01-28-2014, 10:21 AM | #21 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Alternative World - no Newton
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Newtonian kinematics are a simple invention one one has the calculus and the Cartesian plane; gravity and optics are trickier.
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01-28-2014, 10:27 AM | #22 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Alternative World - no Newton
Yeah, I think "might have" is right. Coming up with a brilliant theory that nobody pays any attention to can eventually make you famous (Cf. Mendel) but doesn't really do much to advance science. Leibnitz wasn't especially shy about sharing his ideas and was fairly famous for his other philosophical and mathematical contributions, so it's likely he'd have publicized his version of calculus even without his dispute with Newton, but not certain.
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01-28-2014, 10:41 AM | #23 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Alternative World - no Newton
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So even with a later start it could all still be made up before practical developments were delayed. As a more recent example if there had been no Tsiolkovsky does anyone think Oberth or Goddard or Ley or Von Braun wouldn't have done the math when the time came that they needed it?
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Fred Brackin |
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01-28-2014, 12:58 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Alternative World - no Newton
Huh? Newtonian optics went into use in telescopes pretty much instantly, he did it himself, and the delay between Principia and calculus and, say, gunnery calculations couldn't have been more than a couple decades.
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-- MA Lloyd |
01-28-2014, 05:36 PM | #25 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Alternative World - no Newton
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Even literally, while Newton did design a an early form of reflecting telescope it had little if anything to do with Opticks (specifically the book but also the science). Many other people were fooling around in the area trying to bypass the limits of lens-grinding. It wasn't until the late 1800s until the issue was finally and irreversably decided in favor of the reflector. Liebnitz's calculus ought to do gunnery calcs just as well as Newton's did.
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Fred Brackin |
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01-28-2014, 06:22 PM | #26 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Alternative World - no Newton
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Bill Stoddard |
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01-28-2014, 06:31 PM | #27 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Alternative World - no Newton
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 01-28-2014 at 06:35 PM. |
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Tags |
alternate history, alternative world |
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