Subject: Re: [HM] We're #2!
From: Chris Linton (C.M.Linton@lboro.ac.uk)
Date: Wed Sep 13 2000 - 04:52:32 EDT
Bob Taylor wrote:
> A more interesting question to me is, what were the most important
> books, setting aside religious writings? Or rather, since The
> Elements are certainly the most important, what is the second most
> important? I vote for Newton's Principia but am open to other ideas.
and Antreas P. Hatzipolakis added
> I agree. "Euclid" and "Newton" had been synonymous to geometry and
> mechanics, respectively.
Given the enormous importance of both these books in the development
of mathematics it is interesting to note that while the Elements has
been read by millions of people (from Euclid's contemporaries to
school children in the twentieth century) the same can not be said of
the Principia. Indeed, as Curtis Wilson wrote in the Forward to Dana
Densmore's book Newton's Principia: The Central Argument
"Newton's Principia must surely be the most unread famous book in the
Western world".
Does this claim stand up to scrutiny?
Chris Linton
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Chris Linton
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Loughborough University
Leicestershire LE11 3TU
Tel: 01509-223482 , Fax: 01509-223969
E-mail: C.M.Linton@lboro.ac.uk
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ma/staff/chrisLinton.html
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