Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T07:30:12.866Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Newton's two ‘Moon-tests’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

N. Kollerstrom
Affiliation:
15, Cooper Road, Guildford, Surrey GUI 3LY.

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Note
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Westfall, R. S., ‘Newton and the fudge factor’, Science, (1973), 179, pp. 751z–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

2 Kollerstrom, N., ‘Newton's lunar mass error’, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, (1985), 95, pp. 151–3.Google Scholar

3 Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, 3rd edn, Book III, Proposition XXXVII, Corollary IV. See also Newton's System of the World where the mean lunar density is given as 1.5 times that of the Earth (Principia, Motte translation, UCLA Press, 1963 edn, p. 595).Google Scholar

4 Bennett, J. A., ‘Hooke and Wren and the system of the world: some points towards an historical account’, BJHS, (1975), 8, pp. 44–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Picard, J., Traité du nivellement… avec une relation du quelques nivellements faits par ordre du roy et un abrégé de la mesure de la terre, Paris, 1684.Google Scholar

6 Whiteside, D. T., The Preliminary Manuscripts for Isaac Newton's 1687 Principia, Cambridge, 1989, p. xi.Google Scholar

7 Corollary IX of Proposition IV of Book I of the Principia: ‘The arc which a body, uniformly revolving in a circle with a given centripetal force, describes in any time, is a mean proportion between the diameter of the circle, and the space which the same body falling by the same force would describe in the same time’ (Motte's translation, Cajori edition, I, p. 46).

8 Brougham, H. P. and Routh, E. J., Analytical View of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, 1855, p. 40.Google Scholar

9 Roche, J., ‘Newton's Principia’, in Let Newton be!. (ed. Fauvel, J. et al. ), Oxford, 1988, p. 56.Google Scholar

10 Westfall, , op. cit. (1), p. 752.Google Scholar

11 Westfall, R. S., Never at Rest, Cambridge, 1980, p. 151.Google Scholar

12 Truesdall, C., ‘A programme towards rediscovering the rational mechanics of the Age of Reason’, Archives for History of Exact Sciences, (1960), 1, p. 23.Google Scholar

13 Cohen, I. Bernard, ‘Newton's Second Law and the concept of force in the Principia’, Texas Quarterly Journal, (1967), 10, p. 128.Google Scholar

14 Cohen, I. Bernard, Introduction to Newton's Principia, Cambridge Mass., 1971, p. 66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Westfall, , op. cit. (1), pp. 751–8.Google Scholar

16 Westfall, , op. cit. (1), p. 735.Google Scholar

17 Whisron, W., Astronomical Lectures, 1710, Frontispiece.Google Scholar

18 Nelkon, M. and Parker, P., Advanced-Level Physics, London, 1981, p. 44.Google Scholar