À propos de l’ouvrage d’Helmholtz Über die Erhaltung der Kraft sur un principe limité de la conservation de l’énergie

Abstract

Wihtout a doubt, Helmholtz’s Conservation of force constitutes a text announcing the conservation of energy as it is shown both in the introduction of the potential concept and in the high degree of generalization of this principle. However, this later principle has a number of limits — loss and heat status, mathematical formulation — preventing the formulation of total energy concept from happening. Consequently, it is the mechanical energy that is worth to be read in Helmholtz’s text. Significantly, those limits testify to the attachments of the scientist to a conservative mechanics that gives a complete account of the seminal principle of this theory (impossiblity to achieve a perpetual movement) and which are futhermore consistent with Helmholtz’s work in physiology.