Concerning variation in encoding spatial motion: Evidence from Finnish

This article describes variation in the use of frames of reference (FoRs; object-centred, viewpoint-centred, and geocentric, as in Holistic Spatial Semantics) in Finnish descriptions of motion and connects questions of variation to a typological framework. Recent research has described the choice of FoRs as a process with multiple factors. This complexity and controlling for the main variables posited in the literature create the starting point for the current study that explores factors affecting the choice of FoRs in motion situations and within speakers of the same language. The data were elicited from 50 native speakers of Finnish by using video stimuli. The informants were (mostly) formally educated young adults living in urban surroundings. The analysis reveals considerable variation in individual coding strategies, especially in the inclusion of the speaker’s viewpoint. It also considers variation with respect to different types of trajectories and cross-linguistic differences in the resources of spatial reference.

Investigation of the Force Vectors Acting on the Potato in the Clamping Finger Type Dosing System of a Potato Planter

The operational accuracy of the dosing system of the potato planting machine influences the planting plant spacing, and indirectly the crop yield. The operating accuracy depends on the design of the dosing system, its kinematics and the forces acting on the planting tubers. This dissertation presents the force vectors acting on the potato in the dosing system of the guided clamping finger type potato planting machine and their spatial motion during the dosing process. Examination of the vectors reveals the improved possibilities of tuber fixation.

Plato on Self-Motion in Laws X

In this paper, I argue that Plato conceives self-motion as non-spatial in Laws X. I demonstrate this by focusing on the textual evidence and by refuting interpretations according to which self-motion either is a specific type of spatial motion (e. g. circular motion) or is said to require space as a necessary condition for its occurrence. Moreover, I show that this non-spatial understanding differs from the identification of the soul’s motion with locomotion in the Timaeus. Consequently, I provide an explanation for this difference between the Timaeus and Laws X by considering developmentalist and contextualist viewpoints.

Cases of Integrability Which Correspond to the Motion of a Pendulum in the Three-dimensional Space

We systematize some results on the study of the equations of spatial motion of dynamically symmetric fixed rigid bodies–pendulums located in a nonconservative force fields. The form of these equations is taken from the dynamics of real fixed rigid bodies placed in a homogeneous flow of a medium. In parallel, we study the problem of a spatial motion of a free rigid body also located in a similar force fields. Herewith, this free rigid body is influenced by a nonconservative tracing force; under action of this force, either the magnitude of the velocity of some characteristic point of the body remains constant, which means that the system possesses a nonintegrable servo constraint, or the center of mass of the body moves rectilinearly and uniformly; this means that there exists a nonconservative couple of forces in the system

System of differential equations of aircraft spatial motion dynamics with arbitrary tensor of inertia and center of gravity position

Derivation of analytic expressions making up the basis of a mathematical model of aircraft flight dynamics for the differential equations describing the change in the rate of roll, yaw and pitch, as well as flight velocity components in projections on the body-fixed coordinate axes is presented. The origin of the coordinate system does not in general coincide with the center of mass of the plane, and the axes are not the same as its main central axes of inertia. The differential equations for angular and linear velocities are reduced to the form convenient for the use of numerical methods and computer systems and make it possible to get consistent results of simulating the dynamics of aircraft spatial motion with an arbitrary tensor of inertia and center of gravity position.

Circular Motion and Circular Thought: A Synthetic Approach to the Fifth Element in Aristotle’s de Philosophia and de Caelo

Scholars have long considered de Philosophia and de Caelo to be in contradiction regarding the nature of the heavenly bodies, particularly with respect to the activity proper to the element composing them. According to the accounts we have of de Philosophia, Aristotle seems to have put forth that stars move because they have minds, and, according to Cicero’s account of the lost text, they choose their actions out of free will. In de Caelo, however, Aristotle seems only to consider that stars engage in the activity of circular motion because it is in their nature to do so, as it is in the nature of, e.g. fire to move upwards or Earth to move downwards. In this paper, I argue against the longstanding view that there is an incompatibility between these two “early” cosmological texts of Aristotle. I aim to show that these two texts endorse complementary, not contradictory, views of the heavenly bodies. I argue that in de Philosophia, Aristotle attributes to stars the intellective counterpart of the spatial motion which is developed in greater depth in de Caelo, while in de Caelo, we see hints of Aristotle’s view in de Philosophia that the stars are also minds and are able to rationally cognize their particular good – a point which is shown in de Caelo 292a18–293a14, where Aristotle attributes both life and praxis to the heavenly bodies. The overarching view which I present of these two texts is that while de Caelo approaches the heavenly bodies qua bodies and de Philosophia approaches them qua minds, they are still examining one and the same substance and that Aristotle has not changed his mind regarding the basic nature of such a substance in the (supposed) interim between writing de Philosophia and de Caelo. Rather, we find echoes of de Caelo in de Philosophia, and echoes of de Philosophia in de Caelo, which speaks to the fact that Aristotle maintains one view of the heavenly bodies which he presents over the course of these two texts.