ABSTRACT
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz has devoted himself to discovering a fundamental principle for mechanics, from which all the laws of mechanics hitherto known as universally valid can be deduced; and he has carried this out with great acuteness, and by means of a very remarkable presentation of a peculiarly general kinematic conception. Hertz won the prize by showing that at most only 1/20th or 1/30th of the extra-current could be due to electric inertia. Hertz has devoted himself to discovering a fundamental principle for mechanics, from which all the laws of mechanics hitherto known as universally valid can be deduced. Hertz seems to consider that there is some outstanding confusion in applying the principle of equality of action and reaction, and appears to hold that by this principle the action on the body requires some reaction in the body whose acceleration is the effect of the force.
