sci.physics.electromag

On Mar 24, 6:17=A0pm, Cephalobus_alie...@comcast.net wrote:
> On Mar 24, 12:09=A0am, maxwell wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Mar 23, 6:21=A0pm, "Robert J. Kolker" wrote:
>
> > > I read it cover to cover. Newton published -Princiipia- using
> > > traditional geometric language because his calculus methods were
> > > relatively unknown to his target audience. He invented calculus to tal=
k
> > > about motion. Calculus is the language of motion. He could not have
> > > formulated his physics without calculus.
>
> > > It turns out the later developments of classical mechanics required th=
e
> > > least action principle and the calculus of variations to be stated. Se=
e
> > > the works of Jacobi, Lagrange and Hamilton.
>
> > > Bob Kolker
>
> > Wrong again, Bob. =A0Calculus was not 'relatively' unknown by Newton's
> > contemporaries - it was totally unknown, since Newton wished to keep
> > his 'secret weopon' to himself. =A0
>
> As usual with most of your writings, you are sadly misinformed.
>
> Leibnitz independently developed many ideas of calculus as early as
> 1674, and used well-developed methods of calculus, expressed in his
> own, superior notation, in correspondence with other mathematicians
> starting around 1677.
>
> Newton's Principia Mathematica was published in 1687.
>
> Jerry
Sorry to disappoint you, Jerry. But one of my sources ("Greatest
Feuds in Science" H. Hellman) reports on the 'clash of titans' as
follows.
Newton had developed the fundamental theorem of the calculus by 1665 &
his fluxions by 1666. In 1676 Leibniz visited London & met Collins who
showed him (without permission) Newton's unpublished papers one
evening ("Never at Rest" R. Westfall pp. 260-267). Leibniz soon after
received two letters from Newton. Newton began his main work on the
Principia around 1684 when Leibniz first started to publish his papers
on the calculus, without any mention of Newton. Newton finally
relented, wrote a private paper on the calculus in 1691 & published it
in 1704. Apart from the pathetic nationalism & egotism that have
cursed science from 1600, I must agree that Leibniz did a better job
of the math but Newton wins on the physics.