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Stefan Kirschner

LOCATION: Munchen (Munich), Germany


Assistant, Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, University of Munich.

Primary Contributions (1)
Merton acceleration theoremDiscovered in the 1330s by mathematicians at Merton College, Oxford, the theorem asserts that the distance an object moves under uniform acceleration is equal to the width of the time interval multiplied by its velocity at the midpoint of the interval (its mean speed). The figure shows Nicholas Oresme’s graphical proof (c. 1361) that the area under the plotted line for motion (in blue) is equal to the area of the rectangle with width and height equal to the time interval and the mean speed, respectively.
French Roman Catholic bishop, scholastic philosopher, economist, and mathematician whose work provided some basis for the development of modern mathematics and science and of French prose, particularly its scientific vocabulary. It is known that Oresme was of Norman origin, although the exact place and year of his birth are uncertain. Similarly, the details of his early education are unknown. In 1348 his name appears on a list of graduate scholarship holders in theology at the College of Navarre at the University of Paris. As Oresme became grand master of the college in 1356, he must have completed his doctorate in theology before this date. Oresme was appointed canon (1362) and dean (1364) of the Cathedral of Rouen and also canon at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris (1363). From about 1370, at the behest of King Charles V of France, Oresme translated Aristotle ’s Ethics, Politics, and On the Heavens, as well as the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics, from Latin into French. His effect on the...
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