Re: more squiggly lines

["Gunnar Tomasson" <gunnar.tomasson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Barkley:

Re. the following:

What you
> described Newton worrying about, the fact
> that in properly modeling the motion of the moon
> around the earth one must take into account the
> fact that the earth is going around the sun, which
> is also exerting a gravitational pull on the moon,
> is indeed the original three body problem, whatever
> Newton called it.

Agree - but THAT is not what Newton was worried about.

Instead, the record shows that he remained pre-occupied with his "lunar
theory" - for whose purposes Earth is assumed to stand still - until the
very end:

"Three days later Stukeley breakfasted with Halley and Newton.  During the
interim, the latter's jovial mood had reverted to one of pique, fed by
grievances old and new.  Inveighing against the dead still constituted one
of Newton's favorite pastimes, and this time it was Flamsteed's turn to be
execrated once again.  Newton complained that Halley's predecessor at the
Royal Observatory had provided him with only a handful of observations when
he was struggling to complete his lunar theory.  He owed the man no thanks
for the limited success he had achieved on that score.  Newton also boasted
that he could now finish his work on the moon if he wanted to, "but he
rather chose to leave it for others."  On a different occasion he told
Halley he was contemplating the prospect of having "another shake at the
moon,"..."  (Christianson, op. cit., p. 570)

Gunnar




----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>
To: "Gunnar Tomasson" <gunnar.tomasson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Post Keynesian Thought" <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 5:01 PM
Subject: Re: more squiggly lines


> Gunnar,
>       I don't care what this bio says.  What you
> described Newton worrying about, the fact
> that in properly modeling the motion of the moon
> around the earth one must take into account the
> fact that the earth is going around the sun, which
> is also exerting a gravitational pull on the moon,
> is indeed the original three body problem, whatever
> Newton called it.
> Barkley Rosser
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gunnar Tomasson" <gunnar.tomasson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>
> Cc: "Post Keynesian Thought" <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 4:41 PM
> Subject: Re: more squiggly lines
>
>
> > Barkley,
> >
> > There is no mention in the index of Gale Christianson's thoroughly
> > researched biography of Newton of either the Three-Body Problem nor
> > Poincare.
> >
> > Indeed, I am persuaded that the problem goes much, much deeper.
> >
> > In this respect, and for what it is worth, my own independent research
in
> > solar system mechanics in the 1970s led me to a conclusion which,
several
> > years later, I was pleased to learn from Christianson's book was
identical
> > to that of the one of his contemporaries whose talents Newton respected
> > without reservation:
> >
> > "The Cartesian Christian Huygens, whose admiration for Newton's
> mathematical
> > and deductive skills was considerable, had nevertheless labeled his
> > principle of universal gravitation a "manifest absurdity."" (Op. cit.,
p.
> > 529)
> >
> > Gunnar
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>
> > To: "Gunnar Tomasson" <gunnar.tomasson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: "Post Keynesian Thought" <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 3:15 PM
> > Subject: Re: more squiggly lines
> >
> >
> > > Gunnar,
> > >       I don't think that I want to get into the philosophy/
> > > epistemology debate here.  But, all you have shown
> > > here is that Newton was aware of the "three body
> > > problem," a deep problem in Newtonian mechanics
> > > that he failed to solve and understood that he had
> > > failed to solve.  Its "solution" ("description," "explanation"?)
> > > came with Poincare in 1890, and involved the discovery/
> > > invention of qualitative differential equations, as well as
> > > of chaos theory, although that name would not be applied
> > > to it until the 1970s.
> > > Barkley Rosser
> > >
> >
> >
>
>