The Clockwork Universe (40 page)

Park, Katharine, 63

Pascal, Blaise, 38, 42, 112, 116–17, 198n, 226, 240

Pauli, Wolfgang, 349n 302

Pepys, Samuel, 21, 21n

on executions, 331n 78

on the Great Fire of London, 32

mathematics and, 42

on the plague, 21–22, 23, 24, 26–27

as president, Royal Society, 83, 348n 295

on Royal Society experiment, 81–82

Peter the Great, 262, 280

Petrarch, 20

Philosophical Transactions
, 74, 270

photosynthesis, 87, 87n

physicists, 132–33

physics.
See also
motion

calculus and, 143, 244–52, 257

great discoveries and youth, 229–31

mystique of impenetrability and, 297–98

shooting a basketball, 257, 345n 257

universals and, 197

Physics
(Aristotle), 94

Pilgrim's Progress, A
(Bunyan), 343n 226

plague (bubonic plague), 8,
9
, 20–24

“Bless you” custom and, 22

closing of Cambridge, 28, 226

death carts, 27

death toll, 20, 26, 27

as divine punishment, 9, 27, 33

efforts to stop, 25–26

in England, xvi, 19, 20

epidemic of 1665, 19, 23–24

in Europe, xvi, 20, 21

in London, xiv, 21, 23–24, 25–28

nailing shut of houses and, 22–23

“searchers,” 23

spread of, via fleas, 20, 21, 27–28

symptoms, course of disease, 22

tolling of bells, 26, 27

in village of Eyam, 27–28

planets, 91

classical doctrine of circular orbits, 100–101

discovery of new, 105

distance from the sun, 168

elliptical orbits, 275, 279, 280–82, 281n, 317

planets
(cont.)

Jupiter and moons,
110
, 110–11

Jupiter's and Saturn's orbits, 146–50,
147

Kepler and, xiii, 146–56,
147
,
149
,
150
,
151
,
154
, 158, 158n, 162–68,
164
,
165
, 275, 279

Mars' orbit, 150

movement of, 100–101

Neptune, 152, 315

Pluto, 152, 152n

Saturn, path of,
100

sun-centered solar system, 97–99, 101, 112, 146,
154
, 156, 160, 171

Uranus, 152, 315

weight of, 101–2

Plato, 122, 200, 327n 40

Plutarch, 283n

Poe, Edgar Allan, 348n 295

Pope, Alexander, 37, 122, 269, 317

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(Joyce), 205–6

Principia
(Newton), xiv, 73, 127, 271, 285–87, 293–301, 318, 320, 351n 319

Book I, 286, 294

Book II, 286–87

Book III, 287, 288–89, 293, 294

calculus used in, 298–99

Chandrasekhar and, 73, 318–19, 331n 73

difficulty of, 297–300

first edition, first printing, 295–96, 297

gravitational theory, 295, 301–6

Halley and, 288–90, 291, 293, 296

seeking God in, 307–13

as “System of the World,” 294

theorem at center of, 293–94

Proust, Marcel, 257

Ptolemy, 99,
100
, 100

Pythagoras, 36, 67n

music and, 129, 129n, 157–58

mystical properties of numbers, 130

Pythagorean theorem,
137
, 137–39,
139
, 139–41,
140
, 143n, 189

 

Quakers, 77

quantum physics and quantum theories, 258, 302, 349n 302

 

Rabi, I. I., 230

Ray, John, 34, 126

“Red-Headed League, The” (Doyle), 177

relativity, theory of, 171–72, 229, 298

religion, 10–12

apocalypse, 13–19

belief in the impossible, 62, 63, 85n

curiosity as a sin, 63–64

experiments as incompatible with, 62–63

fear of damnation, 10

heaven and hell, location of, 113

punishment of dissenters, 77

salvation and the elect, 10

science and, 89

seeking God through science, 307–13

seventeenth century as “God-drenched era,” 38, 39

Rossi, Paolo, 69n

Rota, Gian-Carlo, 133

Royal Society of London

air, weighing of, 84, 86

applied technology and, 84

challenging tradition that new is dangerous, 61–62

cranks and strange experiments, 51

experimentation, focus on, 59–65, 72

flying chariot report and, 51–52

formal charter received, 11

founding, xiv

The History of Fishes
, 296

Hooke and experiments at, 66

investigation vs. scholarship, 72

meetings of, 58–65

membership, 1660, 3–6

microscope and, 118

motto: “Nullius in Verba,” 58, 75

new and old ideas at, 50–57

Newton joins, xiv

Newton-Leibniz feud and, 269–70

Newton president, 5, 262, 269–70, 292

Newton's paper on light, 51

openness vs. secrecy in, 66–71

Pepys president, 83

plague year and, 26

plain speaking and, 70, 71

poison experiments, 81, 332n 81

ridicule of, 86

scientific collaboration and, 4

scientific journal of, 74

spiders investigated, 51

transfusion experiments, 60–61,
61
, 81–82, 332n 81

vacuum chamber experiments, 4, 59–60, 65

world's first official scientific organization, 5

Rudolph II, Emperor, 165

Rupert, Prince of the Rhine, 59–60

Russell, Bertrand, 133, 169, 238–39, 297

 

Sagan, Carl, 111n

Schaffer, Simon, 345n 242

science/scientific revolution

abstraction and, 197–99

America's founding fathers and, 315–16

belief in progress, 84–85, 96

birth of the modern age, 34, 314

chemistry and, 55–56

common sense challenged, 90–94, 97–102

debate over scientists' character and motives, 307, 307n

disdain for the past, 56–57

experimentation, focus on, 61–65

fear and new views, 99

feuds and, 266

founding fathers of, 3–6, 35

as a free-for-all, 58

goals and purposes of the universe and, 93

God made irrelevant by, 309–10, 317

God sought through science, 307–13, 320

how objects move and, 208–9

laughter as reaction to discoveries, 83

mathematics and, 88, 199

modern, as unfathomable, 302

old beliefs clung to and, 52–57, 85n

openness vs. secrecy and, 66–71, 73–74

poets on, 95

skepticism and, 63–64

study of objects in motion and problem of infinity, 200–206

truth and, 224

wisdom of the ancients and, 36, 37, 62

scientists, 7n.
See also
Royal Society

as elite, 68, 73

scientists
(cont.)

feuds among, 75

new generation, inspired by Newton, 73–74

openness vs. secrecy and, 66–71, 73–74

as part-time or needing patronage, 74–75

peer review, 74

prejudice against applied knowledge, 69, 69n

satirizing of, 84, 85–89

seventeenth century

“all things are numbers,” 129

apocalyptic beliefs, 13–19

birth of the modern age, 34

“Bless you” custom, 22

as callous and cruel era, 76–82,
78
,
79

chain of being, 121–23

cities, xv

crime and punishment, 76–78,
78
, 78n

cynicism and self-indulgence, 15

dedication page of books, 71

disease as divine punishment, xv

dissections as entertainment, 76, 78–79

education, 42, 62

formality and etiquette, 70–71

lack of toilets, xvi

life expectancy, 7

living conditions, xv, 34

mathematics, view of, 143

nursery rhymes, 80

omens and signs, xv, 16–17

personal hygiene, xvi, xvin

precariousness of life in, 7–8

religion, 10–12, 38

supernatural beliefs and, 6

torture as entertainment, 77

wigs worn, 58

world as cosmic code or God's riddle, 143–44

ye
, 25n

Shadwell, Thomas, 85–86

Shakespeare, William, xiii, xv, 169, 231

Shapin, Steven, 335n 109

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (Edwards), 11

Sleepwalkers, The
(Koestler), 339n 145

slope, 212–13, 248,
251

Smyter, Sarah, 8

Solomon, King, 36

Sophia Dorothea, queen consort, 263

sound, 274

Spinoza, Baruch, 327n 37

Starry Messenger, The
(Galileo), 105–6

“Starry Night” (Van Gogh), 92n

stars

Cassiopeia, 106, 106n

fusion in, 67–68

Greek understanding of, 91–92

Milky Way, 106, 110

movement of, 100

predictable locations of, 91–92, 92n, 156, 333n 92fn

supernova, 106n

Tycho Brahe's new star, 106–7, 106n

Stewart, Ian, 255–56, 345n 254

Strickland, Lloyd, 344n 237

sun, 304

-centered solar system, 97–99, 112, 146,
154
, 156, 160, 171

fusion in, 67–68

gravity and, 302

right triangle of Earth, sun, moon, 138n

solar eclipse, 303–4

Swift, Jonathan, 87–88

 

Taswell, William, 33

telescope, 52, 335n 109

Galileo and discoveries, 99, 102, 105–13,
110

glory of God and, 117, 119

Harriot and, 239n, 345n 239fn

man's place in the universe and, 112–13, 116

military uses, 108–9, 335n 109

moon and, 86

Mount Wilson's, 88

Pepys and, 83

Thirty Years' War, xiii, xvi, 134, 235

Thomas, Keith, 80

Thompson, Francis, 348n 295

Throgmorton, Sir William, 51

Thurber, James, 83n

time, as variable, 183–86

Tolstoy, Leo, 231

transfusions, 60–61,
61
, 332n 81

Tycho Brahe, 106–7, 106n, 158–61, 159n

Kepler and, 155–56, 158–61

nose of, 159

 

uncertainty principle, 229

universe.
See also
planets; sun; stars

anthropomorphizing of, 93

Biblical dating of, 128

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

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

eclipse prediction, 101

Einstein and shape of, 88

fifth element of,
quintessence
, 92

Greek view of, 90–92

life on other worlds, 99, 143n

man-centered, 95–96, 112–13, 116, 309–10

Milky Way, 106, 110

motions of the stars, 100

planets, 91,
100
, 100–101, 105,
110,
110–11

position of stars in the sky, 92, 92n

Ptolemaic model, 99–100,
100
, 335n 112

right triangle of Earth, sun, moon, 138n

size of, 113

sun-centered solar system, 97–99, 112, 146,
154
, 156, 160, 171

Urban VIII, Pope, 170

U. S. Constitution, 316

 

vacuum chamber, 4, 59–60, 65, 198n

vacuums, 197–98, 198n, 286

falling objects and, 188

van Doesburg, Theo,
196

Van Gogh, Vincent, 92n

Vermeer, Jan, 115n

Vicars, George, 27–28

Vidal, Gore, 75

Virtuoso, The
(Shadwell), 85–86

Voltaire, 45, 127, 158n, 235, 236, 297, 317

 

Wallis, John, 231

Watson, James, 155

Watts, Isaac, 12

“weapon salve,” 50, 50n, 52

Westfall, Richard, 232, 319, 343n 226, 351n 319

Whewell, William, 300

Whiston, William, 311

Whitehead, Alfred North, xvii, 42, 195, 342n 195

Whiteside, D. T., 343n 226

Whitman, Walt, 95

Wilson, Woodrow, 316

Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation, The
(Ray), 126

witches, 54, 85n, 134

Woolf, Virginia, 105

Wordsworth, William, 317

Wotton, Sir Henry, 105

Wren, Christopher, 4–5, 14n, 115, 278, 279, 280

in Royal Society, 50

splenectomies by, 80, 81

 

Zeno, 200

Zeno's paradox, 201–2,
215
, 215–16, 219–21

zero, 195, 196, 211, 215, 219

Also by Edward Dolnick

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The Rescue Artist

Down the Great Unknown

Madness on the Couch

Copyright

THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE.
Copyright © 2011 by Edward Dolnick. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

 

FIRST EDITION

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

 

ISBN: 978-0-06-171951-6

EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062042262

 

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