Abstract

LEYTON A., Patricio  and  SALDIVIA M., Zenobio. La física en la Expedición Malaspina (1789-1794): ideología, práctica y experimentación. Intersticios sociales [online]. 2015, n.10, pp.1-32. ISSN 2007-4964.

Is traditionally held that physics is the science that studies the states of matter and attempting to make rational explanations of natural phenomena by using complex mathematical equations. However, we believe that science can have other uses beyond simple and objective study of natural reality. This was the case of the Spanish scientific expedition under the command of navigator and Italian scientist Alessandro Malaspina, which toured overseas dominions of the Spanish Crown between the years 1789-1794 and have made scientific work in diverse disciplines, being physical one. In this sense, physics in the Hispanic committee took a turn type ideological, practical and theoretical-experimental. The first is given by the bond of physics aspects of political, civilizational and national prosperity, which are in direct accordance with the ethos of the European Enlightenment. The second, meanwhile, is directly related to actual scientific work; physics is analyzed in accordance with the use of scientific instruments, measurement and quantification of phenomena of nature and the use of a methodology according to science of the 18th century. Finally, the theoretical and experimental aspect is conditioned by the explanations type physicist and theorist who was given to certain elements of nature and the development of experiments and experiences about the states of matter, as he went the route through the oceans Atlantic and Pacific.

Keywords : Malaspina Expedition; physics; ideology; scientific practice; experiment.

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