A física de Helmholtz e suas bases filósoficas

Abstract

After a shorl biography of Hemian von Helmholtz we discuss his famous article of 1847 where he introduced the priniple of energy conservation. ln this analysis, we clarify how this work corresponds to Helmholtz's fater "research program ': where he defended a new basis for classical mechanics: this new basis was ana/ytical mechanics. As conclusion, we suggest that, at the end of his life, Helmholtz gave up some ideas of his own work of 1847 and adopted some conceptions due to Duhem.