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The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#22Who did Isaac Newton credit with the discovery of the inverse square law of gravity? He specifically claimed it was Pythagoras, 6th century BC mathematician, who showed the inverse square relationship in the tension of a musical string and in the "harmony of the Spheres". The Pythagoreans are remembered for their belief that the world is made of math ("all is number") -- something that Newton did much to prove in his…
From the original article:
> Newton had delivered up a mathematical proof that an elliptical orbit would be produced by an inverse square force situated at one of the foci of the ellipse, thus combining the inverse square law of gravity with Kepler’s first law.
Then, the source quote from Newton's Principia: "For Pythagoras, as Macrobius avows, stretched the intestines of sheep or the sinews of oxen by attaching various weights, and from this learned the ratio of the celestial harmony. Therefore, by means of such experiments he ascertained that the weights by which all tones on equal strings .. were reciprocally as the squares of the lengths of the string by which the musical instrument emits the same tones. But the proportion discovered by these experiments, on the evidence of Macrobius, he applied to the heavens and consequently by comparing those weights with the weights of the Planets and the lengths of the strings with the distances of the Planets, he understood by means of the harmony of the heavens that the weights of the Planets towards the Sun were reciprocally as the squares of their distances from the Sun."
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.1966.001...
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#231/3 of London burned down in 1666. It was right at the end of the great plague of London. Wren and Hooke were put in charge of rebuilding the city. Hooke was the "techie" who could actually engineer and build many of the experiments in the Royal Society. As founding member, he was made "chief curator", responsible for producing the empirical demonstrations.
To learn more about the relationship between Newton and Hooke, I recommend "An Unpublished Letter of Robert Hooke to Isaac Newton" BY ALEXANDRE KOYRE, 1952
"Hooke who, as Curator of Experiments of the Royal Society, was supposed "to furnish the Society every day [they met once a week] with three or four considerable experiments"
"The registers of the Royal Society testify to the eagerness with which Hooke hurried from one inquiry to another with brilliant but inconclusive results. Among those which early engaged his attention were the nature of the air, its function in respiration and combustion, specific weights, the law of falling bodies, the improvement of land-carriage and diving bells, methods of telegraphy and the relations of barometrical readings to changes in the weather. He measured the vibrations of a pendulum two hundred feet long attached to the steeple of St. Paul; invented a useful machine for cutting the teeth of watch-wheels; fixed the thermometer zero at freezing-point of water; and ascertained (in July I664) the number of vibrations corresponding to musical notes"
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#24Fascinating, I didn’t realize Newton was into his 40s before he made any specific contributions that led to his larger widespread influence. I just assumed that, like most of the greatest scientists in history, he was in his 20s when he changed the world.
He was ~ 23 years old in 1666 when he published on calculus, the dynamics of moving bodies, inverse-square universal gravitation, and optics (prisms).
Interesting, the article seems to suggest that he did not have much of an impact until he published a couple decades later.
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#25Who did Isaac Newton credit with the discovery of the inverse square law of gravity? He specifically claimed it was Pythagoras, 6th century BC mathematician, who showed the inverse square relationship in the tension of a musical string and in the "harmony of the Spheres". The Pythagoreans are remembered for their belief that the world is made of math ("all is number") -- something that Newton did much to prove in his…
From the original article: > Newton had delivered up a mathematical proof that an elliptical orbit would be produced by an inverse square force situated at one of the foci of the ellipse, thus combining the inverse square law of gravity with Kepler’s first law. Then, the source quote from Newton's Principia: "For Pythagoras, as Macrobius avows, stretched the intestines of sheep or the sinews of oxen by attaching vari…
Very interesting. Wouldn't such reasoning serve as evidence for the heliocentric model, which I thought was known as a theory but not generally accepted at the time of Pythagoras?
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#26> In England around 1650 coffee houses became the favourite meeting places of the English scientific intelligentsia, the astronomers, mathematicians and natural philosophers. Here, these savants would meet up to exchange ideas, discuss the latest scientific theories and pose challenges to each other. Why don't we have coffee houses like this today? I'd go. You could argue that the web is the modern-day version of thi…
> Why don't we have coffee houses like this today?
It's called the pub.
It is socially acceptable to shoot the shit with complete strangers at a bar, especially if you're at the bar on a stool; less so between tables where it's usually a group of friends that are gathered.
More generally: people go to these types of establishments often to meet friends, so it is generally impolite to intrude on their conversation.
Again: less so at a bar.
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#27> In England around 1650 coffee houses became the favourite meeting places of the English scientific intelligentsia, the astronomers, mathematicians and natural philosophers. Here, these savants would meet up to exchange ideas, discuss the latest scientific theories and pose challenges to each other. Why don't we have coffee houses like this today? I'd go. You could argue that the web is the modern-day version of thi…
The incentives are against it. Legal issues, corporate "governance", patents, IP, publish-or-perish all reward information hoarding and secretive experimentation.
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the original article: > Newton had delivered up a mathematical proof that an elliptical orbit would be produced by an inverse square force situated at one of the foci of the ellipse, thus combining the inverse square law of gravity with Kepler’s first law. Then, the source quote from Newton's Principia: "For Pythagoras, as Macrobius avows, stretched the intestines of sheep or the sinews of oxen by attaching vari…
Very interesting. Wouldn't such reasoning serve as evidence for the heliocentric model, which I thought was known as a theory but not generally accepted at the time of Pythagoras?
Aristotle makes fun of the Pythagorean proposal that there might be a counter-earth orbiting on the other side of the sun, so it can never be seen. But if you think about it, that's only possible in a heliocentic worldview. Coperinicus, at least, believed that the Pythagoreans believed in heliocentrism:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/228080?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_...
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#29Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle is set in this era. Newton, Hooke, Wren, Leibniz and many others all appear as characters. It’s a 2800 page monster, but a treat if you enjoy historical fiction and the history of ideas.
Yes. Baroque Cycle is a true monster and varies in quality but I stuck with it for superb perspective on the birth of the modern age, and some of leading scientific rivalries of the time (e.g. Newton vs. Leibniz). As well as the beginnings of science, it also considers the creation of modern finance systems.
At the risk of opening up the standard argument about the quality of the endings in Stephenson's books, I thought that the [spoiler-omitted: technology] conclusion of the third book in the cycle, although not particularly dramatic, is an excellent counterpart to the [spoiler-omitted: superstition] beginning of the first book.
Re: The event that eventually led to Newton writing and publishing the Principia
#30> In England around 1650 coffee houses became the favourite meeting places of the English scientific intelligentsia, the astronomers, mathematicians and natural philosophers. Here, these savants would meet up to exchange ideas, discuss the latest scientific theories and pose challenges to each other. Why don't we have coffee houses like this today? I'd go. You could argue that the web is the modern-day version of thi…
> Why don't we have coffee houses like this today? I'd go. You could argue that the web is the modern-day version of this No, I disagree. The web is not a replacement for normal social interaction. Zoom is not a replacement for in person meetings. The web does not replace an actual coffee shop, and social media or email does not replace a phone call. Unfortunately, our newest adult generation will never understand wh…
That's just nostalgia, electronic communication is in many ways better than face to face, even if it is worse in others. Electronic communication allows you to communicate with the specialist in your field, located in the other side of the world. It is constantly available thanks to smartphones. If you have a great idea, you can share it immediately, if your phone is waterproof, you don't even need to leave your shower. You can ask question and get answer within seconds when you are working on your subject.
Pandemic aside, our "newest adult generation" still can meet in real life. But they are now able to take advantage of both electronic and face-to-face communication with a level of expertise older generations don't have, and better manage potential distractions.
I don't worry about them, not on that subject anyways. They are perfectly able to understand the beauties in life, like every human did since humans existed. It is just that times change and people adapt.