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drowning bunnies asked:


-historical background relating to energy conservation of newton’s cradle?

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One Response to “What is the historical background relating to energy conservation of newton’s cradle?”

1. Dr. C Says:
   December 12th, 2007 at 10:04 am

   If you are referring to who first devised the ball and pendulum design of the Newton’s Cradle, it was a French physicist named Abbé Mariotte in the 1600’s.

   If you mean to ask when the device was used to demonstrate energy conservation…. The concept of energy was first developed in the late 1600’s. The term energy was not actually used until 1807. Although Leibniz and Newton believed energy was conserved, it was not shown that energy was a conserved quantity until 1918.

   Up until that point, some people may have talked about the dissipation of the motion of the balls. Then again, the things really weren’t all that popular until the 1960’s, at which point their use as a demonstration tool was adopted sporadically, and without any coherence.

   It is not possible to identify the person who first used one for classroom demonstrations, nor is it possible to identify who first discussed the conservation of energy while using one. It just sort of happened as the things became popular, and it most likely happened after 1967. For some centuries before then, the occasional lecturer would use one to demonstrate Newton’s Laws, which are based on the conservation of momentum, not energy.