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Article ID: CBB798989206

Ballistics, Fluid Mechanics, and Air Resistance at Gâvre, 1829–1915 (2017)

Aubin, David (Author)

Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Volume: 71
Issue: 6
Pages: 509-542
Publication date: 2017
Language: English

DOI: 10.1007/s00407-017-0195-6

URI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00407-017-0195-6

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Mechanical engineering Fluid mechanics Projectile motion Technology and war; technology and the military Ballistics 20th century, early 19th century France

In this paper, we investigate the way in which French artillery engineers met the challenge of air drag in the nineteenth century. This problem was especially acute following the development of rifled barrels, when projectile initial velocities reached values much higher than the speed of sound in air. In these circumstances, the Newtonian approximation according to which the drag was a force proportional to the square of the velocity (\(v^2\)) was not nearly good enough to account for experimental results. This prompted a series of theoretical and experimental investigations aimed at determining the correct law of air resistance. Throughout the nineteenth century, contrary to what happened before or after, ballistician were—with very rare exceptions—alone in trying to tackle the problem of air resistance. This was a complex problem where theoretical considerations, experimental results, and computational algorithms intermingled with one another, as well as with the development of new materials and doctrine in artillery. By carefully studying the reasons why ballisticians finally opted for a complex empirical law at the end of the nineteenth century, we show that military procedures for evaluating materials became a yardstick for assessing the worth of mathematical theories as well. In conclusion, we try to assess why military specialists were not able to face the challenges posed by World War I and required the help of civilian scientists and mathematicians.

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