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Newton's Deductive Presentation of the Universal Law of Grav­ Itation

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Newton's Deductive Presentation of the Universal Law of Grav­ Itation BOOK REVIEWS whole of the Principia but concentrates on the 150 analytical (that is, purely On the shoulders of giants mathematical) propositions that form David Hughes the foundation of Newton's deductive presentation of the universal law of grav­ itation. He stresses that a further attrac­ Newton's Principia for the Common Reader. By S. Chandrasekhar. Oxford University tion of Newton's work was the realization Press: 1995. Pp. 593.£75, $130. that the dynamical laws were universal too, and that his hypotheses underpinned IsAAc Newton's Philosophiae Natura/is degree to understand the proofs. The the concept of absolute space, time and Principia Mathematica was published in word 'common' comes from a quote from motion. Newtonian gravitation led to the 1687: not only is it the crowning achieve­ Dr Samuel Johnson, and in essence it explanation of such disparate phenom­ ment of the seventeenth-century scien­ refers to someone with common sense ena as the tides in the seas, the orbits of tific revolution but it is also generally (and a great deal of it to my mind). comets, the precession of the spin axis of regarded as the most important book in Chandrasekhar arranges the proofs in the Earth, the motion of the Moon, the the history of physical science. But no a linear sequence of equations and effect of air drag on the descent of bodies one would call it an easy read. The first arguments. The beauty, clarity and econ­ and the spin-induced shape of our planet. edition ran to only about 500 copies. To omy of Newton's achievements shine The great joy of Chandrasekhar's book quote D. T. Whiteside: "In Newton's own through. Chandrasekhar's "personal is that it repays all the attention one gives lifetime only a handful of talented men, reflections" are even more enlightening. it. As one proceeds, everything becomes working without distraction at the fron­ He spices his book with a running so much easier to understand. The veil of tiers of current research, had each in his sequence of introductions and commen­ Newtonian obscurity is lifted and one own way achieved a working knowledge taries that reveal both an incisive under­ begins to grasp the extent of Newton's of the Principia's technical content". standing of the way in which Newton's achievement. D Even in the 1730s, Voltaire was describ­ mind worked and also the pleasure that ing the book as "incomprehensible" and comes from studying and interpreting David Hughes is in the Department of "obscure". George Berkeley actually Newton's greatest book. Physics, University of Sheffield, Hicks went so far as to consider the mathemati­ Chandrasekhar does not tackle the Building, Sheffield $3 7RH, UK. cal treatment of motion to be an intellec­ tual abstraction. It is also clear that Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the author of the book under review, agrees with these sentiments. This 1983 physics Nobel prize-winner and emeritus profes­ NEWTON'S thought sor of theoretical astrophysics at the and achievement NEWTON are also explored in University of Chicago does, however, go Newton edited by I. on to say that he regards the Principia as Bernard Cohen and not only unsurpassed but also unsurpass­ Richard S. Westfall able. To Chandrasekhar, Newton was not (Norton, £6.99 "merely a chip off the old block, but the (pbk). Intended for block itself". scholars and Chandrasekhar has set himself the students alike, as task of overcoming the syntactical well as general problems associated with the often con­ readers, the book voluted style that Newton had perforce presents a collection to adopt in presenting delicate mathe­ of the writings of matical arguments in continuous prose. the great man, In Newton 's Principia for the Common together with Reader, he makes considerable efforts to commentaries circumvent Newton's propensity for a spanning more than secretive style. Much in the Principia four centuries by indicates that Newton had a cerebral the likes of George approach to solving problems. He did not Berkeley, Albert resort to pencil and paper; he held prob­ Einstein, Colin Maclaurin, D. T. lems in his mind for hours and days and Whiteside, Alfred weeks until they had surrendered their North Whitehead, secrets. Only then did he dress up the John Maynard solution for the purpose of exposition. Keynes and Newton found that writing down his Alexandre Koyre. work was a chore so he often resorted to The cover, shown short cuts and the introduction of phrases here, reproduces Sir such as "it is manifest that", "hence it Godfrey Kneller's comes to pass" and "by like reasoning". portrait of Newton, Chandrasekhar transforms the New­ painted in 1689, tonian mathematics into modern idiom when Newton was and thus makes it much more accessible 46 years old. SELECTED AND EDITED BY to what he quaintly refers to as the "com­ mon reader". This is not to imply a uni­ I. BERNARD COHEN A o RICHARDS. WESTFALL versal readership: people will need at least the equivalent of a mathematics NATURE · VO L 376 · 3 AUGUST 1995 395 .
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