Tour audio Hall: Mechanics

"Physical mechanics" is the discipline that studies the fundamental laws of mechanics, without dealing directly with their possible practical applications.

In this section, therefore, tools can be found that show or explain phenomena such as the fall of bodies, friction, the combination of forces, rotational motions, elasticity, impacts, etc.

Many instruments of physical mechanics were conceived from the beginning of the 17th century, and some of them derive from the famous experiments carried out by Galileo.

They allowed illustrating the laws of mechanics in a purely phenomenological way, without resorting to the use of mathematics and geometry.

The tools that proved to be particularly effective for teaching, like Morine's machine, were constantly re-proposed, with few adjustments, until the first decades of the twentieth century.

In physical mechanics, the so-called "simple machines" are also contemplated, like the lever, the wedge, the inclined plane, the winch, the screw and the pulley that were known and applied since ancient times. These cannot be broken down into elements that can, in turn, be used as machines.

There are also various devices for rotation motions. One of them, equipped with numerous accessories, makes it possible to repeat the demonstration of Foucault's pendulum, as well as other experiments on the effects of centrifugal force.

In the physical mechanic's section, there are also some simple tools called because they showed apparently illogical and amazing phenomena.

Among them there are, for example, some solids such as cylinders or spheres that do not descend along an inclined plane but remain on it simply because inside them a ballast that prevents rotation is hidden.

Another example is represented by the "salient double cone" which, apparently, seems to go up a sloping frame defying the law of gravity.