The Information Order of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Newton on the Beach: the Information Order of Principia Mathematica
Hist. Sci., xlvii (2009) NEWTON ON THE BEACH: THE INFORMATION ORDER OF PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA Simon Schaffer Cambridge University WHAT I MAY SEEM TO THE WORLD I know not what I may seem to the world, but as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.1 It is one of the most celebrated of Isaac Newton’s obiter dicta. Like many such, its provenance is hazy. The literary reference may well be to a passage from John Milton’s great redemptive poem Paradise regained (1671) where, in dialogue with Satan, Christ praises divine illumination above pagan learning: “who reads / Inces- santly, and to his reading brings not / A spirit and judgment equal or superior, / … Uncertain and unsettled still remains, / Deep verst in books, and shallow in himself, / Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys / And trifles for choice matters, worth a spunge, / As children gath’ring pebbles on the shore”.2 But the remark’s immediate relation with Newton is more ambiguous. The earliest version is found in a conversation of April 1730, three years after Newton’s death, between the gossipy man of letters Joseph Spence and the Jacobite, freemason and court tutor Andrew Ramsay. While chatting about Newton’s debt to ancient theology and his strange attitudes towards the doctrine of the Trinity, Ramsay quoted Newton’s phrase, adding it was “as great as all” of Principia mathematica.3 Never one to let a nice epigram slip, Ramsay then incorporated the expression in his 1732 Plan of education for a young prince, composed to help tutor the heirs of a noble French clan. -
The Royal Observatory Greenwich, Its History and Work
xiSS* i&S* cO^' <py" cjs- D/^ (&?* oiV* T v. v. > v JHDER-f^a-s {^m b#tt+j+jiLe.. ASTRONOMY LIBRARY WELLESLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY PRESENTED Br ^SOScj Wise fearing leajtefh to hlqkev levels. ana to farmer shores -w^vcwwv OC^^U- trfrJLtst** - ^JfU^CL^^y y i^rt>^- V FLAMSTEED, THE FIRST ASTRONOMER ROYAL. {From the portrait in the ' Historia Ccelestis .') THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH A GLANCE AT ITS HISTORY AND WORK EY E. WALTER MAUNDER, F.R.A.S. WITH MANY PORTRAITS AXD ILLUSTRATIONS FROM OLD PRINTS AND ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS LONDON THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 56 Paternoster Row, and 65 St. Paul's Churchyard 1900 i*\So t> LONDON" : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. ^HA 92 PREFACE I WAS present on one occasion at a popular lecture delivered in Greenwich, when the lecturer referred to the way in which so many English people travel to the ends of the earth in order to see interesting or wonderful places, and yet entirely neglect places of at least equal importance in their own land. 1 Ten minutes' walk from this hall,' he said, ' is Greenwich Observatory, the most famous observatory in the world. Most of you see it every day of your lives, and yet I dare say that not one in a hundred of you has ever been inside.' Whether the lecturer was justified in the general scope of his stricture or not, the particular instance he selected was certainly unfortunate. It was not the fault of the majority of his audience that they had not entered Greenwich Observatory, since the regulations by which it is governed forbade them doing so. -
Grier Jason P 2018 Phd.Pdf (1.773Mb)
Navigation, Commercial Exchange and the Problem of Long- Distance Control in England and the English East India Company, 1673-1755 Jason Grier A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies York University Toronto, Ontario March 2018 © Jason Grier 2018 Abstract In this dissertation I address the related problems of expertise and long-distance control in the context of British navigation and the bureaucratic practices of the English East India Company. Expertise, in particular, is used as a framework from which I build outward to establish a stronger understanding of commercial trade, the circulation of knowledge and, most crucially, the place of the metropole. The first half of this dissertation introduces expertise and long-distances control and puts the concepts into historical context through the example of navigation between 1673 and 1755. Navigation is illustrative of the problem of expertise because it was a contentious subject at the time and, therefore, the contemporary debates can be followed. Expertise is a crucial problem because it directly addresses power and who controls knowledge. Thus, the question of navigational expertise ties directly to the problem of long-distance control. Therefore, my dissertation begins by moving outward from navigational instruction at the Royal Mathematical School to the practice of navigation on Edmond Halley’s first Paramore voyage. In the context of global commercial exchange, long-distance control became an increasing priority for those who sought to assert such control from a presumed centre onto agents around the globe. -
The House of Wayland
cs 439 ."Uf3B EobehtWaylen. ofJDei'ize&. t THE Wayland House of i i-O/vujcO Cc/o_o/JLCvu LONDON: Printed fey COOKE &Co., 23, Queen's BuiuuNGb, Old Bailey, E.C 1886. I y> T'K •(¦ HOUSE OF WAYLAND. Wblond, or the Smith, was the Valcan of northern my thology ;that is to say, it was a genoric term, a symbo licalimpersonation standing for a skilled artificer, derived from some Scandinavian verb, signifying to work with ingenuity, (and perhaps surviving in the English term "to- weld") as Doedalus among the Greeks was derived from ScudaXXoi to work artistically, and Fabricius in Latin from fdbrico. Itwas in this sense that King Alfredunderstood it when in his translation of Boethius's Be consolation* philosophic," he thus paraphrased the passage commencing Übinuncfidelis" ossa Fabricii manent ?" Where are now the bones of the wise Weland The goldsmith formerly so famous P ... " Under what tumulus do they liehidden ? So also the French romancers were fond of attributing: the armour of Charlemagne and other warriors to the skill of Weland, or "Galannus" as they would call hinu Matthew Paris is but adopting the same poetic fiction when ce informs us that among the suit of arms presented by Henry 1. of England to the young Count Geoffrey oi Anjou, the sword was of Weland's superlative manufacture* Hist.xii.521. And in the same symbolic strain, other me dieval writers have furnished with weapons from this- armory, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Ptolemy, Judas- Maccabeus, and the Emperor Vespasian. In the Yale of White-horse at Ashbury near the borders of Wilts and Berks, may stillbe seen the remains of a Celtic sepulchre or cromleoh bearing the name of Wayland Smith's cave. -
The Royal Society's Local Heroes Programme
The Royal Society’s Local Heroes Programme A collection of case studies 1 2 Introduction The Local Heroes programme was established to celebrate the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary in 2010. The programme enabled smaller museums, galleries, libraries and science centres across the UK to develop activities and events featuring their community’s local scientific heroes, thinking creatively about the way they were celebrated. The Society initially funded 50 The original Local Heroes programme and organisations, however by the end Extending the Reach led to the realisation of 2010 partner institutions had that the Society now had a wealth of expanded to 149, with over 1,500 experiences and excellent partnerships, individual events. In addition, the which has led to the development of the Society partnered with institutions Sharing the Experience workshops. These in major UK cities on more extensive workshops took place across the UK programmes of events, featuring in autumn 2011, and enabled museums both historical and contemporary that may not have a traditional science local heroes. focus to develop scientific activities, particularly for schools. Following the success of the 350th anniversary programme, the Royal This booklet contains case studies Society established a further grants from some of the original Local Heroes scheme for the original participants institutions, as well as tips on how to of the Local Heroes programme. The explore the science within the collections Extending the Reach grants enabled of your own institution and develop recipients to develop further schools exciting science-related activities. education activities. 1 How doth the busy banking bee? Bromley Museum is a local authority museum, located in the south east corner of the London Borough of Bromley, although the museum works to increase awareness of its collections and programme throughout the Borough. -
A Brief History of the Speed of Light Before Einstein
Over 200 years passed between the first announcement that light travels at a finite velocity and the publishing of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which entrenched this speed as a fundamental constant of the physical laws that govern our universe. This paper will focus on specific scientists and their efforts to determine the speed of light during this time period. The investigations of the contributing figures will revolve around describing their experiments, evaluating the relative accuracy of their methods, and their determinations’ respective physical or astronomical significances. In general the paper will follow the trend of increased accuracy in speed of light determinations; however, the physical and astronomical significance of each experiment is not so progressively ordered. Increasingly more accurate astronomical values of the speed of light pushed astronomical precision to new heights. Corrections to the speed of light improved planetary and stellar tables, providing astronomers with the ability to investigate phenomena which had previously been difficult to isolate because of the conflation of effects. The advent of terrestrial determinations of the speed of light allowed astronomers to improve accuracy of different constants while still offering similar potential to confirm or negate theory. Perhaps with the sole exclusion of length, all measurement is theory mediated, and as such, we must look to science to supply a robust theoretical basis from which we can convert observations into measurements. Scientific theory provides a framework within which we can interpret data and by which we may achieve indirect measures. More direct measures of the same quantity provide an opportunity to evaluate the assumptions present in prior measurements. -
Praise for Parallax
Praise for Parallax “An accessible and charming history of how we know what we know about our place among the stars.” —Providence Journal “Alan Hirshfeld’s engaging account moves to a satisfying climax as the exciting race to find stellar parallax heats up. It’s a thrilling detective story!” —Owen Gingerich, Research Professor of Astronomy and the History of Science, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics “An enthralling, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of . .. heroic stargazers.” —Science News “Writing in the genre of Dava Sobels Longitude, Hirshfeld sheds light on the important problem of finding our cosmic place.” —David Levy, science editor, Parade “[Parallax shows] historic figures as people, full of false hopes, fear of failure, jealousy, victory, and joy. This comprehensive work... will appeal to astronomy buffs and curious readers alike.” —Astronomy “Alan Hirshfeld’s authoritative and gripping tale of the search for stellar parallax makes me proud to be a part of such a relentlessly curious and persistent species.” —Chet Raymo, columnist, The Boston Globe, author of 365 Starry Nights, and professor of physics and astronomy at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts “This book is not just a keeper; it will also become a gift.” —Sky & Telescope “In this thrilling history of the search for parallax, Hirshfeld urges us to ‘fly together.’ The human failures and frustrations and the crucial discoveries in the quest for parallax are as thrilling as the story of the determination of longitude, and just as important.” —Jane Langton, author of two astronomical mystery novels, Dark Nantucket Moon and The Shortest Day “I thoroughly enjoyed reading this excellent book. -
Great Astronomers
Great Astronomers R. S. Ball Great Astronomers Table of Contents Great Astronomers....................................................................................................................................................1 R. S. Ball........................................................................................................................................................1 i Great Astronomers R. S. Ball PREFACE. It has been my object in these pages to present the life of each astronomer in such detail as to enable the reader to realise in some degree the man's character and surroundings; and I have endeavoured to indicate as clearly as circumstances would permit the main features of the discoveries by which he has become known. There are many types of astronomers−−from the stargazer who merely watches the heavens, to the abstract mathematician who merely works at his desk; it has, consequently, been necessary in the case of some lives to adopt a very different treatment from that which seemed suitable for others. While the work was in progress, some of the sketches appeared in "Good Words." The chapter on Brinkley has been chiefly derived from an article on the "History of Dunsink Observatory," which was published on the occasion of the tercentenary celebration of the University of Dublin in 1892, and the life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton is taken, with a few alterations and omissions, from an article contributed to the "Quarterly Review" on Graves' life of the great mathematician. The remaining chapters now appear for the first time. For many of the facts contained in the sketch of the late Professor Adams, I am indebted to the obituary notice written by my friend Dr. J.W.L. Glaisher, for the Royal Astronomical Society; while with regard to the late Sir George Airy, I have a similar acknowledgment to make to Professor H.H. -
Bradley's Nutation, 18Th-Century Analytic Argument, and the Contemporary Technical Communication Classroom
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 422 580 CS 216 470 AUTHOR Moran, Michael G. TITLE Bradley's Nutation, 18th-Century Analytic Argument, and the Contemporary Technical Communication Classroom. PUB DATE 1998-04-00 NOTE 15p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (49th, Chicago, IL, April 1-4, 1998). PUB TYPE Opinion Papers (120)-- Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Higher Education; Introductory Courses; *Scientific and Technical Information; Scientific Methodology; *Technical Writing; Text Structure IDENTIFIERS Historical Materials; *Rhetorical Form; Science Writing; *Technical Communication ABSTRACT One of the more difficult elements to teach well in the introductory technical writing classroom is rhetorical form. Although textbooks have gotten much better than in the past at teaching this element, some still imply that structure is a matter of filling up a set form with content. One way to help students avoid this difficulty is to introduce them to historical examples of technical communication to demonstrate three principles about form:(1) form is conventional and has changed over the centuries;(2) earlier technical communicators connected form and thought in sophisticated ways; and (3) early writers used various formal strategies to communicate to a particular audience to achieve rhetorical goals. A good example of 18th-century scientific discourse to use in the contemporary classroom is a section from James Bradley's 1748 "A Letter to the Right Honourable George Early of Macclesfield concerning an apparent Motion observed in some of the fixed Stars," which provided the first evidence of nutation, or the wobbling of the earth on its axis due to the gravitational influences of the sun and the moon.