A history of non-holonomic constraints
Heinrich Hertz was not the first to introduce non-holonomic constraints into mechanics, but his careful distinction between holonomic and non-holonomic constraints in his book Principles of Mechanics influenced the general history of that discipline. This chapter provides a brief history of non-holonomic constraints and Hertz's place in it. The immediate reaction to Hertz's book is first discussed, and a general overview of the very messy history of repeated independent mistakes, rejections, and rescues is then presented. Hertz derived various integral principles such as the principle of least action and Hamilton's principle for holonomic conservative systems, but concluded that these principles are invalid for non-holonomic systems. This had devastating effects on the energetic image because it meant that its fundamental law, Hamilton's principle, was, in fact, incorrect for a wide variety of mechanical systems. This was one of Hertz's major reasons for rejecting that image. The situation called for an immediate rescue operation. The operation was led by the mathematician Otto Hölder.
Keywords: non-holonomic constraints, mechanics, rejections, mistakes, rescues, Hamilton's principle
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .