Word: newton
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...whose word on the heavens was law for some 1,400 years, has long been considered the king of ancient astronomers. Now an iconoclastic physicist is seeking to dethrone him. After an eight-year study of the Syntaxis, Ptolemy's 13-volume collection of celestial observations, Robert R. Newton of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University has concluded that Ptolemy faked his figures. In his just-published The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy (Johns Hopkins University Press; $22.50), Newton minces no words: "Ptolemy is not the greatest astronomer of antiquity, but he is something still more unusual...
...Newton bases his charges on a meticulous examination of Ptolemy's work, which revealed an internal consistency that would not have been possible with that ancient astronomer's techniques. Newton also conducted a backward extrapolation from modern astronomical data, which demonstrated certain anomalies in Ptolemy's observations. Ptolemy claimed, for example, that he had observed an autumnal equinox at 2 p.m. on Sept. 25, A.D. 132; he stressed that he had measured the phenomenon "with the greatest care." But, says Newton, back calculation from modern tables shows that an observer in Alexandria, Egypt, where Ptolemy made...
...difference? To Newton, the evidence suggests that Ptolemy accepted the observations of an earlier astronomer, Hipparchus, without checking them against his own. Newton feels that Ptolemy may also have followed a technique used by mediocre students throughout history: he worked backward to prove the results he wanted to get, and sometimes made up his data. Whatever he did, Ptolemy got away with it for 18 centuries...
Sayles describes with devastating satire the endless meetings it takes Third Way to arrive at the required "positions", both Huey Newton's Panthers and Mao's China require the two-hour discussions. He reminds us just how silly most of those innocent revolutionaries could sound. But at the same time he makes us feel sympathy for them despite their astounding naivete--makes us known what it was like when people really cared about politics, no matter how misguided their tactics might be. Third Way comes to an end when its members try to liberate a stitching factory for the factory...
...doesn't really matter what Olivia Newton-John sings. She could probably make selections from Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, popular country or rock songs. Her producers realize that the best way to guarantee top record sales is to put as much of Olivia's picture on the jacket as possible...