Monday, November 3, 2008
Euclid Again?!
First of I just wanted to comment on how much some of this second reading resembled Euclid...yikes. That out of the way, I am awed by Galileo's deduction of the three laws of motion. For the past couple hundred years it seemed that laws regarding physics, mathematics, and astronomy were quickly replaced by more accurate theories, with of course some exceptions. Galileo's three laws of motion, however, remain very important in the physics of today. They are one of the first things that people think of when physics is mentioned, as well as one of the first laws to be taught. There is, I believe, at similarity in the authority of the teachings of Aristotle and Galileo in that they transcended the science of their times by many centuries, and remained the authorities, in at least some respects, in various scientific fields.
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One other thing that I would say about the Newton-Euclid connection is the obvious about their deductive systems. It seems to be a big jump from the Aristotle-Ptolemy school, whose texts always read like someone making stuff up to me. Newton seems to mark a return to a more closely knit system of describing the world.
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