Isaac Newton and the problem of the Earth's shape.

Details Isaac Newton and the problem of the Earth's shape. Isaac Newton and the problem of the Earth's shape.

Apr 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996ahes...49..371g&link_type=abstract

Arch. Hist. Exact Sci., Vol. 49, No. 4, p. 371 - 391

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

History Of Astronomy: Geodesy

Scientific paper

The author discusses the theory of the Earth's shape presented by Isaac Newton in Book III of his "Principia". It is shown that the theory struck even the most reputable continental mathematicians of the day as incomprehensible. The author examines the many obstacles to understanding the theory which the reader faced - the gaps, the underived equations, the unproven assertions, the dependence upon corollaries to practically incomprehensible theorems in Book I of the "Principia" and the ambiguities of these corollaries, the conjectures without explanations of their bases and so forth. The author explains why these apparent drawbacks are, historically considered, strengths of Newton's theory of the Earth's shape, not weaknesses.

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