From τὰ φυσικά (ta physika) to physics – LXIV

1023 days ago, I posted the first episode of this series tracking the development of physics from Aristotle’s τὰ φυσικά to the point where the term physics began to be used. Now in the sixty-fourth episode we have finally reached our destination. In that first episode I took a look at the term physics its origins in Aristotle’s Greek and how it changed down the centuries until it first emerged with its modern meaning in 1715. Although there is no link, the emergence of the term physics in its modern meaning is with certainty related to the publication of Newton’s Principia. Of course, Newton’s tome proudly contains the term Philosophiæ Naturalis (Natural Philosphy) in its title but it’s the other half of the title that is new Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principals). For Aristotle ta physika, the description of nature, could never be mathematical. Numbers are not natural object so, cannot be used to describe nature. Mathematics was confined to the so called mixed or subordinate…