Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World

Rating:
Summary: Leap from Intellectual Peak to Intellectual Peak with Newton
Review: David Berlinski has created a marvelous intellectual history focusing on the progression of Newton's epic breakthrough thinking. He does this in a way that is totally accessible to those who are phobic about mathematics. The explanations are achieved through a skillful combination of simple sentences, symbols, pictures, and diagrams. The presentation is so effective that most readers will find their understanding of important mathematical and scientific principles greatly improved. This is a great book!

Newton was a seminal thinker in the areas of mathematics (developing calculus), physics (with his propositions about gravity and motion), and optics (with his conceptualization of light as being comprised of particles moving in parallel). He also did much work in theology and alchemy, which are recounted here.

A key challenge for David Berlinski was presented by Newton's reticence. He was not a very social person, and wrote almost nothing about how he developed his ideas. Berlinksi does a magnificent job of locating and sharing hints and clues about the bases of these intuitive leaps. This result is enhanced by considering the continuing themes in Newton's thinking, and assuming a connection to his intuition. I suspect that Berlinski is right in connecting the dots that way, but we will never know for sure.

The centerpiece of our story turns out to be the tangent to a curve. From that humble beginning, most of our modern understanding of how physical motion takes place follows.

I also enjoyed better understanding how Newton's thinking was aided by the careful observations and conclusions of Kepler.

If the history of science were always this entertaining, this subject would be one of the most popular majors in colleges.

As Berlinksi tells us in the beginning his purpose in the book is "to offer a sense of the man without specifying in details his . . . activities." This allows us to see the other sides of Newton, but without spending too much time on them. Newton was not perfect. We get glimpses of places where he wasted his time, such as his unsuccessful experiments with alchemy. We also see his flirtations and infatuations. Beyond that, we see what could enrage him, and how he took his revenge. This fleshing out of the whole man makes the scientific history all the more compelling.

If you liked David Berlinski's book, The Birth of the Algorithm, you will probably like this one even better. The asides are much more contained and relevant here.

For those who want a little more math with their scientific history, Berlinski has provided supplementary materials that are quite entertaining.

After you have finished enjoying this wonderful romp, I suggest that you think about where everyday events are unexplained in your life. For example, why do the people you meet with act the way they do? Why is progress slow in many areas, and rapid in others? By looking for connections, you, too, may isolate fundamental principles that can expand our own appreciation as a species of how we achieve understanding. The mysteries of how to improve thinking are still mostly unsolved, and many are relatively unexplored. Perhaps you can be the Newton of this important "last frontier" of self-limiting progress for humans.

Think about it!

Rating:
Summary: Nifty ideaography of one of the great minds of all time
Review: The title "Newton's Gift" has, of course, a dual meaning. The book is about Newton's personal gift - his intellectual powers - and his gift to all mankind through his work in Mathematics (the Calculus), Physics (working out gravitation and motion), and Optics. When I walk into Borders and see the tens of thousands of books on the shelves and realize that this still represents a small portion of the books written I think about the works that will still be in print in 300 years. Probably you could pile them up in a small stack in the middle of a small room. Newton's "Principia" and his "Optics" will certainly still be among them. I believe these are among the immortal works of humanity.

Berlinski has a wonderful knack for making the arcane both accessible and lively. He has a style that seems breezy, but is more sophisticated than that and even has a bit of a shimmer to it. There are a few careless mistakes, but they won't get in the way of the story he is telling. For example, on page 33 the circumference of the circle is labeled as time, but it is the AREA of the shaded wedges that is time. The circle is distance. The point of the diagram, I believe, is that when an orbit is closer to the center it moves faster over distance, but the area between the end points of the orbit and center is that same as the area when the orbit is further away from the center and the orbiting body is moving more slowly. But anyone paying attention, I think, would see this pretty quickly.

I call this an Ideaography because the biographical portions are both helpful and concise, but by no means comprehensive. And the book is not technical enough to be considered an explication of Newton's thought. But it is quite successful as a Cook's Tour of Newton's life and thought. It is ideal for intellectually awakening high school students or a quick introduction for college students. It is a most helpful way to get the door open for further study and investigation. There is a most wonderful "Chrestomathy" of the fundamental concepts discussed in the book and the key dates of Newton's life.

However, the book could certainly have used a reading list for further study. Yes, other important works are mentioned throughout the text, but it would have been nice to have a good source for additional reading.

But these quibbles aside, I recommend the book as a nice to read introduction to Newton and his work.