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Newton and the Attraction of a Sphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2016

J.E. Littlewood
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Extract

In Keynes's contribution to the ‘Newton Tercentenary Celebrations’ there is the following passage :

“Again, there is some evidence that Newton in preparing the Principia was held up almost to the last moment by lack of proof that you could treat a solid sphere as though all its mass were concentrated at the centre, and only hit on the proof a year before publication. But this was a truth which he had known for certain and had always assumed for many years.

“Certainly there can be no doubt that the peculiar geometrical form in which the exposition of the Principia is dressed up bears no resemblance at all to the mental processes by which Newton actually arrived at his conclusions.

“His experiments were always, I suspect, a means, not of discovery, but always of verifying what he knew already.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 32 , Issue 300 , July 1948 , pp. 179 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1948

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References

page 179 note * For which there is a formula!

page 180 note * The order of lettering significantly corresponds to a positive increment δϕ.

page 180 note † This is the statement of the crucial ‘ Prop. 71 ’ The constant is actually never determined.

page 181 note * It may be observed tliat with a law r –0 the attraction at the surface of the solid sphere is less than the central value, while with a law r –4 is greater. These facts are obvious, in the second case because the attraction concerned is infinite.