Newton’s Principia for the Common Reader by S. Chandrasekhar (PDF)

Description

Representing a decade’s work from one of the world’s most distinguished physicists, this major publication is, as far as is known, the first comprehensive analysis of Newton’s Principia without recourse to secondary sources. Chandrasekhar analyses some 150 propositions which form a direct chain leading to Newton’s formulation of his universal law of gravitation. In each case, Newton’s proofs are arranged in a linear sequence of equations and arguments, avoiding the need to unravel the necessarily convoluted style of Newton’s connected prose. In almost every case, a modern version of the proofs is given to bring into sharp focus the beauty, clarity, and breathtaking economy of Newton’s methods. This book will stimulate great interest and debate among the scientific community, illuminating the brilliance of Newton’s work under the steady gaze of Chandrasekhar’s rare perception.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “It is, perhaps, the greatest single work of the scientific canon–and undoubtedly the most influential….Yet remarkably few people today, even among physicists and engineers, have read the Principia itself….That a book of such importance should go unread seemed a pity to the astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who spent a lifetime bringing clarity to the world. Chandra, as he was known to his colleagues, was the last of the great mathematical astrophysicists, a direct spiritual descendant of Newton’s, and, by any measure, one of the great minds of the twentieth century. His work was marked by the purity of his mathematical vision, the depth of his understanding and the elegance of his speech and writing….Chandra’s death in August has left the world a poorer place, but this, his last volume, will remain to inspire generations of common readers to come.”–The Sciences”Following a long tradition of commentaries and explanation of Newton’s great masterpiece, Chandrasekhar’s new book, Newton’s Principia for the Common Reader is a very valuable personal view by one of the great astrophysicists of our century.”–American Journal of Physics”This is a valuable guide to the Principia–certainly beyond the level of the ‘common reader’–that will take its place in the succession of major commentaries on the Principia of the past three centuries.”–Physics Today”In almost every case, a modern version of the proof is given to bring into sharp focus the beauty, clarity and breathtaking economy of Newton’s methods….This book will stimulate great interest and debate among the scientific community, illuminating the brilliance of Newton’s work.”–Mathematical Reviews”It is, perhaps, the greatest single work of the scientific canon–and undoubtedly the most influential….Yet remarkably few people today, even among physicists and engineers, have read the Principia itself….That a book of such importance should go unread seemed a pity to the astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who spent a lifetime bringing clarity to the world. Chandra, as he was known to his colleagues, was the last of the great mathematical astrophysicists, a direct spiritual descendant of Newton’s, and, by any measure, one of the great minds of the twentieth century. His work was marked by the purity of his mathematical vision, the depth of his understanding and the elegance of his speech and writing….Chandra’s death in August has left the world a poorer place, but this, his last volume, will remain to inspire generations of common readers to come.”–The Sciences”Following a long tradition of commentaries and explanation of Newton’s great masterpiece, Chandrasekhar’s new book, Newton’s Principia for the Common Reader is a very valuable personal view by one of the great astrophysicists of our century.”–American Journal of Physics”This is a valuable guide to the Principia–certainly beyond the level of the ‘common reader’–that will take its place in the succession of major commentaries on the Principia of the past three centuries.”–Physics Today”In almost every case, a modern version of the proof is given to bring into sharp focus the beauty, clarity and breathtaking economy of Newton’s methods….This book will stimulate great interest and debate among the scientific community, illuminating the brilliance of Newton’s work.”–Mathematical Reviews”Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica provides a coherent and deductive presentation of his discovery of the universal law of gravitation. It is very much more than a demonstration that ‘to us it is enough that gravity really does exist and act according to the laws which we have explained and abundantly serves to account for all the motions of the celestial bodies and the sea’. It is important to us as a model for all of mathematical physics. Representing a decade’s work from a distinguished physicist, this is the first comprehensive analysis of Newton’s Principia without recourse to secondary sources. Professor Chandrasekhar analyses some 150 propositions which form a direct chain leading to Newton’s formulation of his universal law of gravitation….This work will stimulate great interest and debate among the scientific community, illuminating the brilliance of Newton’s work under the gaze of Chandrasekhar’s rare perception.”–Bulletin of Mathematics Books”He decided early on that rather than assessing Newton secondhand, through commentaries, he would absorb the Principia unmediated. More specifically, he would read a proposition and then before going on to Newton’s proof, would try to derive his own. Chandrasekhar points out that although he has 300 extra years of knowledge at his disposal, in virtually every case his proofs fell short of Newton’s. Reading Newton became for Chandrasekhar a sustained epiphany. ‘The view of science that he exhibits, the clarity with which he writes, the number of new things he finds, manifest a physical and mathematical insight of which there is no parallel in science at any time.’ It is common knowledge that Newton invented calculus as well as seminal theories of gravity and optics. But Chandrasekhar argues that the Principia contains other achievements that have been overlooked.”–Scientific American About the Author deceased

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Properly printed

⭐Even though the stated condition of the book was mostly correct, there was 1 marginal comment added in pen by the previous owner on page 41 where Newton’s 1st and 2nd laws are mentioned. But this did not distract from the beautiful condition that this book was kept in. I am still completely satisfied with this purchase.

⭐To appreciate this book, or even to understand it, you need to have graduate level physics. If you can meet this requirement you are in for a treat. Newton wrote his masterwork in Latin and used geometrical mathematics instead of calculus to derive his proofs, so this book owes its existence to some expert translators from Latin to English and then from Newtons obscure mathematics to modern methods. Prof Chandreshekar has done an outstanding job of presenting each part of Newtons work using modern calculus and then showing Newton s original and explaining how he derived his proofs. Using this approach he helps the reader to really see that Newton was a towering genius.

⭐This book, which is Chandrasekhar’s take on Newton’s Principia (arguably the greatest scientific book ever written) is on a league of its own. Though it is an impressive work of scholarship, it is far from a mere retelling of Newton’s great book. Chandrasekhar rederives in meticulous detail several of Newton’s theorems and prodigiously restates the great man’s theories using modern physics concepts and modern mathematical notation. Every serious physics student should read it (or at least read part of it, since the reading is far from easy going).

⭐Very good.

⭐I am working through this book. I am impressed with Chandra’s insight into the Principia. But it’s very difficult. Beware that Chandra’s insight can only be as profound as your command of mathematics. (Knowing calculus is not enough, you need to know at least classical mechanics as well.)Chandra wrote this book because the original Newton’s Principia is not accessible to modern physicists (because they lack familiarity with axiomatic classical geometry). But Chandra’s book is not accessible to everybody else. Thus, Chandra’s term “common reader” probably refers to common (and modern) physicists.In my independent investigation into Newton’s mathematics, I noticed that Newton seemed to work on the “new analysis” method early in his career but then seemed to discard it around mid 1670s for geometrical demonstration. He never looked back. His mature research papers and treatises such as De motu, and the Principia itself were composed in the style of the ancient, i.e. synthetic geometry of the Greek. There has been many confused speculations about this. Some says that it was his peculiar way in confusing the reader, or trying to be obscure – as he was extremely averse to censure and criticism. Others however believe that he used Euclidean construction so that the work can be accessed by the public who did not possess profound knowledge in Mathematics.However, modern historian now understood that it was because Newton came to believe that the synthetic mathematics of the ancient, i.e. ruler-and-compass geometry, was a superior method to that of the modern “men of recent time.” Newton believed that the ancient had their own method of analysis which had been lost to history. Newton was also concerned about the certainty of mathematics as the language for describing nature that led to his quest to restore the ancient method (analysis in his time was not rigorous). In the end however it was never clear whether Newton did discover the lost method. But Newton’s preference of synthetic geometry was probably the reason why his notations in calculus are not as successful as that of Leibniz. Newton never bothered to refine his analytical notations for the purpose of demonstration. He clearly believed that synthetic geometry was the way to go and he used it successfully in all of his investigative efforts. Through out his later career, Newton was concerned that he utilized algebraic notations heavily in his youth – which he strangely found to be lack of taste – and wanted to suppress those early works.Having said that I believe to understand Newton’s philosophy we should read him in his original (synthetic geometry) rather than replacing them with advanced notation of modern calculus and analysis – as Chandra did here – which only makes sense to graduate students in math, engineering or physics.To understand the original Principia, I recommend that first you find yourself a copy of “Force and Geometry in Newton’s Principia” by Francois De Gandt (translated by Curtis Wilson). This is the best book that I know which explains and orients readers of Newton to the language of his geometry. In Newton’s time, some physicists such as himself and Christian Huygens investigated the nature of force and motion through geometrical method. De Gandt’s book is excellent because it did not just explain the math (geometry) but also the concept of force as understood by Newton and his contemporaries. De Gandt’s book is therefore essential if you want to understand Newton in his own terms – not just the Principia but his other later works (such as De Motu) as well.Another excellent book is

⭐by Guicciardini. This explains Newton’s approach to mathematics and his mathematical philosophy. If you are serious about understanding Newton’s mind, you should check these two books out. Please note that some knowledge of Euclid (about first 4 books) and Apollonius’s Conics and Archimedes’s treatment on Spiral are needed too. So it is wise to have them as reference.

⭐I read the Principia a few years ago (the I. Bernhard Cohen translation from 1999), and like anyone else who has ever read it, found it very hard going in the places where it wasn’t downright impossible. This isn’t the fault of the translator, who did a great job, but of Newton, who was notoriously averse to criticism and made sure that his work was as hard as possible, in order “to avoid being baited by little Smatterers in Mathematicks.”Fortunately, the great astrophysicist Chandrasekhar has given us this Guide, and it truly is a revelation. As he mentions in the introduction, his goal isn’t to cover every theorem in the Principia, but rather to help us understand the great theorems and mathematical techniques in Newton’s work. Reading this book is a humbling and awesome experience. Here we have one great mind showing us how another great mind works, and conveying to the reader his unbounded admiration for Newton’s intellect and scientific achievements. He does this by showing us how Newton’s geometric reasoning unfolds while translating the math into modern calculus, which is one reason why this book is invaluable. This book reminds us that Newton wasn’t just a smart guy who invented calculus and came up with gravitation and the laws of motion, but rather the greatest scientific mind in history and a man who grasped the laws of nature with an ease that was downright frightening.I’m warning you, however, that you won’t get anything for free. If you want to read this book, you should first of all read Euclid’s elements, upon which Newton modeled his work, and then read the Principia itself. Then you should make sure that your math skills are up to snuff – you will be doing many equations in your head along the way, and Chandrasekhar isn’t going to make it easy for you. But it’s worth the effort in the end, when, after working through a particularly difficult theorem, you lean back, smile, and think, “How incredibly beautiful! I could never have done that!”

⭐Not for the faint-hearted “general reader” (for whom it is said to be written). Even so a seamless exposition of Newton’s mathematics in every area presented with clarity. Attractive diagrams too. You will need a very good command of mathematics to make the most of it.

⭐El producto llegó a tiempo, con Amazon no tengo queja. El problema es que no te dejan ver páginas internas en la vista previa y resulta que hay partes subrayadas por el autor que se ven bastante feas. Por otro lado, me pareció sorprendente la baja calidad del papel y la impresión del encuadernado, no sugiere que sea vendido por la Oxford Press Ed. Buscando el PDF en internet aparece de la misma manera, así que parece que el texto viene así de origen.

⭐

⭐so hat sich auch Chandra für die Geschichte seiner Wissenschaft (und das ist die Physik) interessiert. Seine Bücher sind in der Regel nur mit Bleistift und Papier und viel Arbeit zu verstehen (so auch dieses!) aber wie immer lohnt sich der Aufwand! Man kaufe die Principia in der Bearbeitung von Cohen und Whitman

⭐

⭐The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

⭐und nehme Chandras Buch zur Interpretation mit dazu. Ein paar Monate harte Arbeit, und schon wird Newtons Principia zugänglich! Großartig!

⭐

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