MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03666mam a2200385 a 4500
001 1618370
005 20220608200724.0
008 940104s1994 enk b 001 0 eng
010 $a 94000690
020 $a0521385415
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm29703296
035 $9AKM6040CU
035 $a(NNC)1618370
035 $a1618370
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dXLM$dOrLoB
043 $ae-fr---
050 00 $aQB283$b.G74 1994
082 00 $a525/.1$220
100 1 $aGreenberg, John Leonard,$d1945-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n87133904
245 14 $aThe problem of the earth's shape from Newton to Clairaut :$bthe rise of mathematical science in eighteenth century Paris and the fall of "normal" science /$cJohn L. Greenberg.
260 $aCambridge ;$aNew York :$bCambridge University Press,$c1994.
263 $a9407
300 $axviii, 781 pages :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 00 $g1.$tIsaac Newton's theory of a flattened earth (1687, 1713, 1726) --$g2.$tThe state of the problem of the earth's shape in the 1720s: Stalemate --$g3.$tThe revival of geodesy in Paris (1733-1735) --$g4.$tPierre Bouguer and the theory of homogeneous figures of equilibrium (1734) --$g5.$tMaupertuis: On the theory of the earth's shape (1734) --$g6.$tAlexis-Claude Clairaut's first theories of the earth's shape --$g7.$tInterlude I: integral calculus (1690-1741) --$g8.$tInterlude II: The Paris Academy's contest on the tides (1740) --$g9.$tClairaut's mature theory of the earth's shape (1741-1743): First substantial connections between the revival of mathematics in Paris and progress in mechanics there --$g10.$tEpilogue: Fontaine's and Clairaut's advances in the partial differential calculus revisited, or the virtues of interrelated developments in mathematics and science, and the fall of "normal" science.
520 $aThis book investigates, through the problem of the earth's shape, part of the development of post-Newtonian mechanics by the Parisian scientific community during the first half of the eighteenth century. In the Principia Newton first raised the question of the earth's shape.
520 8 $aJohn Greenberg shows how continental scholars outside France influenced efforts in Paris to solve the problem, and he also demonstrates that Parisian scholars, including Bouguer and Fontaine, did work that Alexis-Claude Clairaut used in developing his mature theory of the earth's shape.
520 8 $aThe evolution of Parisian mechanics proved not to be the replacement of a Cartesian paradigm by a Newtonian one, a replacement that might be expected from Thomas Kuhn's formulations about scientific revolutions, but a complex process instead involving many areas of research and contributions of different kinds from the entire scientific world.
520 8 $aGreenberg both explores the myriad of technical problems that underlie the historical development of part of post-Newtonian mechanics, which have only been rarely analyzed by Western scholars, and embeds his technical discussion in a framework that involves social and institutional history politics, and biography.
520 8 $aInstead of focusing exclusively on the historiographical problem, Greenberg shows as well that international scientific communication was as much a vital part of the scientific progress of individual nations during the first half of the eighteenth century as it is today.
651 0 $aEarth (Planet)$xFigure$xHistory.
650 0 $aPhysical sciences$zFrance$xHistory$y18th century.
852 00 $boff,sci$hQB283$i.G74 1994