Lecture 12 - Newtonianism Flashcards
Newton in Europe
In England, Newton was a Rockstar
->sent by God, he’d seen God’s mind
But EU, Descartes & M.P. prevailed
- > Europe’s Einstein, he just had it right!
- > also a good methodologist
Most hate because Occult forces
- > he just feigned no hypothesies
- > indirect attack on Descartes - I know I can’t prove it, how do you know about the micro screws?
- > Descartes’ celestial bodies (vortices) could never align with Kepler
Slowly builds support:
- > Voltaire publishes on him
- > “World blind before Kepler, but Newton had 2 eyes”
- > slowly became popular - you need people to champion your beliefs for you for them to spread
Newtonian Physics
People started using Newtonianism everywhere!
- > Algoratti’s “Newton for Ladies”
- > try to make framework for morality, politics…
- > banned by Church, science can’t do that!
Thought Newtonianism could do anything, but it can be hard to establish initial conditions
->the “Three Body Problem”
Perihelion of Mercury couldn’t be explained, but Moon and Tides could.
->cut through 100’s of problems
Newtonian Astronomy
Unknown G in Uni Grav
->finally Cavendish at Cambridge finds it
Reflecting Telescope?
- > Herschel builds giant 20ft one, finds Uranus
- > and theoretically finds Neptune after noticing anomaly in orbig
Newtonian Chemistry - Priestley
Joseph Priestley
->interested in pneumatic chemistry (air)
->phlogiston theory
->air is a single substance
->but could be mixed, e.g. throw dust into i
->heretic, opponent of the crown
Two airs:
1)Fixed (No or CO2, he eventually differentiated them)
2) Dephlogisticated air (O2)
Saw their effects on plants, fire, calcification
- > assume lungs put phlogiston into air
- > flames burning with us
- > plants feed on phlogiston
Denied O2 theory
Newtonian Chemistry - Lavoisier
Antoine Lavoisier
- > and his cropped wife who did translations, ideas
- > promoted self as Newtonian chemist
Problems with Phlogiston:
- > weights of air?
- > adding phlogiston might decrease metal’s weight
- > metals are compounds in phlogiston theory, but heating changes weights?
Lavoisier reformed chemistry
- > air is a mix, can be isolated
- > renamed many things so common language
- > e.g. “element” anything you can’t subdivide
- > chalk, light, caloric (heat)
- > tentative because someone might break them someday
- > dephlogisticated into oxygen
- > oxygen = “acid former”, though he knew about HCl
Neither O2 or Phlog were established correct.
Heating iron ore -> iron metal
->and iron ore is heavier
Phlogistan:
- > iron ore is element, iron is compound of phlogistan and iron element
- > phlogistan has metallic properties, gives them
- > “chemical affinity” today
O2:
- > iron is element, since heating the iron ore releases oxygen, purifying it, making it lighter!
- > but can’t explain universal similarity between metals
Lavoisier emphasized exact measurements, since Phlogistan couldn’t explain loss of weight.
->he pushed CoM as Newtonian way, even though Newton never talked about the CoM
Newtonian Electrostatics
Ancients knew static electricity
- > rubbing amber
- > usually artificial magnets, no explanation
- > Thales though it was neat
- > by 1600, William Gilbert coins “electricity”, shows it’s not like magnetism (but working with static)
19th C, start with electrostatics
->electrical charges in motion
The Voltaic Pile (primitive battery)
- > Galvani thought living matter was source of electricity
- > Volta disproved with his pile
- > copper/zinc, brine sponge sandwich
- > replaced Leyden jar
- > discharge over time, gives current
- > current lets you study circuits!
Coulomb’s Law:
- > by being similar to Neweton, accepted without proof
- > just description of phenomena
- > by 1800, description without explanation accepted
Newtonianism by 1800
Unlike Scholasticism, say what w/o explanation or proof
Newton is a new page in science
->don’t worry about Arist, Ancients
Newton was chasing the Ancients though
->while everyone else stood on Newton
19th C, through Kelvin, Helmholtz
- > start of Energy and conversion between them
- > CoE
- > lets you deny vital forces
Newton was trained in the Scholastic method
- > but he had Nature as his master
- > 300 years of Scholasticism taught people how to ask questions
