Antiquities of Science

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1  Translating Ancient Minds

1.1  Egyptian Unit Fractions                                                       3

1.2  Remembering Socrates                                                      16

1.3  Platonic Solids and Plato's Theory of Everything             20

1.4  Translating Aristotle                                                          28

1.5  Hipparchus on Compound Statements                              33

1.6  The Ten Means of Ancient Greece                                    46

1.7  Archimedes and the Square Root of 3                               48

1.8  Archimedes and Godfrey                                                   51

1.9  Eccentrics, Deferents, Epicycles, and Equants                  58

2  Wonder En Is Gheen Wonder

2.1  Thomas Harriot and the New World                                 70

2.2  Galileo's Anagrams and the Moons of Mars                     76

2.3  Galileo's Law of Planetary Motion                                    80

2.4  Galileo’s Catenary                                                             85

2.4  Dialogues                                                                           96

2.5  Prisca Sapientia                                                                 99

2.6  Wonder En Is Gheen Wonder                                          102

2.7  Mercurius in Sole Visus                                                  105

2.8  Hold Your Horses                                                            109

2.9  Fermat's Fallibility                                                           115

3  Harmonia Praestabilita

3.1  Newton's Birth Date and the Anni Mirabiles                  120

3.2  The Fundamental Anagram of Calculus                          125

3.3  Newton’s Cats                                                                 127

3.4  The Most Teachable of Mortals                                      130

3.5  Harmonia Mensurarum                                                    133

3.6  Berkeley and the Infidel                                                  142

3.7  The Portraits of Emilie                                                    143

3.8  Harmonia Praestabilita                                                    151

3.9  The Doctrine of Chance                                                   156

4  In the Shadows

4.1  Nicolas Fatio and the Cause of Gravity                           166

4.2  Lesage's Shadows                                                            176

4.3  Fatio, Lesage, and the Camisards                                    197

4.4  Historical Assessments of the Fatio-Lesage Theory       204

4.5  Omni-Directional Flux                                                    217

5  Metamorphosis

5.1  Saturnday, Sunday, Moonday                                          234

5.2  Gamaliel's Principle                                                         236

5.3  Benevolent Design and the Anthropic Principle             241

5.4  Electoral Draws                                                               253

5.5  Mayan Numeration                                                          256

5.6  The Metamorphosis of Judas Iscariot                              258

6  More Light

6.1  Franklin’s Magin Squares                                                262

6.2  Zur Farbenlehre                                                               265

6.3  The Longitude of Lewis and Clark                                  274

6.4  Gauss's Children and Adam's Gold                                 276

6.5  Galois's Analysis of Analysis                                          280

6.6  On Olber’s Paradox                                                         282

6.6  The Thought of a Thought                                               288

6.7  Spiritualism and Electromagnetism                                 308

6.8  Dodgson’s Paradox                                                          314

6.9  Did Poincare Anticipate Godel?                                      316

7  Casting Out Nines

7.1  Feynman's Ants                                                               323

7.2  The Dullness of 1729                                                       334

7.3  Casting Out Nines                                                            336

7.4  Is Knowledge Cumulative?                                             340

7.5  Dialogue On Mathematical and Physical Knowledge     342

7.6  Death's Dual: Life Be Not Proud                                     353

7.7  White Ravens and Black Swans                                      356

8  Never See So Much

8.1  Poisson’s Equation and the Universe                              361

8.2  Reconstructing Brouwer                                                  369

8.3  Lucretius on the Equivalence Principle                           377

8.5  Accidental Melodies                                                        378

8.6  Misinterpreted Lyrics                                                      384

8.7  Deborah’s Grandmother                                                  386

8.6  Efficient and Final Causes                                               391

8.7  World's Oldest Man Dies                                                 394