Robyn Arianrhod

Seduced by Logic (eBook, PDF)

Émilie Du Châtelet, Mary Somerville and the Newtonian Revolution

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Newton's explanation of the natural law of universal gravity shattered the way mankind perceived the universe, and hence it was not immediately embraced. After all, how can anyone warm to a force that cannot be seen or touched? But for two women, separated by time and space but joined in their passion for Newtonian physics, the intellectual power of that force drove them to great achievements. Brilliant, determined, and almost entirely self-taught, they dedicated their lives to explaining and disseminating Newton's discoveries. Robyn Arianrhod's Seduced by Logic tells the story of Emilie du Chatelet and Mary Somerville, who, despite living a century apart, were connected by their love for mathematics and their places at the heart of the most advanced scientific society of their age. When Newton published his revolutionary theory of gravity, in his monumental Principia of 1687, most of his Continental peers rejected it for its reliance on physical observation and mathematical insight instead of religious or metaphysical hypotheses. But the brilliant French aristocrat and intellectual Emilie du Chatelet and some of her early eighteenth-century Enlightenment colleagues--including her lover, Voltaire--realized the Principia had changed everything, marking the beginning of theoretical science as a predictive, quantitative, and secular discipline. Emilie devoted herself to furthering Newton's ideas in France, and her translation of the Principia is still the accepted French version of this groundbreaking work. Almost a century later, in Scotland, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from genteel poverty to become a world authority on Newtonian physics. She was fêted by the famous French Newtonian, Pierre Simon Laplace, whose six-volume Celestial Mechanics was considered the greatest intellectual achievement since the Principia. Laplace's work was the basis of Mary's first book, Mechanism of the Heavens; it is a bittersweet irony that this book, written by a woman denied entry to university because of her gender, remained an advanced university astronomy text for the next century. Combining biography, history, and popular science, Seduced by Logic not only reveals the fascinating story of two incredibly talented women, but also brings to life a period of dramatic political and scientific change. With lucidity and skill, Arianrhod explains the science behind the story, and explores - through the lives of her protagonists - the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian revolution and the development of intellectual and political liberty.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Oxford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 400
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. September 2012
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780199931620
• Artikelnr.: 38165077

Autorenporträt

Robyn Arianrhod is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University. She is the author of Einstein's Heroes.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction
1 Madame Newton du Châtelet
2 Creating the theory of gravity: the Newtonian controversy
3 Learning mathematics and fighting for freedom
4 Émilie and Voltaire's Academy of Free Thought
5 Testing Newton: the'New Argonauts'
6 The danger in Newton: life, love and politics
7 The nature of light: Émilie takes on Newton
8 Searching for 'energy': Émilie discovers Leibniz
9 Mathematics and free will
10 The re-emergence of Madame Newton du Châtelet
11 Love letters to Saint-Lambert
12 Mourning Émilie
13 Mary Fairfax Somerville
14 The long road to fame
15 Mechanism of the Heavens
16 Mary's second book: popular science in the nineteenth century
17 Finding light waves: the 'Newtonian Revolution' comes of age
18 Mary Somerville: a fortunate life
Epilogue: Declaring a point of view