Merry Newtonmas

Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
God said, 'Let Newton be' and all was light.
Alexander Pope

First, to us, was the PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA
which included this:
[Of the motion of bodies in eccentric conic sections.
PROPOSITION XI. PROBLEM VI.
If a body revolves in an ellipsis;
it is required to find the law of the centripetal
force
tending to the focus of the ellipsis.]

But he also proved the general case for the Binomial Theorem
("Pascal's Triangle")
(1 + x)n = 1 + nx + n(n-1)x2 / 2! + n(n-1)(n-2)x3 / 3! + ...

And Newton invented the reflecting telescope as a result of his
experiments with light.

We tend to ignore his religious writings, the extent of which actually
eclipsed his scientific production.

We also exlude his tenure as Warden and Master of the Mint. Berlinski
says unequivocally that these years are uninteresting. However, they
are THIRTY years of his life. In disguise, he pursued counterfeiters in
pubs and taverns - and as a justice of the peace, he extracted
confessions - though not through actual torture, of course...

And if you check the Wikipedia about Isaac Newton, you will find an
addendum about "Newtonmas." Like Newton versus Hooke, and Newton
versus Leibnitz, I am arguing for prior claim on this. I have been
sending out Newtonmas greetings for perhaps 20 years. It was always a
personal quirk which my friends accepted. I never thought that I would
have to defend a claim to the invention thereof. In some years, some
friends have received CONDER TOKENS. (Right now, I happen to own D&H
1035a, D&H 1033 and D&H 750, all from Middlesex 1793, of course.) This
year, I sent out uncirculated UK 1-pound notes with Newton on the back.


In 2002, the American Numismatic Association granted me a Heath
Literary Award for my November 2001 article in THE NUMISMATIST, 'Sir
Isaac Newton: Warden and Master of the Mint."

OK, maybe I should have posted this for September 29 and called it
"Merry Michaelmas." But my own interest in my own work aside...

MERRY NEWTONMAS TO YOU!

.