caa a22 4500 477114539 CHVBK 20180405111619.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170330e19961201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00374704 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00374704 Greenberg John 55 Blvd. Joseph Bara, 91.120, Palaiseau, France aut Isaac Newton and the problem of the earth's shape [Elektronische Daten] [John Greenberg] In this article I discuss the theory of the earth's shape presented by Isaac Newton in Book III of his Principia. I show that the theory struck even the most reputable continental mathematicians of the day as incomprehensible. I examine the many obstacles to understanding the theory which the reader faced — the gaps, the underived equations, the unproven assertions, the dependence upon corollaries to practically incomprehensible theorems in Book I of the Principia and the ambiguities of these corollaries, the conjectures without explanations of their bases, the inconsistencies, and so forth. I explain why these apparent drawbacks are, historically considered, strengths of Newton's theory of the earth's shape, not weaknesses. Springer-Verlag, 1996 Archive for History of Exact Sciences Springer-Verlag 49/4(1996-12-01), 371-391 0003-9519 49:4<371 1996 49 407 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00374704 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00374704 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Greenberg John 55 Blvd. Joseph Bara, 91.120, Palaiseau, France aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Archive for History of Exact Sciences Springer-Verlag 49/4(1996-12-01), 371-391 0003-9519 49:4<371 1996 49 407 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer