During this time of quarantine, I'd like to remind everyone that Isaac Newton was an asshole.
And, to be fair, much of Euler's own work was in danger of plunging into manifest contradiction. Indeed, much of it actually did plunge into manifest contradiction -- before bursting back up into mysterious yet utterly compelling success. Just as Newton's work reliably did.
-
-
In this case, Euler's comment was about Newton's belief that light behaves as a particle. Euler thought this was impossible (for reasons that sound strange now) and that light can only be a wave.
-
Newton's most speculative physical intuitions were eerily prescient. It's amazing to read, in his optics, his prediction that the intensity spectrum of colors emitted by a heated body would be a crucial subject for future study.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.