The New Science Is Given a Name: Kinematics

It was AmpèreAmpèreAndré-Marie who around 1830 coined the word kinematics for a new subscience of mechanics devoted to the study of motion without taking masses and forces into consideration. The first book on kinematics of mechanisms was written by the Englishman Robert WillisWillisRobert and called Principles of Mechanism. It appeared in 1841. The first book on theoretical kinematics was written by Henri RésalRésalHenri and called Traité de cinématique pure. It appeared in 1862. In this chapter we discuss the background of Ampère’sAmpèreAndré-Marie proposal and the books by Willis and Résal. We also briefly discuss the idea of reducing theoretical mechanics to kinematics with dynamics in a supporting role.