awareness of statics and constructive empiricism that validated the choices made on the building site.