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 | | The Problem of the Earth's Shape from Newton to Clairaut: The Rise of Mathematical Science in Eighteenth-Century Paris and the Fall of 'Normal' Science by John L. Greenberg ISBN-10: 9780521385411 ISBN-10: 0-521-38541-5 ISBN-13: 9780521385411 ISBN-13: 978-0-521-38541-1 Hardcover 1995-07-28 Cambridge University Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description In this book, Greenberg investigates the spread of Newtonian physics in the French scientific community during the eighteenth century. His central thesis is that Newton's own publications contributed only a small part of the work done on the shape of the earth. Continental scholars, especially Leibniz, influenced developments in Paris, and other French scholars, including Bouguer and Maupertuis, all contributed work used by Alexis-Claude Clairaut in developing his mature theory of the earth's shape. The evolution of Parisian physics, then, proved to be not merely the replacement of one paradigm with another, as might be expected from Thomas Kuhn's formulations about scientific revolutions, but a long, complicated process involving many areas of research and contributions from the entire scientific world. "Normal" science contributed not only anomalies present in earlier theories, but a good part of the solution. | ||
Reviews | ||
This is it! If you are interested in one of the most fascinating subjects in the history of science then this is THE book! Until far into the 18th century man has wondered about the shape of the earth and different theories resulted in different shapes. Clairaut was the genius who applied hydrodynamical ideas in order to explain why the world has a larder diameter at the equator than at the poles. However, even he did not succeed in the first attempt but had to reshape his theory. The whole story is in this scholarly, but very readably written book of Greenberg. The only missing item is an index which couldn't be finished due to an increasing illness of the author, but you'll like the book even without index. One of the long lasting pieces in history of science, that is for sure. | ||