The Clockwork Universe
Page 33
“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
Park, Katharine, 63
Pascal, Blaise, 38, 42, 112, 116–17, 198n, 226, 240
Pauli, Wolfgang, 349n 302
Pepys, Samuel, 21, 21n
on executions, 331n 78
on the Great Fire of London, 32
mathematics and, 42
on the plague, 21–22, 23, 24, 26–27
as president, Royal Society, 83, 348n 295
on Royal Society experiment, 81–82
Peter the Great, 262, 280
Petrarch, 20
Philosophical Transactions, 74, 270
photosynthesis, 87, 87n
physicists, 132–33
physics. See also motion
calculus and, 143, 244–52, 257
great discoveries and youth, 229–31
mystique of impenetrability and, 297–98
shooting a basketball, 257, 345n 257
universals and, 197
Physics (Aristotle), 94
Pilgrim’s Progress, A (Bunyan), 343n 226
plague (bubonic plague), 8, 9, 20–24
“Bless you” custom and, 22
closing of Cambridge, 28, 226
death carts, 27
death toll, 20, 26, 27
as divine punishment, 9, 27, 33
efforts to stop, 25–26
in England, xvi, 19, 20
epidemic of 1665, 19, 23–24
in Europe, xvi, 20, 21
in London, xiv, 21, 23–24, 25–28
nailing shut of houses and, 22–23
“searchers,” 23
spread of, via fleas, 20, 21, 27–28
symptoms, course of disease, 22
tolling of bells, 26, 27
in village of Eyam, 27–28
planets, 91
classical doctrine of circular orbits, 100–101
discovery of new, 105
distance from the sun, 168
elliptical orbits, 275, 279, 280–82, 281n, 317
planets (cont.)
Jupiter and moons, 110, 110–11
Jupiter’s and Saturn’s orbits, 146–50, 147
Kepler and, xiii, 146–56, 147, 149, 150, 151, 154, 158, 158n, 162–68, 164, 165, 275, 279
Mars’ orbit, 150
movement of, 100–101
Neptune, 152, 315
Pluto, 152, 152n
Saturn, path of, 100
sun-centered solar system, 97–99, 101, 112, 146, 154, 156, 160, 171
Uranus, 152, 315
weight of, 101–2
Plato, 122, 200, 327n 40
Plutarch, 283n
Poe, Edgar Allan, 348n 295
Pope, Alexander, 37, 122, 269, 317
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce), 205–6
Principia (Newton), xiv, 73, 127, 271, 285–87, 293–301, 318, 320, 351n 319
Book I, 286, 294
Book II, 286–87
Book III, 287, 288–89, 293, 294
calculus used in, 298–99
Chandrasekhar and, 73, 318–19, 331n 73
difficulty of, 297–300
first edition, first printing, 295–96, 297
gravitational theory, 295, 301–6
Halley and, 288–90, 291, 293, 296
seeking God in, 307–13
as “System of the World,” 294
theorem at center of, 293–94
Proust, Marcel, 257
Ptolemy, 99, 100, 100
Pythagoras, 36, 67n
music and, 129, 129n, 157–58
mystical properties of numbers, 130
Pythagorean theorem, 137, 137–39, 139, 139–41, 140, 143n, 189
Quakers, 77
quantum physics and quantum theories, 258, 302, 349n 302
Rabi, I. I., 230
Ray, John, 34, 126
“Red-Headed League, The” (Doyle), 177
relativity, theory of, 171–72, 229, 298
religion, 10–12
apocalypse, 13–19
belief in the impossible, 62, 63, 85n
curiosity as a sin, 63–64
experiments as incompatible with, 62–63
fear of damnation, 10
heaven and hell, location of, 113
punishment of dissenters, 77
salvation and the elect, 10
science and, 89
seeking God through science, 307–13
seventeenth century as “God-drenched era,” 38, 39
Rossi, Paolo, 69n
Rota, Gian-Carlo, 133
Royal Society of London
air, weighing of, 84, 86
applied technology and, 84
challenging tradition that new is dangerous, 61–62
cranks and strange experiments, 51
experimentation, focus on, 59–65, 72
flying chariot report and, 51–52
formal charter received, 11
founding, xiv
The History of Fishes, 296
Hooke and experiments at, 66
investigation vs. scholarship, 72
meetings of, 58–65
membership, 1660, 3–6
microscope and, 118
motto: “Nullius in Verba,” 58, 75
new and old ideas at, 50–57
Newton joins, xiv
Newton-Leibniz feud and, 269–70
Newton president, 5, 262, 269–70, 292
Newton’s paper on light, 51
openness vs. secrecy in, 66–71
Pepys president, 83
plague year and, 26
plain speaking and, 70, 71
poison experiments, 81, 332n 81
ridicule of, 86
scientific collaboration and, 4
scientific journal of, 74
spiders investigated, 51
transfusion experiments, 60–61, 61, 81–82, 332n 81
vacuum chamber experiments, 4, 59–60, 65
world’s first official scientific organization, 5
Rudolph II, Emperor, 165
Rupert, Prince of the Rhine, 59–60
Russell, Bertrand, 133, 169, 238–39, 297
Sagan, Carl, 111n
Schaffer, Simon, 345n 242
science/scientific revolution
abstraction and, 197–99
America’s founding fathers and, 315–16
belief in progress, 84–85, 96
birth of the modern age, 34, 314
chemistry and, 55–56
common sense challenged, 90–94, 97–102
debate over scientists’ character and motives, 307, 307n
disdain for the past, 56–57
experimentation, focus on, 61–65
fear and new views, 99
feuds and, 266
founding fathers of, 3–6, 35
as a free-fo
r-all, 58
goals and purposes of the universe and, 93
God made irrelevant by, 309–10, 317
God sought through science, 307–13, 320
how objects move and, 208–9
laughter as reaction to discoveries, 83
mathematics and, 88, 199
modern, as unfathomable, 302
old beliefs clung to and, 52–57, 85n
openness vs. secrecy and, 66–71, 73–74
poets on, 95
skepticism and, 63–64
study of objects in motion and problem of infinity, 200–206
truth and, 224
wisdom of the ancients and, 36, 37, 62
scientists, 7n. See also Royal Society
as elite, 68, 73
scientists (cont.)
feuds among, 75
new generation, inspired by Newton, 73–74
openness vs. secrecy and, 66–71, 73–74
as part-time or needing patronage, 74–75
peer review, 74
prejudice against applied knowledge, 69, 69n
satirizing of, 84, 85–89
seventeenth century
“all things are numbers,” 129
apocalyptic beliefs, 13–19
birth of the modern age, 34
“Bless you” custom, 22
as callous and cruel era, 76–82, 78, 79
chain of being, 121–23
cities, xv
crime and punishment, 76–78, 78, 78n
cynicism and self-indulgence, 15
dedication page of books, 71
disease as divine punishment, xv
dissections as entertainment, 76, 78–79
education, 42, 62
formality and etiquette, 70–71
lack of toilets, xvi
life expectancy, 7
living conditions, xv, 34
mathematics, view of, 143
nursery rhymes, 80
omens and signs, xv, 16–17
personal hygiene, xvi, xvin
precariousness of life in, 7–8
religion, 10–12, 38
supernatural beliefs and, 6
torture as entertainment, 77
wigs worn, 58
world as cosmic code or God’s riddle, 143–44
ye, 25n
Shadwell, Thomas, 85–86
Shakespeare, William, xiii, xv, 169, 231
Shapin, Steven, 335n 109
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (Edwards), 11
Sleepwalkers, The (Koestler), 339n 145
slope, 212–13, 248, 251
Smyter, Sarah, 8
Solomon, King, 36
Sophia Dorothea, queen consort, 263
sound, 274
Spinoza, Baruch, 327n 37
Starry Messenger, The (Galileo), 105–6
“Starry Night” (Van Gogh), 92n
stars
Cassiopeia, 106, 106n
fusion in, 67–68
Greek understanding of, 91–92
Milky Way, 106, 110
movement of, 100
predictable locations of, 91–92, 92n, 156, 333n 92fn
supernova, 106n
Tycho Brahe’s new star, 106–7, 106n
Stewart, Ian, 255–56, 345n 254
Strickland, Lloyd, 344n 237
sun, 304
-centered solar system, 97–99, 112, 146, 154, 156, 160, 171
fusion in, 67–68
gravity and, 302
right triangle of Earth, sun, moon, 138n
solar eclipse, 303–4
Swift, Jonathan, 87–88
Taswell, William, 33
telescope, 52, 335n 109
Galileo and discoveries, 99, 102, 105–13, 110
glory of God and, 117, 119
Harriot and, 239n, 345n 239fn
man’s place in the universe and, 112–13, 116
military uses, 108–9, 335n 109
moon and, 86
Mount Wilson’s, 88
Pepys and, 83
Thirty Years’ War, xiii, xvi, 134, 235
Thomas, Keith, 80
Thompson, Francis, 348n 295
Throgmorton, Sir William, 51
Thurber, James, 83n
time, as variable, 183–86
Tolstoy, Leo, 231
transfusions, 60–61, 61, 332n 81
Tycho Brahe, 106–7, 106n, 158–61, 159n
Kepler and, 155–56, 158–61
nose of, 159
uncertainty principle, 229
universe. See also planets; sun; stars
anthropomorphizing of, 93
Biblical dating of, 128
clockwork universe, xvii, 18, 182–83, 274, 310, 311–13, 316
earth-centered, 91, 112, 113, 160, 176, 335n 112
eclipse prediction, 101
Einstein and shape of, 88
fifth element of, quintessence, 92
Greek view of, 90–92
life on other worlds, 99, 143n
man-centered, 95–96, 112–13, 116, 309–10
Milky Way, 106, 110
motions of the stars, 100
planets, 91, 100, 100–101, 105, 110, 110–11
position of stars in the sky, 92, 92n
Ptolemaic model, 99–100, 100, 335n 112
right triangle of Earth, sun, moon, 138n
size of, 113
sun-centered solar system, 97–99, 112, 146, 154, 156, 160, 171
Urban VIII, Pope, 170
U. S. Constitution, 316
vacuum chamber, 4, 59–60, 65, 198n
vacuums, 197–98, 198n, 286
falling objects and, 188
van Doesburg, Theo, 196
Van Gogh, Vincent, 92n
Vermeer, Jan, 115n
Vicars, George, 27–28
Vidal, Gore, 75
Virtuoso, The (Shadwell), 85–86
Voltaire, 45, 127, 158n, 235, 236, 297, 317
Wallis, John, 231
Watson, James, 155
Watts, Isaac, 12
“weapon salve,” 50, 50n, 52
Westfall, Richard, 232, 319, 343n 226, 351n 319
Whewell, William, 300
Whiston, William, 311
Whitehead, Alfred North, xvii, 42, 195, 342n 195
Whiteside, D. T., 343n 226
Whitman, Walt, 95
Wilson, Woodrow, 316
Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation, The (Ray), 126
witches, 54, 85n, 134
Woolf, Virginia, 105
Wordsworth, William, 317
Wotton, Sir Henry, 105
Wren, Christopher, 4–5, 14n, 115, 278, 279, 280
in Royal Society, 50
splenectomies by, 80, 81
Zeno, 200
Zeno’s paradox, 201–2, 215, 215–16, 219–21
zero, 195, 196, 211, 215, 219
Also by Edward Dolnick
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Copyright
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1 The historian Jules Michelet described the Middle Ages as “a thousand years without a bath.”
2 For convenience I will use the word scientist, though the word only came into use in the 1800s. The seventeenth century had not settled on a convenient term for these investigators. Sometimes they were called “natural philosophers” or “virtuosos.”
3 Christopher Wren’s father, a prominent cleric who also had a deep interest in mathematics, calculated the apocalypse in a different way. A list of the Roman numerals, in order from biggest to smallest—MDCLXVI—corresponded to the date 1666, which “may bode some ominous Matter, and perhaps the last End.”
4 They cited passages such as Revelation 11:3: “I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” Scholars took each day to represent a year.
5Pepys is pronounced “peeps.”
6 The ye we are all familiar with (“Ye Fox and Hounds Tavern”) was pronounced “the.” The use of the letter y was a typographical convention, like f for s.
7 God watched over the highest and the humblest. In Queen Elizabeth’s reign the bishops of Canterbury, London, and Ely declared “this continued sterility in your Highness’ person to be a token of God’s displeasure towards us.”
8 In 1823 a twenty-one-year-old Hungarian named Johann Bolyai conceived the inconceivable: a universe in which parallel lines meet and straight lines curve. In 1919 Einstein proved that we live in such a universe.