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The Correspondence of Isaac Newton THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ISAAC NEWTON Author: Sir Isaac Newton, H.W. Turnball Number of Pages: 524 pages Published Date: 16 Oct 2008 Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Publication Country: Cambridge, United Kingdom Language: English ISBN: 9780521737838 DOWNLOAD: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ISAAC NEWTON Hare St John fl late 17th century. Keill John mathematician and astronomer. Leibnitz Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von philosopher and mathematician. Lloyd William Bishop of Worcester. Oldenburg Henry scientist. Pemberton Henry Professor of Physics. Smith Barnabas d Rector of North Witham. Storer Arthur fl Tenison Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury and controversialist collector of manuscripts. Wallis John mathematician. Corporate Names Cambridge University. Royal Greenwich Observatory. Royal Society of London. Trinity College Cambridge University -. Archive Record Table of contents. Because of his scientific nature, Newton's religious beliefs were never wholly known. His study of the laws of motion and universal gravitation became his best-known discoveries, but after much examination he admitted that, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done. Account Options Anmelden. Meine Mediathek Hilfe Erweiterte Buchsuche. The Correspondence of Isaac Newton , Band 1. In mathematics too, early brilliance appeared in Newton's student notes. He may have learnt geometry at school, though he always spoke of himself as self-taught; certainly he advanced through studying the writings of his compatriots William Oughtred and John Wallis, and of Descartes and the Dutch school. Newton made contributions to all branches of mathematics then studied, but is especially famous for his solutions to the contemporary problems in analytical geometry of drawing tangents to curves differentiation and defining areas bounded by curves integration. Not only did Newton discover that these problems were inverse to each other, but he discovered general methods of resolving problems of curvature, embraced in his "method of fluxions" and "inverse method of fluxions", respectively equivalent to Leibniz's later differential and integral calculus. Newton used the term "fluxion" from Latin meaning "flow" because he imagined a quantity "flowing" from one magnitude to another. Fluxions were expressed algebraically, as Leibniz's differentials were, but Newton made extensive use also especially in the Principia of analogous geometrical arguments. Late in life, Newton expressed regret for the algebraic style of recent mathematical progress, preferring the geometrical method of the Classical Greeks, which he regarded as clearer and more rigorous. Newton's work on pure mathematics was virtually hidden from all but his correspondents until , when he published, with Opticks , a tract on the quadrature of curves integration and another on the classification of the cubic curves. His Cambridge lectures, delivered from about to , were published in Newton had the essence of the methods of fluxions by The first to become known, privately, to other mathematicians, in , was his method of integration by infinite series. In Paris in Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently evolved the first ideas of his differential calculus, outlined to Newton in Newton had already described some of his mathematical discoveries to Leibniz, not including his method of fluxions. In Leibniz published his first paper on calculus; a small group of mathematicians took up his ideas. In the s Newton's friends proclaimed the priority of Newton's methods of fluxions. Supporters of Leibniz asserted that he had communicated the differential method to Newton, although Leibniz had claimed no such thing. Newtonians then asserted, rightly, that Leibniz had seen papers of Newton's during a London visit in ; in reality, Leibniz had taken no notice of material on fluxions. A violent dispute sprang up, part public, part private, extended by Leibniz to attacks on Newton's theory of gravitation and his ideas about God and creation; it was not ended even by Leibniz's death in The dispute delayed the reception of Newtonian science on the Continent, and dissuaded British mathematicians from sharing the researches of Continental colleagues for a century. According to the well-known story, it was on seeing an apple fall in his orchard at some time during or that Newton conceived that the same force governed the motion of the Moon and the apple. He calculated the force needed to hold the Moon in its orbit, as compared with the force pulling an object to the ground. He also calculated the centripetal force needed to hold a stone in a sling, and the relation between the length of a pendulum and the time of its swing. These early explorations were not soon exploited by Newton, though he studied astronomy and the problems of planetary motion. Within a month of receiving the proffered appointment, he had moved out, lock, stock, and barrel. Newton had been consulted on matters connected with the Royal Mint in Through the combined efforts of clippers who clipped silver from the edges of hammered coins that had no definite outline and coiners or counterfeiters , English money—the silver money of daily commerce—had deteriorated alarmingly in the early s. The crisis in the coinage was made worse by the simultaneous financial crisis caused by the unprecedented expenses of a war with France. In an age when professional economists did not exist the government, in , sought advice from eight men known for their intellectual prowess or their experience in matters financial. The fact that Newton was one of the eight testifies to the impact of the Principia. Together with another six he favoured recoinage. By December the government had made its decision, and the recoinage was already under way when, late in March , Newton received a letter from Charles Montagu , chancellor of the exchequer and a prominent figure in the whig junto then in control of the government, offering him the wardenship of the mint. He did not hesitate in accepting and by 2 May had installed himself in London and assumed his duties. Montagu's letter was unambiguous in offering a sinecure. Newton had never learned how to do things halfway, however, and his personal need to escape from intellectual activity become fruitless made common cause with the need of an institution in chaos under the demands that the recoinage imposed. He gave of himself without stint. Arranging and ordering were among Newton's most basic instincts. Every time he had approached a new discipline, his first step had been an ordered collection of information. The same impulse served him well at the mint. He appears certainly to have been instrumental in setting up the five country mints called for by parliament. Some significant portion of that record was Newton's work. Newton soon learned that there was another dimension to his duties as warden that he had not counted on. The warden was responsible for apprehending and prosecuting clippers who soon ceased to exist with the new coinage and coiners as yesterday's clippers soon became. Newton disliked the job and initially petitioned to be relieved of it. When the Treasury would not even hear of that, he plunged in with his normal intensity: he had himself commissioned as a justice of the peace in all the home counties; he took innumerable depositions in taverns and in gaols from assorted riff-raff; and he successfully prosecuted twenty-eight coiners. In all more than a hundred were pursued under his authority. As Newton accustomed himself to a new life, aspects of the old one continued to make their appearance. In he received two challenge problems from Johann Bernoulli , who intended to show that Newton's pretended, but unpublished, method was not as powerful as the differential calculus of Leibniz and Bernoulli. John Conduitt , the husband of Newton's niece, later heard the following story, which surviving documents support: Newton came home from the mint one evening, tired, to find the problems and solved them before he went to bed. When Bernoulli shortly thereafter received from England an anonymous paper with the solutions, he understood at once whence it came—' as the lion is recognized from his claw ', in his classic phrase. Newton also chose to have another try at the moon. It got no further than the previous one, and led just as quickly to another angry confrontation with Flamsteed. Initially Newton moved into the warden's house in the mint , which was located between the walls of the Tower of London. He did not stay there long. By August he had installed himself in a house on Jermyn Street in Westminster, where he lived for more than a decade. In he moved to Chelsea, quickly found it unsatisfactory, and the following year transferred to St Martin's Street, south of Leicester Fields now Leicester Square. Here he stayed until, with his health decaying in his final years, he moved to Kensington. If he did not live sumptuously, he certainly lived well, keeping a coach until his last years and a fleet of servants. Soon after he settled in London, although the exact date is not known, Newton's niece Catherine Barton went to live with him. She was thereafter a constant part of his life, from with John Conduitt , her husband, and their daughter. Catherine Barton was a young woman approaching twenty when she arrived in London, beautiful, lively, witty, and possessed of unlimited charm. Among those who felt the charm was Charles Montagu , the earl of Halifax as he became, Newton's old friend who had secured his appointment at the mint. The relationship of Catherine Barton and Halifax was known to the gossips of London, who passed it on to Voltaire , who broadcast it to the world. It was not merely gossip. Montagu] , Works … Earl of Halifax , , , iv—vi.
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