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From Eudoxus to Einstein: A History of Mathematical Astronomy
Since humans first looked towards the heavens, they have attempted to predict and explain the motions of the sun, moon, and planets. This book describes the theories of planetary motion that have been developed through the ages, from the homocentric spheres of Eudoxus to Einstein's general theory of relativity. It emphasizes the interaction between progress in astronomy and in mathematics, demonstrating how the two have been inextricably linked since Babylonian times.
Hardcover
First published August 12, 2004
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July 5, 2018
I give this 5 stars even though, ironically, I couldn't finish it.
This book has no peer for what it tries to do. It shows the history of astronomy by showing how the mathematical techniques were used in historical calculations. It doesn't skimp on the math! As someone with a background in math, that's exactly what I was looking for and there were several fascinating aspects to this:
1) Of course, you learn a very detailed history of astronomical knowledge. One of the key things I hoped to learn, and did, was what astronomy was like in the ancient world. Spoiler: before the ancient greeks there were solar and lunar eclipse tables of slowly increasing precision. And of course the details of when moons, planets, parallax, atmospheric distortion, and the speed of light were all fascinating.
2) Some interesting biographical and historical detail as well. I learned a lot about Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Gauss, even though I knew a lot before.
3) It's interesting to see how abstract mathematical tools are applied to real world problems, especially the problems that inspired those techniques. The book often goes into detail about the precision (in degrees, for example) obtained by different techniques, and it's sometimes evident from the given calculations how a new technique is better than an old one. This is where the book is most unique.
Throughout history, astronomy has required intense data collection and processing. The book painstakingly details how changes in observational technology (even before lenses) lead to increased measurement precision and more data points. It shows how routine calculations on data were extremely time consuming (taking years to decades), so new mathematical tools that sped up calculation meant the difference between abandonment of a decade of work and successful publication after only a few years. It shows how improvements in these two steps allowed fitting better models and hence the discovery of everything mentioned in point 1) above.
4) It gave me a new appreciation for trigonometry and calculus. The book includes intermediate stages that lead to the formalism we use today.
5) The later part increasingly moves through several versions of the action formalism of physics. I don't know much physics, so this was eye opening. Unfortunately it was also super boring after the third or fourth simplification that I lack the background to understand.
So eventually I reached something like page 380-430 out of 500. I never finished because I reread these pages literally 4-5 times, with increasing pauses between attempts. It's been a year or two since my last attempt and I guess I give up.
This book has no peer for what it tries to do. It shows the history of astronomy by showing how the mathematical techniques were used in historical calculations. It doesn't skimp on the math! As someone with a background in math, that's exactly what I was looking for and there were several fascinating aspects to this:
1) Of course, you learn a very detailed history of astronomical knowledge. One of the key things I hoped to learn, and did, was what astronomy was like in the ancient world. Spoiler: before the ancient greeks there were solar and lunar eclipse tables of slowly increasing precision. And of course the details of when moons, planets, parallax, atmospheric distortion, and the speed of light were all fascinating.
2) Some interesting biographical and historical detail as well. I learned a lot about Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Gauss, even though I knew a lot before.
3) It's interesting to see how abstract mathematical tools are applied to real world problems, especially the problems that inspired those techniques. The book often goes into detail about the precision (in degrees, for example) obtained by different techniques, and it's sometimes evident from the given calculations how a new technique is better than an old one. This is where the book is most unique.
Throughout history, astronomy has required intense data collection and processing. The book painstakingly details how changes in observational technology (even before lenses) lead to increased measurement precision and more data points. It shows how routine calculations on data were extremely time consuming (taking years to decades), so new mathematical tools that sped up calculation meant the difference between abandonment of a decade of work and successful publication after only a few years. It shows how improvements in these two steps allowed fitting better models and hence the discovery of everything mentioned in point 1) above.
4) It gave me a new appreciation for trigonometry and calculus. The book includes intermediate stages that lead to the formalism we use today.
5) The later part increasingly moves through several versions of the action formalism of physics. I don't know much physics, so this was eye opening. Unfortunately it was also super boring after the third or fourth simplification that I lack the background to understand.
So eventually I reached something like page 380-430 out of 500. I never finished because I reread these pages literally 4-5 times, with increasing pauses between attempts. It's been a year or two since my last attempt and I guess I give up.
Displaying 1 of 1 review