The investigation of difficult things: Essays on Newton and the history of the exact sciences in honour of D. T. Whiteside

A Collection Of Twenty Original Essays In The History Of Science And Mathematics, Written In Honour Of D. T. Whiteside. The Topics Covered Embrace The Main Themes Of Whiteside's Work, Emphasizing Newtonian Topics, And Are Grouped Under The Headings: Mathematics And Astronomy Before Newton; Newton's Manuscripts; Newton's Principia; Newton And Eighteenth-century Mathematics And Physics; After Newton: Optics And Dynamics. The Focus On These Themes Gives The Volume Considerable Coherence. This Unique Volume Of Essays Makes Available Important Original Work On Newton And The History Of The Exact Sciences.--book Jacket. Lunar Velocity In The Ptolemaic Tradition / Bernard R. Goldstein -- Shadow Measurement : The Sciametria From Kepler's Hipparchus : A Translation With Commentary / N.m. Swerdlow -- Descartes, Pappus' Problem, And The Cartesian Parabola : A Conjecture / Henk J.m. Bos -- Honoré Fabry (1607-1688) Als Mathematiker : Eine Reprise / Emil A. Fellmann -- Sotheby's, Keynes And Yahuda : The 1936 Sale Of Newton's Manuscripts / P.e. Spargo -- De Scriptoribus Chemicis : Sources For The Establishment Of Isaac Newton's (al)chemical Library / Karin Figala, John Harrison And Ulrich Petzold -- Beyond The Dating Game : Watermark Clusters And The Composition Of Newton's Opticks / Alan E. Shapiro -- The Critical Role Of Curvature In Newton's Developing Dynamics / J. Bruce Brackenridge -- Newton And The Absolutes : Sources / A. Rupert Hall. Newton's Ontology Of The Force Of Inertia / Zev Bechler -- Newton's Mathematical Principles Of Natural Philosophy : A Treatise On 'mechanics'? / Alan Gabbey -- The Review Of The First Edition Of Newton's Principia In The Acta Eruditorum, With Notes On The Other Reviews / I. Bernard Cohen -- Newton, Cotes, And [square Root Square Root]2 : A Footnote To Newton's Theory Of The Resistance Of Fluids / D.h. Fowler -- A Study Of Spirals : Cotes And Varignon / Ronald Gowing -- The Fragmentation Of The European Mathematical Community / Lenore Feigenbaum -- Euler On Action-at-a-distance And Fundamental Equations In Continuum Mechanics / Curtis Wilson -- St Peter And The Rotation Of The Earth : The Problem Of Fall Around 1800 / Domenico Bertoloni Meli -- Why Stokes Never Wrote A Treatise On Optics / Jed Z. Buchwald -- Maxwell And Saturn's Rings : Problems Of Stability And Calculability / P.m. Harman. Poincaré, Topological Dynamics, And The Stability Of The Solar System / Jeremy Gray. Edited By P.m. Harman And Alan E. Shapiro. Publications Of D.t. Whiteside: P. Xiii-xvi. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This book is a collection of twenty original essays on the history of science and mathematics, written in honor of D.T. Whiteside. The topics covered embrace the main themes of Whiteside's scholarly work, emphasizing Newtonian topics including: mathematics and astronomy, Newton's manuscripts, Newton's Principia, Newton and eighteenth-century mathematics and physics, and optics and dynamics after Newton. The focus of these themes gives the volume considerable coherence, and these essays make available important original work on Newton and the history of the exact sciences. In ancient and medieval astronomy lunar velocity is used to compute the duration of eclipses and the time from mean syzygy to true syzygy.