A Very Short Introduction - Newton

In Victorian Britain, every schoolboy knew that Sir Isaac Newton was an unrivalled mathematical and scientific genius, and most would have been able to give a basic account of his central discoveries. In optics, Newton found that white light was not a fundamental element within nature but was composed of more basic, primary rays being mixed together. Bodies appeared a particular colour because they had a disposition to reflect or absorb certain colours rather than others. In the realm of mathematics, Newton discovered the binomial theorem for expanding the sum of two variables raised to any given power, as well as the basic laws of calculus. This treated the rate of change of any variable (the shape of a curve or the velocity of a moving object) at any moment, and also offered techniques for measuring areas and volumes under curves (amongst other things). Both his mathematical and optical work took many decades to be fully accepted by contemporaries, the first because his work was shown only to a handful of contemporaries, and the second because many found it hard to reproduce and too revolutionary to be easily grasped. Contents List of illustrations xv 1 A national man 1 2 Playing philosophically 8 3 The marvellous years 20 4 The censorious multitude 41 5 A true hermetic philosopher 54 6 One of God’s chosen few 72 7 The divine book 83 8 In the city 103 9 Lord and master of all 112 10 Centaurs and other animals 126 Further reading 133 Index 135 حق تکثیر: این کتاب در حریم عمومی فضای اینترنت قابل دسترسی است.