The history of mechanics is one of the most important branches of the history of science. From earliest times man has sought to develop tools that would enable him to add to his power of action or to defend himself against the dangers threatening him. Thus he was unconsciously led to consider the problems of mechanics. So we see the first scholars of ancient times thinking about these problems and arriving more or less successfully at a solution. The motion of the stars which, from the Chaldean shepherds to the great Greek and Hellenistic astronomers, was one of the first preoccupations of human thought, led to the discovery of the true laws of dynamics. As is well known, although the principles of statics had been correctly presented by the old scholars those of dynamics, obscured by the false conceptions of the aristotelian school, did not begin to see light until the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era.
