3 ms·
Chandrashekar's book is a wonderful labor of love by a brilliant Physicist, but it's really a translation of the Principia into modern physics and mathematics,
by libraryofbabel 6y ago
Chandrashekar's book is a wonderful labor of love by a brilliant Physicist, but it's really a translation of the Principia into modern physics and mathematics, with little attention paid to historical context.
To understand the book (and Newton) on their own terms, you have to go to the historians of science. I'd recommend pairing Chandrashekar with I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman's translation of The Principia, I. Bernard Cohen's, A Guide to Newton’s Principia, Robert Westfall's biography Never at Rest, and the more recent synthesis of Newton scholarship, The Cambridge Companion to Newton.
Oh, and if you really want to understand Newton and his view of the universe, you have to dip into his alchemy and theology. Historians have known for a long time that Newton spent far more time on alchemy and theology than he did on mathematics/physics, but it still comes as a surprise to most people not in the field. (Although, if you've read Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, you probably have some idea.) A ton of work has been done on these areas in the last 30 years. See for example, The Chymistry of Isaac Newton project (https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/project/about.do https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/project/about.do), and The Newton Project (http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/contexts/CNTX00001 http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/contexts/CNTX00001)
- billfruit 6y agoI thought Chandrashekhar do try to unravel and explain the geometric reasoning that Newton used, of course also explaining how it might be explained with the apparatus of modern mathematics.
- dilippkumar 6y ago> ...if you've read Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, you probably have some idea. I looked up The Baroque Cycle on GoodReads and the reviews weren’t very positive. One reviewer compared it to the London phone directory in terms of number of characters vs plot complexity. Is this series worth reading? I have found HN gives better book reviews than goodreads in general - want to hear what you all have to say.
- tomgp 6y agoI enjoyed it. It’s long and undoubtedly overstuffed but the set pieces (Stephenson write fantastic action scenes) and the ideas are great fun.
- SubiculumCode 6y agoI found it interesting at times. I don't know how historically accurate were its portrayals of events and personalities though.
- libraryofbabel 6y agoI thought it was great, a wild journey through the 17th century. But maybe not to everyone’s taste - massive sprawling scope and there is indeed a huge cast of characters; it’s packed with various (mostly super interesting!) digressions into things like coinage, banking, alchemy, court politics. It will take you a while to get through. If you’re not sure, you could read his Cryptonomicon first, and if you like that, and are good with even more so, and in the 17th century, then Baroque Cycle is probably your thing.