The Clockwork Universe

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The Clockwork Universe Page 31

by Edward Dolnick

MacIntosh, J. J. “Locke and Boyle on Miracles and God’s Existence.” In Hunter, ed., Robert Boyle Reconsidered.

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  Illustration Credits

  Page 1 © Trustees of the Portsmouth Estate. Reproduced by kind permission of the Tenth Earl of Portsmouth. Photo by Jeremy Whitaker.

  Page 2 Courtesy of the Governors of Christ�
��s Hospital.

  Page 3 Top: Public domain

  Bottom: Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig. Kunstmuseum des Landes Niedersachsen. Museumsfoto: B. P. Keiser.

  Page 4 Top: Detail from the Bayeux Tapestry—11th Century. By special permission of Bayeux.

  Bottom: Public domain.

  Page 5 All public domain.

  Page 6 Top: Portrait of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) 1666 (oil on canvas) by John Hayls (fl.1651–76). National Portrait Gallery, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.

  Bottom: © Museum of London.

  Page 7 Top: © CORBIS.

  Bottom: Bull and bear baiting (woodcut) (b&w photo) by English School.

  Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library.

  Page 8 Top: Public domain.

  Bottom left: SSPL/Science Museum/Getty Images.

  Bottom right: Wellcome Library, London.

  Page 9 All public domain.

  Page 10 All public domain.

  Page 11 Public domain.

  Page 12 Top: Portrait of Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), astronomer and physicist (drawing), by Ottavio Mario Leoni (c.1578–1630). Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence, Italy/The Bridgeman Art Library.

  Bottom: Gal. 48, fol. 28r, Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale. Reproduced by kind permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Italy/Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Firenze. This image cannot be reproduced in any form without the authorization of the Library, the owners of the copyright.

  Page 13 Top: Pythagoras (c.580–500 BC) discovering the consonances of the octave, from “Theorica Musicae” by Franchino Gaffurio, first published in 1480, from 'Revue de l’Histoire du Theatre,' 1959 (engraving) (b/w photo) by French School (20th century). Bibliothèque des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France/Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library.

  Bottom: Pythagoras (c.580–500 BC), Greek philosopher and mathematician, Roman copy of Greek original (marble) by Pinacoteca Capitolina, Palazzo Conservatori, Rome, Italy/Index/The Bridgeman Art Library.

  Page 14 Top: Public domain.

  Bottom: Telescope belonging to Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), 1671 by English School.

  Royal Society, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.

  Page 15 Top: Portrait of Edmond Halley, c.1687 (oil on canvas) by Thomas Murray (1663–1734).

  Royal Society, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.

  Bottom: Wellcome Library, London.

  Page 16 © Werner Forman/CORBIS.

  Index

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  ABC of Relativity (Russell), 297

  abstraction, 192, 195–99, 196, 219, 222, 230, 246, 305, 342n 195, 342n 198

  acceleration, 93, 96, 209, 254–56

  Aczel, Amir, 138n

  Adler, Alfred W., 267

  Agassiz, Louis, 128

  Albert of Saxony, 202–3

  alchemy, 6, 54–56

  chemistry and, 55–56

  Newton and, 48, 55–56, 72, 278

  “philosopher’s stone,” 55, 252

  Alfonso the Wise, 62

  America’s founding fathers, 315–16

  Anne, Queen of England, 262

  Archimedes, 42, 187, 190, 252, 283n, 284

  Aristotle, 45, 62, 92, 94, 96, 174, 189, 190

  Earth as immobile, 98–99, 172, 174

  Galileo refutes, 93, 172, 187, 188

  worldview, 197–98

  astrology, xv, 17, 64, 145, 146, 147, 156, 165, 227, 228

  astronomy, xv, 89, 111, 112. See also moon; planets; stars; sun; universe

  birth of modern, 156, 339n 145

  Copernicus and, xiii, 97–102, 112

  Galileo and, xiii, 102, 105–6, 112–13

  gravitational theory and, 315

  Kepler and, xiii, 145–61

  Tycho Brahe and, 106–7, 106n, 159–61, 159n

  Aubrey, John, 65n, 78n

  Augustine, St., 63–64, 130, 130n

  Bacon, Francis, 65, 65n, 144

  Baker, Henry, 336n 120

  Barrow, Isaac, 343n 226

  Barzun, Jacques, 38

  Beethoven, Ludwig von, 231

  Bellarmine, Cardinal, 113

  Biagioli, Mario, 334n 98

  Bible

  Boyle’s study of, 18

  as code or cipher, 18, 35

  creation, date of, 128

  date of doomsday, 13–14, 14n, 18

  earth-centered universe of, 97

  fear of critical investigation and, 89

  mysteries as divine, 63

  Newton’s study of, 18, 35, 48, 231–32, 274, 311, 325n 18

  binomial theorem, 228, 228n

  Bohr, Niels, 229, 302, 349n 302

  Bolyai, Johann, 39n

  Boorstin, Daniel, 62, 260

  Boyle, Robert, 4, 18, 30, 50, 51, 56, 68, 83, 242

  applied technology and, 84

  argument against secrecy, 67

  dead men and hangings, 53, 54

  experiment on pet dog, 80

  experiments at the Royal Society, 59–60, 81

  Boyle’s law, 56

  Bronowski, Jacob, 125

  Brown, Gregory, 346n 262

  Bruno, Giordano, 314

  Bunyan, John, 343n 226

  Butler, Samuel, 86–87

  calculus, 221–22, 223, 241–52

  acceleration and, 254–56

  derivation of word, 223

  forerunners of, 226

  impact of discoveries, 258

  integration, 229

  Leibniz and, xiv, 43–44, 47, 241–52, 268

  Leibniz’s notations, 268–69, 268n

  Newton and, xiv, 225–32, 241–52, 268, 269

  Newton-Leibniz feud, xiv, 259–70

  revelations of, 256–58

  Cambridge, England

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

  plague in 1665 and, 28, 226

  Stourbridge Fair at, 226–27, 343n 226

  Candide (Voltaire), 235

  Cardano, Girolamo, 66–67

  Caroline, Princess of Wales, 262, 263–65

  Cartesian coordinates, 194, 341n 193

  Cassirer, Ernst, 236

  cat piano, 79, 79–80

  Celestial Mechanics (Laplace), 317

  chain of being, 121–23

  Chandrasekhan, Subrahmanyan, 132–33, 230–31, 285, 318–19, 331n 73

  Charles I, xiv, 15

  Charles II, 8, 15, 17, 30, 32, 58

  charters the Royal Society, 83

  grisly interest in anatomy, 78–79

  microscope and, 116

  science and, 83–84

  circle, 40, 40, 43, 101, 136, 163, 164n, 166, 191, 192

  planetary orbits and, 100–101, 147, 147, 148, 149–50, 150, 163–64, 164, 172, 275

  Clarke, Samuel, 264–65, 311–12

  clockwork universe, xvii, 18, 182–83, 274, 310, 311–13, 316

  Coga, Arthur, 60–61

  Cohen, I. Bernard, 74, 299

  comets, 16–17, 40, 43, 75, 101, 294, 295, 302

  Conduitt, John, 272

  consciousness, 302

  Copernicus, Nicolaus, xiii, 97–99, 101–2, 112, 113, 146, 150, 156, 160, 170, 171, 172

  Cromwell, Oliver, 3, 38, 70n

  Croone, William, 81–82

  Crosby, Alfred, 192n

  d’Alembert, Jean, 224

  Dantzig, Tobias, 202

  Darwin, Charles, 112, 127, 128, 256, 266, 302n

  Daston, Lorraine, 63

  Day of Doom, 11

  day of judgment (apocalypse), 13–19

  Revelation 11:3, 14n

  timing of, 14–15, 14n, 19

  Defense, The (Nabokov), 132

  Descartes, René, xiii, xviii, 5, 42, 54, 79, 97, 190, 194–95, 200, 286

  Cartesian coordinates, 194, 341n 193

  coordinate geometry, xiii, 1
90–93, 226, 227, 228, 240

  graphs, 191–92, 194, 200, 212–13, 213, 341n 193

  negative/imaginary numbers and, 196

  vacuums, 198n, 286

  Dialogues (Plato), 200

  Diderot, Denis, 45

  Digby, Sir Kenelm, 50, 50n, 52

  Dirac, Paul, 229–30, 295, 348n 295

  Discourse on Method (Descartes), 194–95

  disease, xv, xvi, 7–8, 9, 80n. See also plague

  four “humors” and, 80–81

  Donne, John, 11, 26, 71, 102

  Earth. See also planets; universe

  Aristotle’s immobile, 98–99, 172, 174

  earth-centered universe, 91, 112, 113, 160, 176, 335n 112

  four elements theory, 92

  gravity and, 305

  Greek understanding of, 92

  hell, location within, 113

  mathematical laws for, 93–94

  right triangle of Earth, sun, moon, 138n

  speed of, 175

  as spinning and moving, 97–99, 101, 111, 112, 170, 172

  Eddington, Arthur, 298

  education, 42, 62, 69–70, 69n

  Edward III, 27

  Edwards, Jonathan, 11

  Einstein, Albert, 39n, 88, 125, 132, 133, 169, 283, 304, 306, 338n 143

  special relativity, 171–72, 229, 298

  Elements of Newton’s Philosophy (Voltaire), 297

  Elizabeth I, 37n, 78

  ellipses, 40, 40, 163–65, 164, 164n, 166, 179, 275, 278

  inverse-square laws and, 281–82, 282n

  England in the seventeenth century

  beheading of Charles I, xiv, 15

  bulldog, 80

  Civil War, xiii, xvi, 44

  comets in 1664–1665, 16

  crime and punishment, 53–54, 76–78, 78, 78n, 331n 78

  Hanoverian claim to the throne, 261

  as incurring God’s anger, 17

  Newton-Leibniz feud, 259–70

  plague (bubonic plague), xvi

  practicality celebrated, 88

  Puritan rule, 15

  Restoration (of monarchy), 15

  scientific rise in, 98

  Euclid, 40, 135, 190, 227, 240, 298

  five “Platonic solids” and, 152–53, 153, 339n 153

  Euclid’s geometry, 40, 40

  Evelyn, John, 32–33, 60

  evolution, 127, 128, 266, 309

  experimentation

  on animals, 59, 79–82

  blood transfusions, 60–61, 61, 81–82

  on dogs, 80–82, 86

  experimentation (cont.)

 

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