Interazioni di spazi complementari: Meccanica e Geometria

Abstract

This paper discusses the interactions between Geometry and Mechanics, and more specifically Descriptive Geometry and Theory of Mechanisms. These two disciplines may be apparently distant, but they are somehow complementary to each other. Therefore, one can recognizes a deep integration from cultural viewpoints up of design aspects. Just think of the issues in mechanical design governed by the Theory of Mechanisms which has robust foundations in Descriptive Geometry.
Without the theoretical foundations of Geometry, it would not be possible to draw and design mechanical parts such as gears, while in Theory of Mechanisms it would be less easy to design and predict reciprocal movements of parts in a mechanical assembly. Since Ancient times, the two disciplines were developed with a common path and then in modern time they reached its moment of fusion in the figure of Gaspard Monge who is considered by scholars of both disciplines as a fundamental figure.
This work is an attempt to outline this path through figures of great historical and cultural importance that will be analysed through graphic representations. The proposed analysis is limited to achievements before the great nineteenth-century season of Gaspard Monge and École Polytechnique after when the divergence between the two disciplines begins and even the oblivion of their ancient symbiosis.