Newton!

Some background details will be discussed in class. Here are some dates of note:

Nicolaus Copernicus
1473 - 1543
De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium


Tycho Brahe
1546 - 1601


Johannes Kepler
1571 - 1630
Astronomia Nova

Galileo Galilei
1564 - 1642
Siderius Nuncius
Dialogue on Two Chief World Systems
Discourse on Two New Sciences


Isaac Newton
1642 - 1727
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)

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More historical information regarding Newton:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

This is really exhaustive - only for the truly interested.

This one is a bit easier to digest:

http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/newton.html

We'll return to Newton's gravitation (along with Kepler) later in the course.

For Galileo:

http://galileo.rice.edu/
http://galileo.rice.edu/bio/index.html

I also recommend "Galileo's Daughter" by Dava Sobel. Actually, anything she writes is pretty great historical reading. See also her "Longitude."

It is also worth reading about Copernicus and the Scientific Revolution.

For those of you interested in ancient science, David Lindberg's "Beginnings of Western Science" is amazing.

In general, John Gribbin's "The Scientists" is a good intro book about the history of science, in general. I recommend this for all interested in the history of intellectual pursuits.