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Officialrecognizedgeometrydidnotincludekinematiccurves,suchas
spirals,epicycloids,andsoon.Thesecurveswereknownbutinsistedonthe
righttoexist.ArchytasfromTarentumshowedbyakinematicconstruction
howtosolvetheproblemofdoublingacube.ButPlatodidnotrecognizehis
solution.Inhisview,theonlyadmissiblegeometricconstructionswererulerand
compassconstructions.Archytastriedtodebatethisviewbutthedebatelost.
Therearemanyauthors1includingthePolishpoetNorwid91whotook
sidewithArchytas,therepresentativeofappliedmathematics.Inourdelibera-
tionswewillseldomtakePlato3sside,butinhisargumentwithArchytaswe
sayhewasright.Granted,hisviewswereattimesextremelyarbitrary,butin
fightingArchytashewastryingtosavemathematicsfrombeingreducedtoan
experimentalscience.AristotletooalwaystookPlato3ssideinthismatter,in
spiteofthefactthathelateropposedmanyofPlato3sviews,includingsome
ofhismathematicalviews.
Thusthescienceofmotionremainedoutsidemathematics.Itwas,inciden-
tally,partofamoregeneralscienceofchangeand,moregenerally,onincrease
anddecrease.Butinanarrowersensethischangewasmotion;itwaschange
thatconsistedofchangeofplace;abodywasshiftingfromonelocationto
another.
Onecouldtalkonspeed.Forexample,onecouldsaythatabodymoved
twiceasfastasanotherbody.Thismeantthatitcoveredtwicethedistance
coveredinthesametimebytheslowerbody.Butspeedwasviewedasastate
ofmotion,asacharacteristicwhichhasduration.
AristotlestatedinPhysicsthat“allmotionlastsforacertaintime.”Thiswas
anaturalconsequenceoftherecognitionofZeno3sdifficulty.Aristotle3ssystem
couldnotaccommodatethemotionofspeedatacertainmoment,thebasisof
ourcontemporaryapproaches.Butinspiteofthemodestmeansheadopted,
hewasabletocreateascienceofmotion.Hissciencewaslatercriticizedbut
ithasthecharacteristicofscientifictheory1itwassystematic.
InAristotle3ssystemtheconnectionbetweenmotionandforcewasdifferent
fromtheoneweadopt.Weadmitthenotionofvacuum,anditismotionin
avacuumwedescribemathematically.Startingwithadescriptionofsuchan
idealizedmotionweemploycertainmodificationsandobtainthedescription
ofrealmotionsinresistingmedia,suchaswaterandair.
AvacuumasaphenomenonwasunknowninAristotle3stime.Allobserved
motionsalwaystookplaceinacertainenvironment.Infact,itseemedthat
9CyprianKamilNorwid,PlatoiArchita.InDziełaWybrane[SelectedPoems],t.1.
Wrocław1968,p.270.
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