Search All of the Math Forum:
Views expressed in these public forums are not endorsed by
Drexel University or The Math Forum.
|
|
|
|
[HM] Kepler's impact on calculus
Posted:
Nov 17, 2005 1:20 PM
|
|
I would like to forward the following question from one of my students
to the members of this list:
> Do we know whether Johannes Kepler's work in mathematics, specifically
> his work with stereometrics, was used or developed into methods which
> we now employ in calculus? While every book I read on the subject
> says that he was very important to this development, no one specifies
> how his work was employed. I'm looking for a direct link where a
> later mathematician referenced some of Kepler's works and used it to
> work on something we would recognize as calculus, or a chain of
> influence in which mathematicians each use the work of their
> predecessor, the first building on Kepler's work, and the last one
> doing something we would recognize as calculus. I know that we credit
> Newton and Leibniz with the development of calculus, however, once we
> get past them, other mathematicians must have drawn on the work of
> others to develop other areas of mathematics such as computing the
> volume of solids.
>
> One history I read says that is was Cavalieri who built on Kepler's
> work but I cannot find an English version of "Geometria indivisibilius
> continuorum nova quadam ratione promota." Does anyone know if an
> English version of this or of Kepler's "Nova Stereometria Doliorum
> Vinorum" exists. Any help would be great. Thank you in advance.
> ~Matt
|
|
|
|
