To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science (73 page)

Greeks on, 8, 19, 25–29, 51, 129, 133

Huygens and, 194–97

medieval Europe and, 134–35

Newton and laws of, 225–26, 234–36, 243–44, 254

Zeno of Elea on, 8

Muhammad, prophet, 103, 104

Müller, Johann.
See
Regiomontanus

multiverse, 164–65

music, 125, 171, 191

Pythagoreans and, 15–17

technical note on harmony, 279–82

Mysterium Cosmographicum
(Kepler), 162, 165, 169, 171, 173

natural, vs. artificial, 24–25

Natural Questions
(Adelard), 126

natural selection, 24, 248, 265–66

navigation, 56, 75

neo-Darwinian synthesis, 266

Neoplatonists, 5, 47, 51, 80, 97–98, 127

Neptune, 250

Neugebauer, O., 64, 372, 373, 376

neutrinos, 9, 263

neutrons, 243, 262–64

New Atlantis, The
(Francis Bacon), 202

New Experiments Physico-Mechanical Touching the Spring of the Air
(Boyle), 200

Newton, Isaac, 29–30, 40, 46, 69, 91, 106, 146, 172, 188, 199, 202, 205, 212–13, 215–55, 265, 268

background of, 215–18

calculus and, 223–25

cause of gravity and, 243–44

celestial and terrestrial physics unified by, 228, 249, 260, 268

centripetal acceleration and, 196, 226–30, 361–62

Descartes and, 213

diffraction and, 205

Earth’s axis, 74, 153

Earth’s radius and, 361–62

Galileo and, 194

general relativity and, 250–53

gravitational constant (
G
), 238, 240–41, 287, 289, 363

Huygens and, 196–97

importance of, 244–45, 247–49

mechanics of, 152, 260

momentum and, 133

Moon’s motion and, 93, 196, 226–30, 361–62

motion and gravitation and, 99, 133, 136, 190, 225–45, 254, 363

opposition to theories of, 245–48

optics and, 218–20, 222–23

planetary orbits and, 212, 225–31, 236–41, 244–45

ratio of masses of planets and Sun, 238–39, 364–65

religion and, 245–46

rotation of Earth and planets and, 241–42

telescope and, 79, 219

theory of matter of, 256–57

tides and, 242–43

Tycho and, 251–52

Newton’s laws of motion

first, 234

second, 234–35, 286–88, 363

third, 234–35, 237–38, 363

newton (unit of force), 199

Nicaea, Council of, 60, 218

Nicholas of Cusa, 140–41

Nicias, 46

Nicomachus, 23

Nineveh, battle of, 103–4

nominalists, 132

north celestial pole, 56–57, 74–75

Novara, Domenico Maria, 147

Novum Organum
(Bacon), 201–2

Numbers, R. L., 377

observation

Aristotle and, 24–25, 27, 64, 113, 115, 185–86

ben Maimon on, 115

Copernicus and, 91, 149–55, 158, 162, 172

errors in, and Aristarchus, 69–70

experiment vs., 189

Francis Bacon and, 201

Galileo and heliocentrism, 172–73

general principles and deductions blended with, 202

Greek theories of motions of planets and, 90, 91

Grosseteste and, 137

homocentric models and, 86–87

Kepler and, 166–67, 172

mathematics and, 20, 99

medicine vs. physics and, 115–16

medieval Europe and, vs. deductive natural science, 132–34

modern theoretical physicists, 97

Newton and, 242, 248, 250–51

planetary motion and, 189

Plato and, 61–62

prediction and, 146

Ptolemy and, 88, 90–93, 95, 115

small conflicts with, 151–53, 190

success of explanation and, 248, 254

Tycho and accuracy of, 160–61

observatories, 118, 142

occasionalism, 121–22, 131

octahedron, 10, 12, 162, 163n, 275, 279

octonions, 163

Odyssey
(Homer), 47, 56

Oldenburg, Henry, 219

Omar, caliph, 103

On Architecture
(Vitruvius), 35

On Floating Bodies
(Archimedes), 19, 38–39, 66, 189, 291–94

On Nature
(Empedocles), 6

On Paraboloidal Burning Mirrors
(al-Haitam), 110

On Speeds
(Eudoxus), 80

On the Equilibrium of Bodies
(Archimedes), 38

On the Forms
(Democritus), 14

On the Heavens and the Earth
(Oresme), 135

On the Heavens
(Aristotle), 25, 27, 64, 80, 127

On the Heavens
(Cleomedes), 75

On the Measurement of the Earth
(Eratosthenes), 75

On the Motion of Bodies in Orbit
(Newton), 231

On the Nature of Things
(Lucretius), 46

On the Republic
(Cicero), 17, 71

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies
(Copernicus), 48

On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and the Moon
(Aristarchus of Samos), 66–67

Ophiuchus, supernova in, 166

ophthalmology, 118

Opticks
(Newton), 223–24, 245n, 247, 256–57

Optics
(al-Haitam), 110

Optics
(Descartes), 206–7

Optics
(Euclid), 35

Optics
(Ptolemy), 37, 208

optics.
See also
light; reflection; refraction

Arabs and, 110–11, 117

Descartes and, 206–12

electricity and magnetism and, 259

Francis Bacon and, 138

Greeks and, 33, 35–37

Grosseteste and, 137

Huygens and, 196–97

Kepler and, 166

medieval Europe and, 137–38

Newton and, 218, 256–57

Opus Maius
(Bacon), 174

orbital periods, 364

orbits, 53, 79.
See also
planetary motions;
and specific moons and planets

circular vs. elliptical, 8, 95, 154–55, 165n

sizes of, 149–50, 154

Oresme, Nicole, 71, 132, 135–37, 139–40, 161, 191

Orion, 176

orrery, 71–72

Ørsted, Hans Christian, 257

Orthodox church, 61

Osiander, Andreas, 156–57, 182

Ostwald, Wilhelm, 260

Othman, caliph, 103

Otto III, emperor of Germany, 126

Ottoman Turks, 116

overtones, 16, 281–82

Oxford University, 131, 137–41

oxygen, 259

Padua, University of, 134, 140–41, 147, 173, 178–80, 193

Pakistan, 104, 123

Palestine, 116

parabola, 40, 194

orbit of comets and, 247

trajectory of projectiles and, 194, 342–46

parallax, 94, 148

annual, 70, 148, 160–61, 177

diurnal, 159–60, 182, 321–23, 361

lunar, 307–9

Paramegmata
(calendars of stars), 56

Paris, University of, 125, 127–35, 138

Parmenides, 7–9, 12, 23, 63–64

Parts of Animals
(Aristotle), 24

Pascal, Blaise, 194, 199

pascal (unit), 199

Paul, Saint, 49–50

Pauli, Wolfgang, 261

Paul III, Pope, 48, 153

Paul V, Pope, 183–84

Pecham, John, 129

pendulum, 191, 195–96, 241, 246, 341–42

Pensées
(Pascal), 199

periods

of planets, 150, 227

of Jovian moons, 178

Perrin, Jean, 260

Persia, 5, 7, 103–6, 108–11, 116

Peter the Great, czar of Russia, 245

Peucer, Caspar, 158

Peurbach, Georg von, 141

Phaedo
(Plato), 10

phase transition, 267

Philip II, king of Macedon, 22

Philolaus, 78, 153

Philo of Alexandria, 62

Philo of Byzantium, 35

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
(Newton), 227n, 231–47

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
, 219–20, 224–25

philosophy, 3, 27–28, 101, 106, 112, 141, 146, 179

Philus, Lucius Furius, 71

Phoenicians, 13, 56–57

photographic emulsions, 180

photons, 220, 223, 249, 261–62

Physics
(Aristotle), 19, 23–26, 96, 127

physics.
See also
specific concepts

Arabs and, 110

Aristotle and, 23–29, 115–16, 128, 131

biology and, 266

Galileo and, 179

Greeks and, 19

Kepler and, 170

mathematics and, 20–21, 246

medieval Europe and, 128, 131, 137

modern science and, xiii–xiv, 146, 170

Newton and definition of, 246

physiologi
, 12

pi, 39, 294–95

Piaget, Jean, 132

Picard, Jean-Félix, 228n

pions, 82

Pisa, University of, 134, 172, 173, 178, 180

Planck, Max, 248, 261

Planck mass, 268

Planetary Hypotheses
(Ptolemy), 94, 107, 149–50

planets and planetary system.
See also
Earth; Sun;
and specific concepts; individual scientists; and planets

ancient mechanical model of, 71–72