Newton's "Principia" stolen 439
Silverleaf writes "O2 have a story on the theft of Isaac Newton's revolutionary "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" from a Russian museum. For the non-physicists among you, Newton first published his famed three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation in "Principia" in 1687. I'm surprised this theft hasn't attracted more attention in the mainstream media, since "Principia" is generally considered the most important scientific works in history."
It's ok... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's ok... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's ok... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's ok... (Score:2, Troll)
Re:It's ok... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's ok... (Score:5, Informative)
Newton vs Leibniz [uh.edu]
Leibniz's good life and the best worlds (Score:5, Interesting)
He didn't get credit for the Calculus as readily, but it's not like he was Baruch Spinoza or William Blake (or David Hume for that matter). The man was a philosopher to royalty. The calculus was only one of his great philosophical achievements and that was noted in his time.
Incidentally, Leibniz's argument which Voltaire ridicules is kinda neat. God is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving. Because he is all knowing, he knows all the possible worlds he could have made. Because he's all poweful, he could make any worlds he knows. And because he's all-loving, he would only make the best of all the possible worlds for us of those that he knows (all of them) and can make (all of them).
So this is the best of all possible worlds.
Re:Impossible God (Score:3, Interesting)
i.e. can God make a pie so big that even He couldn't eat it?
Reagrdless of the answer, you're left with an non-omnipotent god, which goes against the omnipotent monotheistic ideal.
Many philosophers have spent a lot of tiem rationalizing this out. Otehres have spent a lot of time using this to prove that God doesn't exist.
Polytheisms don't fall victim to this, since rarely do they ever have or need an all-powerful god-figure. Gods/goddesses with specific domains don't need to be all-powerful to get their jobs done. Of course, polytheism has other theological problems.
Theological philsophy is interesting to study. Brain-hurting sometimes, but fun.
Re:It's ok... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's ok... (Score:3, Interesting)
Noël Antoine Pluche (1688-1761), the author of a highly popular work, Le Spectacle de la Nature (1732), took Leibnitz's ideas and ran with them, and ran, and ran, and ran.
Re:It's ok... (Score:4, Informative)
There's an obvious reason why he did this: none of his readers could be expected to know calculus. It had, after all, just been invented, or was still in the process of being invented. If he wanted people to understand the concepts, he either had to teach them the math or figure out a way of presenting it convincingly without the reader needing to know calculus. Neither one is an easy prospect. I haven't read Principia myself, but I remember a physics prof mentioning that in some cases he deliberately avoided using calculus because he thought that his demonstrations would be more likely to convince people if they didn't use all that new fangled math, and it wound up being vastly more complicated as a result.
Re:It's ok... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's ok... (Score:5, Funny)
Ahem. I assume that is the scientific division of Barnes and Noble?
Re:It's ok... (Score:2)
Re:It's ok... (Score:4, Informative)
FP -- where's the link? (Score:2)
The requested URL
Re:FP -- where's the link? (Score:5, Funny)
Have these men no shame?
link broken.. (Score:2, Informative)
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=huma
Re:link broken.. (Score:2)
fixed link; no space inbetween the e and w in humannews, sorry.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Working links (Score:3, Informative)
Google news has some more links. [google.com]
I know (Score:2, Funny)
It must've been Hudson Hawk who stole it..
Re:I know (Score:2)
So does this invalidate the three laws, or are people still allowed to fly to the moon?
-Fantastic Lad
Ebay (Score:5, Funny)
This is no time for jokes! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is no time for jokes! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh do give it a rest. You know what will happen once you get a post in motion around here.
Re:This is no time for jokes! (Score:2)
Second?? (Score:2)
Second? I thought it was the first!
Re:Second?? (Score:2)
Re:This is no time for jokes! (Score:2)
ba dum psh.
How'd you do that? (Score:2)
"What time is it?" "I don't know, it keeps changing".
(As an aside, the above should cue the Bob Dylan jokes from the old folks).
Something Tells Me... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Stolen to order (Score:2)
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:2)
Uh-oh, likes like the MPAA has gotten to this one. Dillusional conspiracy theory, packed with anonymous bad guys acting as front for the "Buyer." He is not completely gone as he not referred to hoping that Tia Carrere, will rescue the book, ala "Relic Hunter."
CmdrTaco, prepare the Brain Degauser...
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:2)
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Not unlike a description of the general process of privatizing the public sphere, really...)
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:2)
When was the last time you heard of a member of the public standing up in congress directly influencing a vote on the running of a state-owned entity? On the other hand, anyone, even the poor can buy stock in a publicly traded company and influence the decisions of its board. On the other hand, who do you think has the most influence over your congressman, the rich or the poor?
Democracy and markets (Score:2)
To claim that my vote is worthless in running the state, and that a corporation would give me more power, is Fascism.
A democratic government is intended to give a voice to everyone. I have some small amount of influence when I vote, and when I write to a representative, or participate more directly in more local government, where I have yet more influence over how things are run. Maybe voting isn't worth anything to you, but it is to me.
I'm not saying that the government should run everything, just responding to your assertion that the stock market gives me more power than democracy.
Corporate rule is far from democratic. The vast majority of Enron investors didn't decide to enrich the few folks who burned down the store. The folks with the voting shares weren't paying enough attention, but most of the people who lost money had no influence at all, putting the lie to your last paragraph.
Perhaps you merely meant that the government shouldn't own anything? Of course without owning anything, it couldn't govern, and would become irrelevant. That's OK for the fascists, because corporate rule will be best for us all.
Forced to choose between my stocks, and my vote, I'd pick my vote (even back in the 90's.) Fortunately, I get both.
So much for my offtopic answer to a troll.
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:2)
Hypothetically everyone could have an equal influence regardless of their interest, but then there wouldn't be any incentive to own more than one share in each company. A person could concievably own a share in every company. But what meaning would the value of a share of the company have? None that I can concieve.
funny that this is in a discussion of newton's principia which discusses the calculus of limits, or infinitessimals.
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:2)
Curse them! Now we'll have to start mathematics all over from the 16th century.
I know hindsight is 20/20, but we should have made a copy while we had a chance.
Re:Something Tells Me... (Score:2)
Who did the Russians steal it from, anyways?
Google Cache (Score:3, Informative)
For crying out loud (Score:5, Funny)
Didn't someone at least make a photocopy of it?!
Re:For crying out loud (Score:2, Informative)
Holy shit! (Score:5, Funny)
Rumors ... (Score:3, Funny)
I hate to break it to you, but there are rumors that Newton actually created calculus too. Luckily, calculus hasn't been stolen yet, but it's under close watch now.
More at eleven ...
That would be more funny if it made sense (Score:3, Informative)
Still, sure, you can learn all about the application of the math without knowing the theoretical underpinnings all the way back to geometric first principles, but it's much more intellectually rewarding to trace them. And it's necessary in order to say that an equation is "proved" mathematically. Theories do get non-Euclidean sometimes, but you can't really appreciate that unless you know the Euclidean things themselves work.
*gasp* (Score:4, Funny)
*cough*
*choke*
They stole... Principia ?!
(screams to the next room) BRING ME MY GUN!
Library link (Score:5, Informative)
Those thieves! (Score:3, Funny)
This is dangerous. (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Since no one can find the link (Score:5, Informative)
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Thieves have stolen Newton's "apple" from a Russian museum -- the celebrated book in which the 17th century English physicist formulated his eponymous law on gravity which revolutionized science.
Posing as readers, the thieves stole a rare first edition of Isaac Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" from the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, a library official told Reuters Sunday.
"The loss was discovered straight away when the reading room was closing on November 6 and it had not been returned by the readers who had requested it," the official said.
The theft was reported to police Friday.
Newton's "Principia" (or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, is considered to be one of the most important single works in the history of modern science.
In "Principia" Newton formulates the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation.
Legend has it that the young Newton was reading under an apple tree when he was struck on the head by a falling fruit, an innocuous event which provided the inspiration for his theories on gravity and secured him a place in history.
His new laws helped him to explain a range of phenomena, including the motion of planets, moons and comets within the solar system, the behavior of Earth's tides, the procession of the equinoxes and irregularities in the moon's orbit.
The library official said the stolen book was usually kept in the archives and only given out to readers for work in the library's reading room.
Re:Since no one can find the link (Score:5, Interesting)
You'd be surprised at how well old books hold up. Even with printing they were still something of a luxury item, so they were generally printed on first rate paper and covered in leather. Those are durable materials; paper only has a bad reputation because so much recently made paper has a high acid content and degrades over time. Acid free paper, though, can last a very long time indeed. To keep a book like that in decent shape you don't have to take extraordinary precautions; you just have to protect it from abuse. My grandmother has an early printing of Principia (I'm not sure if it's a first edition, but IIRC it was printed during Newton's lifetime) and the only reason I wasn't able to read it is because I don't know Latin.
Plural (Score:2, Insightful)
All of them? That must be a pretty important book! And one of these Principia were stolen, or more?
Perhaps you meant 'among the most important scientific works in history'...
in other news... (Score:2)
The Newton Tome can be found in the Men's room on the third floor, a little light reading while the free speech advocates took a little 'break'.
Re:in other news...(Hail Eris!) (Score:2)
There is no Goddess but Eris, and Murphy is Her Consort!
ttyl
Farrell
p.s. This is not Mind Control, Think about it!
They didn't steal the only copy (Score:5, Informative)
It wasn't even kept under tight security. They let people read it in the reading room.
Re:They didn't steal the only copy (Score:2)
Re:They didn't steal the only copy (Score:3, Funny)
Its the sort of thing that turns up on Antique Roadshow. I can hear the goober now..."I found this in my great-great grandpa's attic. You think I could trade her for sumthin good?...Gooollly, that's a lot of money!"
Re:They didn't steal the only copy (Score:2)
Re:They didn't steal the only copy (Score:2)
I suppose part of the reason this wasn't done for Principia was money ... but shouldn't security be SOP for any rare or wildly valuable work in public hands?
Re:They didn't steal the only copy (Score:2)
That's pretty normal -- heck, I've even read an first edition of John Dee's English translation of Euclid (1570) in a university library. Typically, one just can't check out rare books -- there is no rule against reading them in the library.
Oops (Score:5, Funny)
>The requested URL
Well, duh! That's what the story is about.
Obey the Laws... (Score:5, Funny)
The "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" remained in it's initial state of rest (at a museum in russia) until it was acted upon by those theives.
One can only hope that there will be an equal but opposite force exerted upon the theives, as forces always occur in pairs!
bah (Score:5, Funny)
Newton died years ago. Why not put something in the museum that's a bit more contemporary?
Maybe some Harlequin Romances or Stephen King?
Re:bah (Score:5, Funny)
Re:bah (Score:2)
Yes, but since he's now dead at age 54 (but that's all I know -- there "weren't any more details"), he should be just fine on display. Matter of fact, we could just toss Ol' Vladimir Ily'ch himself out and stick Steve-o in that case! I'm sure that Lenin, that nasty old shit, would burn pretty well once his suit caught, so we could have a nice eternal (well, 45-minute) flame in remembrance of Author Steven King, Dead at 54. :)
Odd (Score:2)
Odd. I could have sworn it was located in the Huntington museum in California, along with Newton's notes, seeing as how I saw it not six months ago.
Of course, it may have been moved to Russia since then. See if we'll ever loan them a famous scientific work again!
Re:Odd (Score:2)
He might not have stolen it (Score:2)
"No, I don't want hurt her, but Newton third Law urges me...."
The reason it is not super important (Score:2, Insightful)
Broken Link? (Score:3, Informative)
Steve baby (Score:2, Funny)
How, how, how? (Score:5, Interesting)
probably gone forever (Score:5, Funny)
Not surprising at all... (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, come on. Get real... The Sooners lost to the Aggies in College Station. No mystery here.
"theft" (Score:5, Funny)
If you want to be accurate, use the word "take". As in, someone "took" the Principia Mathematica.
If you want to give it a positive connotation, use the term "shared" or "loan". As in, I just "shared" my copy of the Principia with a stranger, or I just involuntarily "loaned" my copy to a man in a ski mask with a gun.
Let the RIAA and other thugs use their propaganda words. I'll stick with morally neutral terminology.
Remember, matter just wants to be free. This doesn't mean zero cost, but it means once you pick up a physical object, you can put it in your pocket and head for the hills, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
Besides, I believe the Supreme Court has already ruled that people have the right to "space-shift" other people's possessions.
Re:"theft" & semantics (Score:2)
For the record (one exempt from RIAA) it is nice looking book, and Australia has one [vic.gov.au].
Interogate the Leibniz Descendents!!! (Score:2, Funny)
Get my drift? [angelfire.com]
Carmen SanDiego (Score:2, Funny)
Fnord
Principia (Score:2)
Thank god I have my own copy!
Perhaps... (Score:2)
See, the RIAA is right! (Score:2)
Seriously, I hope they find this thing soon. It's got to be priceless.
Re:See, the RIAA is right! (Score:2)
Don't Panic (Score:5, Interesting)
Sigh... (Score:3, Funny)
Damn, I'm a geek.
Investigate Leibniz (Score:5, Funny)
Russian-speaking press (Score:2)
NOTHING. Not a single mention whatsoever. Checked 5 of the most popular newsfeeds. No mention.
Simple search (Yandex.ru for the unduly curious
turned up several articles on lesser sites. Among the interesting tidbits:
* Another book is also missing, a 1913 edition of some book called "Le Futur" by Bolshakov
* The book is unique (other than being the first edition) because it has marks/stamps from many other libraries. I wasn't quite sure what that meant - only one article mentioned it - but probably the history of book's ownership is quite interesting.
-DVK
No security? (Score:2)
Parallel Between Theft and IP (Score:2)
After all, all the robber did was remove it from the public domain, effectively. Illegal, sure, but the effect is the same; the public is out a tremendous good to benefit the greedy few/one.
Where is the difference?
While it's missing... (Score:3, Funny)
...I'm definitely going to take advantage of F !=ma [k12.oh.us]. I'm going to give my car a good shove tomorrow morning and ride it all the way to work.
I just hope that we don't spin out of orbit while F != G(m1m2)/d2 [uwinnipeg.ca]. I guess, though, that if we start to spin out of orbit, somebody on the far side of the planet can just give it a shove and we'll be back in place.
Unfortunately, I've already noticed my CPU getting hotter [wolfram.com]. And I stood on this really tall guy's shoulders but I couldn't see very far...
Simpsons test (Score:2)
Fans will think it is funny, others will think it is overrated.
"The emperor and his new clothes" syndrome should be good for at least a +4
--Joey
to quote Gattaca... (Score:2)
And this is why..... (Score:3, Funny)
At least in America this is probably due to the fact that when someone says "Newton" the first thing we think of is "Fig".
I'm not surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's particularly telling but not at all suprising that this hasn't gotten the attention that a theft of other items such as art would get. The media and liberal arts people who would make a fuss don't understand or care about science, so they would give a lot more attention to the scribblings of a second rate artist than to a scientific work. Scientists value the information, not the paper, and know that can't be taken, and the media gives them little attention anyway unless a giant rock is heading towards Earth. It's a shame to have the artifact vanish, but I'm not at all surprised that more attention is given when a thief breaks in and steals from Madonna.
"The Great Scientist Isaac Newton" (Score:3, Interesting)
To illustrate his views, he introduced a quotation of Newton's by saying something like, "As the Great Scientist Isaac Newton once said,
I was depressed. One would hope that anyone could speak of Isaac Newton without any further introduction, but clearly, this Congresscreature felt compelled to tell us that he was the "the Great Scientist". Otherwise, he ran the risk that his audience wouldn't know who in the world he was talking about.
Why isn't there more interest in this story, you ask? Well, because quite a few people haven't the slightest clue who Newton is or what the Principia is all about. Not unless you mention "the Great Scientist".