Tesis de Física presentadas en la Real y Pontificia Universidad de México. 1774-1791.

Abstract

Some of the most overlooked aspects of the historical development of Physics in Mexico, are when, how, and what was taught of it in New Spain, in particular in the last third of the eighteenth century, which was when New Spain's culture began to adapt to the new scientific paradigms. One way to establish reliable information about the subjects that high school students learned from that period, which was the only school level where physics was taught, is to analyze the content of the theses in Physics presented at the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. Those documents, virtually unknown today, have been difficult to trace and still harder to get, but, as discussed in this work, they provide clear, reliable information on how, when, and where the physics arising from the Scientific Revolution entered the classrooms of our nation.