Magnificent Principia: Exploring Isaac Newton's Masterpiece - Hardcover

Pask, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1616147458 ISBN 13: 9781616147457

Publisher: Prometheus, 2013

Synopsis

Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg has written that "all that has happened since 1687 is a gloss on the Principia." Now you too can appreciate the significance of this stellar work, regarded by many as the greatest scientific contribution of all time. Despite its dazzling reputation, Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or simply the Principia, remains a mystery for many people. Few of even the most intellectually curious readers, including professional scientists and mathematicians, have actually looked in the Principia or appreciate its contents. Mathematician Pask seeks to remedy this deficit in this accessible guided tour through Newton's masterpiece. Using the final edition of the Principia, Pask clearly demonstrates how it sets out Newton's (and now our) approach to science; how the framework of classical mechanics is established; how terrestrial phenomena like the tides and projectile motion are explained; and how we can understand the dynamics of the solar system and the paths of comets. He also includes scene-setting chapters about Newton himself and scientific developments in his time, as well as chapters about the reception and influence of the Principia up to the present day.

About this title

About the Author

Colin Pask (Canberra, Australia) is the author of Math for the Frightened: Facing Scary Symbols and Everything Else That Freaks You Out about Mathematics. He is an emeritus professor of mathematics and a visiting fellow and professor in the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia.

Reviews

Pask (Mathematics for the Frightened) offers an insightful and expansive look into Isaac Newton's complex and illuminating 1687 publication on classical mechanics, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, aka the Principia. The emeritus math professor (at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia) begins with a review of Newton's life and the 17th-century science scene. Copernicus's heliocentric theory and Galileo's observations had recently overturned ancient Greek and Islamic cosmological models that posited Earth as the center of the universe, and Kepler's laws of planetary motion demonstrated that the planets moved in ellipses, not perfect circles. Newton drew on the work of his predecessors and contemporaries, as well as his own experimentation and brilliant intuitions, and after years of secretive work, the intense, enigmatic, and mercurial thinker reluctantly published the Principia at the urging of astronomer and fellow Royal Society member Edmond Halley, who also funded its printing. Newton wrote very much in the style of the ancient Greeks to explain how gravity affects motion on Earth and in the heavens while simultaneously defining the differential calculus that would become an invaluable tool for the centuries of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians that would follow. Breaking the Principia down into easily digestible portions and suffusing his narrative with modern insights, Pask reveals the genius that built modern physics. (Aug.)

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface to the Paperback Edition:

The ancient fascination with the heavens is as strong as ever today as advances in science and engineering create new methods for  space exploration. We now routinely use satellites in such things  as GPS navigational systems and orbiting telescopes give us results with remarkable resolution. We plan trajectories to visit Mars, search for a ninth planet in the outer reaches of our solar system,  and space tourism is about to become a reality. The detection of gravitational waves tells us about  the very far reaches of the universe while exoplanets have been located orbiting the stars nearest to Earth. 

The tools we use to examine those possibilities and plan our exploration of space were first developed by Isaac Newton in his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (the Principia). However, even more than that, Newton introduces and shows how to use the scientific way of thinking that underpins so much in our modern way of life. The Principia is the first comprehensive book on science as we know it today. It remains as relevant today as it was three hundred years ago, for as Einstein put it, Newton’s “clear and wide ideas will forever retain their significance as the foundation on which our modern conceptions of physics  have been built.” 

As an example of that Newton suggested that we can understand the properties of matter on the large or macroscopic scale in terms of the interactions of its microscopic or atomic constituents. His demonstration of this approach for gases and liquids anticipated a vast amount of modern science. 

The Principia is indeed one of the "Great Books”. It is one of the treasures of our civilization ranking alongside Homer’s Odyssey, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Dicken’s Great Expectations. Sadly, despite its supreme importance, in comparison the Principia tends to be ignored. The book you now hold aims to change all that. It  provides a step-by-step guide to the Principia, its background, contents  and implications. You too can appreciate this unrivalled breakthrough moment on the road to our modern world. 

I am delighted that this new edition of Magnificent Principia will allow even more people to explore Newton’s masterpiece and learn about the origins of modern science. 
 
Colin Pask
December 2018

Edition details

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616147458
• ISBN 13: 9781616147457
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 528