The Clockwork Universe (39 page)

Hodges, Nathaniel, 24

Holland, 21

Hooke, Robert, 4, 59, 86

on aim of science, 69–70

appearance, 75, 291

argument for secrecy, 68

character and personality, 290–91

feuds with Newton and others, 75, 290–92, 293

inverse-square laws and planetary orbits, 279, 280, 289, 290

microscope and, 114–15,
118
, 118–19

Royal Society experiments, 59, 66

study of art, 70, 70n

vacuum chamber, 4, 59–60, 65

Houtermans, Fritz, 67–68, 330n 68

Hudson, Henry, 107

Huxley, Aldous, 319

Huxley, Thomas, 127

Huygens, Christiaan, 75, 240, 305

Hydrostatical Paradoxes
(Boyle), 83

 

infinity, 200–209,
202
, 216n, 219–21

Galileo and, 203–5,
204

God and, 234, 344n 234

Greek's fear of, 201–2, 253

Leibniz and, 222–23

mathematical limits and, 219–21, 224

mathematics and, 208

motion and, 202, 208–9, 225

Newton and, 222

paradox and, 203

points on a line and,
207
, 207–8

Zeno's paradox, 201–2,
215
, 215–16, 219–21

Inquisition, xiii, 205, 314

inverse-square laws, 228, 274–75, 277, 279, 280, 281–82, 282n, 286, 289, 290, 292, 294

Italy

burning of Giordano Bruno, 314

Galileo's, 171

plague (bubonic plague), 21

scientific decline in, 98, 334n 98

trial of Galileo, xiii, 205

 

Jefferson, Thomas, 316

Johnson, Samuel, 73

Jonson, Ben, 75

Joyce, James, 205–6

 

Keats, John, 95

Kepler, Johannes, xviii, 5, 41, 145–68, 304–5

birth, xiii

character and personality, 146, 158–59

clockwork universe and, 182

death, xiii

escape into abstractions, 134

idea about force propelling the planets and, 156

as imperial mathematician, 165

laws of, xiii, 158n, 162–68, 169, 182, 190, 275, 294

mother's imprisonment, 134

Mystery of the Universe
, 155–56, 160

patterns and, 157–58

planetary orbits and, 146–56,
147
,
149
,
150
,
151
,
154
, 158, 162–68,
164
,
165
, 275, 278, 281

theory of, 155

Tycho Brahe and, 158–61

Keynes, John Maynard, 48, 56

King Lear
(Shakespeare), 231

Kircher, Athanasius,
79
, 79–80

Kline, Morris, 10, 131

Koestler, Arthur, 101, 339n 145

Kuhn, Thomas, 99

 

Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 73n, 316–17, 331n 73

Laws
(Plato), 327n 40

laws of nature, xvii–xviii

cosmos ordered by, 34–35

as few and simple, 124–25, 126, 132

Galileo's law of pendulums, 183

Galileo's on motion, 40–41, 173, 185–86, 189, 294

as God's mind, xviii, 35, 132, 143–44, 146

Greeks and geometry, 130,
130

Kepler's laws, xiii, 158n, 162–68, 169, 182, 190, 294

in mathematical form, 123–24

Newton's laws of motion, 42–44, 173–74, 179–81,
180
,
181
, 294

Pythagorean theorem and, 142

randomness discounted, 127–28

Leeuwenhoek, Antonie van, 114, 115, 115n, 223

microscopic world and, xiv, 114, 115–16, 336n 114

sperm cells seen by, 115–16, 116n, 336n 115

Vermeer and, 115n

Leibniz, Gottfried, 34–35,
47
, 233–44, 303, 328n 47

alchemy and, 55

appearance, 46, 239

“best of all possible worlds,” 234, 235, 327n 35

binary language and computer, 239, 239n

birth, xiv, 239

calculus discovery published, xiv, 242, 243, 268

calculus invented, xiv, 43–44, 47, 241–52, 268

calculus notations, 268–69, 268n

Candide
and, 235

Caroline, Princess of Wales and, 263–65, 317–18

character and personality, 46, 225, 239–40, 268

Clarke correspondence, 265

Collected Works, 238

Leibniz, Gottfried
(cont.)

death, xiv, 317, 318

as genius, 46–47, 233, 237, 238–39, 241

God, view of, 123–24, 234, 235–36, 312

gravitational theory and, 303, 305, 306

Hanoverian court and, 261–64, 346n 262

infinitesimals, 222–23, 241

mathematics and, 240–42

“miracle year,” xiv, 241

on music, 183n

on nature, 125

Newton and, xiv, 75, 242–43, 259–70, 306, 308, 310–13, 317

reputation, 317

style as frenetic, 47, 238

talents and accomplishments, 45–46, 237–39

vacuums and, 198n

Websites, 344n 237, 346n 262

Lely, Peter, 70n

lenses, 107–8, 114

Le Verrier, Urbain, 315

L'Hôpital, Marquis de, 320

light

angles of,
130
, 130,
131
, 131

brightness of, 274

Newton's properties of, 48, 51, 74, 136, 291

speed and medium for, 131,
131

Lincoln, Abraham, 219

Locke, John, 52, 176, 288

London

bear- and bull-baiting, 80

buildings and structures, 31

coffeehouses, 278–79, 278n

as disease-ridden, 7

executions, 77–78,
78
, 331n 78

Globe Theatre, xvi

Great Fire of, xiv, 29–33

Hanging Days, 53

living conditions, xv, 3

Newton in, xiv, 262

plague and, xiv, 21, 23–24, 25–28

St. Paul's Cathedral, 5, 33

theaters, 3

Thomas Gresham's mansion, 3

London Bridge, 29, 30, 32,
78
, 78

Louis XIV, xvi, 44, 58, 239, 240

Luther, Martin, 16

 

Macauley, Thomas, 262

Manuel, Frank, 328n 44

mathematics, 39–40, 42

abstraction and, 73, 195–99, 222

beauty of, 93–94, 94n, 95

binomial theorem, 228

calculus, xiv, 43, 221–22, 241–52, 254–56, 258

of change, 214–15 (
see also
calculus)

Descartes' coordinate geometry, xiii, 190–93, 226, 227, 228, 240

as escape from ordinary world, 133

Fermat's last theorem, 138n

Galileo's rule (
d = 16 t
²
)
,
245
, 245–46, 253–55

God as mathematician, 39, 41, 121–25, 127, 132, 157, 294

graphs, 191–92, 192n, 194

great discoveries and youth, 229–31

great-man theories, 267

Greeks and, 39–40, 42, 135–39

imaginary numbers, 196

infinity and, 208, 219–21

as language of nature, xvii, xviii, 6, 41, 93–95, 94n

as language of science, 199

moving objects and, 42–43 (
see also
falling objects; motion)

mystical properties of numbers, 130

negative numbers, 195–96, 219

Newton's
Principia
as world's most difficult geometry book, 73

passion for, 132–33

patterns and, 135–39

plain speaking and, 70

Platonic solids, 152–53,
153
,
154
, 339n 153

prime numbers, 136, 136n

problem of square root of 2, 67n

proof, 136–37, 139–41,
140

Pythagorean theorem,
137
, 137–39,
139
, 139–41,
140
, 143n

ridicule of mathematicians, 87–88

secrecy in, 66–67, 67n

sequences, 220, 220n

triangle, 149

as universal tool, 214

zero, 195, 219

medicine, 7–8, 53–54, 80–81

Mermin, David, 334n 96

Michelangelo, 231, 307

Michelet, Jules, xvin, 323n xviiifn

Micrographia
(Hooke),
118
, 118–19

microscope, 52, 83n, 114–19

discoveries with, 114–16

fly's eyes,
118
, 119

geometric shapes seen, 120, 336n 120

glory of God and, 117, 119, 120

Hooke and, 114–15,
118
, 118–19

Leeuwenhoek and, xiv, 52, 114, 115–16, 116n, 336n 114, 336n 115

Pepys and, 83

sperm cells seen, 115–16, 116n, 336n 115

“Mistress of Vision, The” (Thompson), 348n 295

Molière, 301

Montaigne, Michel de, 112–13

Montesquieu, 125

moon, 138n

Newton's theory of gravity and, 273–77,
276
, 305

as a problem for the Greeks, 91n

telescope and revelations, 86, 106, 109–10

More, Henry, 99, 128

More, Thomas, 78n

Moses, 36

motion, 143, 208, 252.
See also
falling objects

acceleration and, 93, 96, 209, 254–56

Aristotle's theory, 94

average speed, 209

calculus and, 143, 244–52, 257

cannonball's flight,
178
, 180–81, 213–14,
214
, 257, 341n 181

Galileo's concept of time as variable, 183–86

Galileo's experiments and, 124, 172–79,
178
, 183–86,
184

Galileo's law of, 178, 189, 244–46,
245
, 253–55

graphs and, 212,
213

infinity and, 202, 208–9, 221, 225, 241

instantaneous speed, 210–11, 215–16, 221, 247–52,
248
,
249
,
251

Newton's laws of motion, 42, 173–74, 179–81,
180
,
181
, 341n 181

speed, 254

steady change, 209, 212–13,
213

Zeno's paradox and, 201–2,
215
, 215–16

Munch, Edvard, 333n 92fn

music, 95

Galileo and, 183

Kepler and, 157–58

Leibniz on, 183n

Pythagoras and, 129, 129n, 157–58

staff as Europe's first graph, 192n

Mystery of the Universe, The
(Kepler), 155–56, 160

 

Nabokov, Vladimir, 132

Napoleon Bonaparte, 317

natural philosophers, 4, 7n

Nayler, James, 77

Never at Rest
(Westfall), 319, 351n 319

New Astronomy
(Galileo), 170

Newton, Hannah, 44, 328n 44

Newton, Isaac, 35, 41, 44–45, 125, 225–32

admiration of and fame, 45, 261, 264, 271, 315, 316, 317, 318

alchemy and, 48, 55–56, 72

animals, concern for, 79

appearance, 46

apple story, 272, 272n

belief he was chosen, 231–32, 233

Bible study by, 18, 35, 48, 231–32, 274, 311, 325n 18

birth, xiv, 44, 98, 231

calculus invented, xiv, 43, 44, 225–32, 241–52, 268, 269

in Cambridge, xiv, 5, 28, 48, 241, 271, 272, 278–80, 290, 320

character and personality, 5, 35, 36–37, 46, 73, 135, 225, 226, 267–70, 288–89, 319–20

death, xiv, 5, 45

deliberate arcaneness of publications, 72–73

Descartes' coordinate geometry and, 227–28, 240

elliptical orbits and, 279–82

experiments on his eye,
49
, 49

feud with Flamsteed, 75

feud with Hooke, 75, 289–90, 291–92, 293

genius of, 46–47, 232, 256, 262, 318–20

God, view of, 41, 273, 277, 312, 320

God and gravity, 307–13, 315

God as mathematician, 124, 125

gravity and, xiv, xvii, 35, 48, 73, 127, 190, 229, 271–77,
276
, 283–85, 295, 315

Halley and, xiv, 279–80, 288–90, 293

infinity and, 222

intelligent design and, 128

inverse-square laws, 228, 274–75, 277, 279, 280, 281–82, 282n, 286, 289, 290, 292, 294

knighting of, xiv, 261–62, 314

lack of travel, 48

laws of motion, 42–44, 173–74, 179–81,
180
,
181
, 341n 181

Leibniz and, xiv, 75, 242–43, 259–70, 306, 310–13, 317

light, properties of, 48, 51, 74, 136, 229, 291

list of sins compiled, 11–12

in London, xiv

mathematics and, 132, 135, 226–29, 231, 232, 282–85, 343n 226

“miracle years,” xiv, 226–32, 278

natural laws and, 34

Newton Project website, 325n 18

“on the shoulders of giants” remark, 75, 145, 291

Optiks
, 261, 308

papers obtained by Keynes, 56

posthumous influence, 315–16

Principia
, xiv, 73, 127, 271, 285–87, 293–301

religious motivation, 307–13

Royal Society member, xiv, 290

Royal Society president, 5, 262, 269–70, 292

Stourbridge Fair and, 226–27, 229

style as focused, obsessive, 47–49, 283–84

telescope designed by, 290

vacuums, 198n

as warden of the Mint, 262

Newtonianism for Ladies
, 297

 

Olson, Donald, 333n 92fn

“On the Motion of Bodies in Orbit” (Newton), 281, 284

On the Plurality of Worlds
(Fontenelle), 111

On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres
(Copernicus), xiii, 98

Optiks
(Newton), 261, 308

Origin of Species, The
(Darwin), 127

Oxford University, 48, 62

 

parabola, 40,
40
, 179,
245
, 246, 256–57