SCIENCE IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES
In 1687 Newton published the Principia, a book which unified celestial and terrestrial physics, thus ending the old division of the two worlds. At that moment the foundations of a building were laid that Maxwell eventually gave a definitive shape in 1864 when he structured and organized electricity, magnetism and optics, subjects whose study had experienced exceptional growth during that interval, into a unique theoretical body to be known as electromagnetism.
During this two century period significant progress was also produced in the understanding the structure of matter: the old notion of the four elements, which is rooted in Aristotelian tradition, ends up being displaced by a new chemistry, first with Lavoisier and then Dalton, eventually accepting the atomistic view. Similarly, in the field of the phenomena related to heat, the latter, originally conceived as a substance, will be finally conceptualized as "a kind of movement".
New forms of energy associated with chemical, heating or electrical processes, substituted or complemented the old mechanical energy. In parallel, new machines are born that modified the urban landscape and altered the social fabric in depth.
