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[ArticleMedia]
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
By Mike Farner
I recently read David Berinski’s Newton’s Gift and found it to be rather insightful. The book is a biography of Sir Isaac Newton, but it’s main intent is to examine some deeper details besides those regarding Newton’s life. It looks at Newton as a mind rather than a man and considers how that mind worked the way that it did.
Berlinski begins with Newton’s relatively uneventful childhood and describes some of the crucial events therein that helped to shape him in later years. As Newton’s life is relived within the pages of the book, the author delves into the specifics of Newton’s various accomplishments and how he arrived at those accomplishments. One such example of this is Berlinski’s analysis of Newton’s stream of thought in discovering the theory of gravitation. Berlinski begins the thought analysis by stating some of the obvious facts that Newton would have observed and then builds upon those facts with other implications. With this mechanism, Newton’s mind is reconstituted and the reader becomes acquainted not only with Newton’s life, but his intellectual being.
In addition to highlighting some of Isaac Newton’s more famed achievements, Berlinski also makes note of the fact that Newton was deeply involved in alchemy, which at the time was associated with witchcraft. Another tidbit that is mentioned is that Newton committed heresy by denying the validity of the Holy Trinity, something that many people were harshly punished for in 17th century England. Some of these lesser known facts are unearthed throughout the book and provide interesting details into the life of one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians ever to live.
In contrast to these seemingly obscure facts, light is also shed on the greatest mathematical battle in history. Newton was embroiled in this battle with Gottfried Leibniz over who came up with the calculus first. The effects of this were far-reaching and caused a divide between mathematicians on the European continent and those in England that lasted until the 19th century. This divide also had a profound effect on Newton’s life and possibly contributed his uneasiness about publishing his findings.
This book is a good read for anyone who is interested in math or physics because it provides an excellent insight into the development of monumental concepts like Newton’s second law (F = ma), and the law of universal gravitation (Fg = Gm1m2/r^2 ).
Despite some of the more technical points of the text, like when Newton’s proof the derivative is outlined, this is a very accessible read even if you know little or nothing about calculus or Newtonian mechanics.
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