Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680)
Introduced the nerve-muscle preparation, stimulating
muscle contraction by pinching the attached nerve in the frog leg. He also showed that
muscles contract with little change in volume, refuting the previous belief that muscles
contract when “animal spirits” fill them, causing bulging.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
Devised Hooke's Law, relating the stress and elongation of
elastic materials, and used the term “cell” in biology.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Not known for biomechanics work, but he developed calculus,
the classical laws of motion, and the constitutive equation for viscous fluid, all of which
are fundamental to biomechanics.
Nicholas Andr´ (1658-1742)
Coined the term “orthopaedics” at the age of 80 and
believed that muscular imbalances cause skeletal deformities.
Stephen Hales (1677-1761)
Was likely the first to measure blood pressure, as described
in his topic
Statistical Essays: Containing Haemostaticks, or an Account of Some Hydraulick
and Hydrostatical Experiments Made on the Blood and Blood-Vessels of Animals; etc.
, in 1733.
Leonard Euler (1707-1783)
Generalized Newton's laws of motion to continuum
representations that are used extensively to describe rigid body motion, and studied
pulse waves in arteries.
Thomas Young (1773-1829)
Studied vibrations and voice, wave theory of light and
vision, and devised Young's modulus of elasticity.
Ernst Weber (1795-1878) and Eduard Weber (1806-1871)
Published
Die Mechanik der
meschlichen Gerwerkzeuge
(
On the Mechanics of the Human Gait Tools
) in 1836, pioneering
the scientific study of human gait.
Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894)
Studied an immense array of topics, including
optics, acoustics, thermodynamics, electrodynamics, physiology, and medicine,
including ophthalmoscopy, fluid mechanics, nerve conduction speed, and the heat of
muscle contraction.
Etienne Marey (1830-1904)
Analyzed the motion of horses, birds, insects, fish, and
humans. His inventions included force plates to measure ground reaction forces and the
“
,” or motion picture camera.
Wilhelm Braune and Otto Fischer (research conducted from 1895-1904)
Published
Der Gang des Menschen
Chronophotographe a pellicule
), containing the mathematical analysis of human
gait and introducing methods still in use. They invented “cyclography” (now called
interrupted-light photography with active markers), pioneered the use of multiple
cameras to reconstruct 3-D motion data, and applied Newtonian mechanics to estimate
joint forces and limb accelerations.
(
The Human Gait
4.2 BASIC MECHANICS
This section reviews some of the main points from any standard introductory mechanics
(statics and dynamics) course. Good references abound, such as
by
Merriam and Kraige (2008). A review of vector mathematics is followed by matrix coordi-
nate transformations, a topic new to some students. Euler's equations of motion (see Section
4.2.5) may also be new material. For both topics,
Engineering Mechanics
Principles of Dynamics
by Greenwood
provides a comprehensive reference.
