• DOI:10.1007/BF00374704
• Corpus ID: 121268606

Isaac Newton and the problem of the earth's shape

@article{Greenberg1996IsaacNA,
  title={Isaac Newton and the problem of the earth's shape},
  author={John L. Greenberg},
  journal={Archive for History of Exact Sciences},
  year={1996},
  volume={49},
  pages={371-391}
}

• J. Greenberg
• Published 1 December 1996
• Philosophy
• Archive for History of Exact Sciences

In this article I discuss the theory of the earth's shape presented by Isaac Newton in Book III of his Principia. I show that the theory struck even the most reputable continental mathematicians of the day as incomprehensible. I examine the many obstacles to understanding the theory which the reader faced — the gaps, the underived equations, the unproven assertions, the dependence upon corollaries to practically incomprehensible theorems in Book I of the Principia and the ambiguities of these corollaries, the conjectures without explanations of their bases, the inconsistencies, and so forth. I explain why these apparent drawbacks are, historically considered, strengths of Newton's theory of the earth's shape, not weaknesses.