Roger Cotes - Natural Philosopher

by Ronald Gowing

• ISBN13: 9780521526494
• ISBN10: 0521526493
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Roger Cotes (1682–1716) was the first Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, at Trinity College, Cambridge. One of the most distinguished, and certainly one of the most ardent, of the early Newtonians he did important work in mathematics and astronomy and edited the second edition of Newton’s Principia. Cotes died young and published only one paper, the Logometria, during his lifetime; a translation of this paper is given in the Appendix. Most of Cotes’s papers were published posthumously in Latin in Harmonia Mensurarum in 1722. Dr Gowing discusses Cotes’ work in some detail but has written the work in such a way that the more technical aspects of the mathematics can be omitted at first reading whilst still giving a clear idea of Cotes’ achievement. Cotes’ work was significant but his full potential was unrealised; in Newton’s reputed words: ‘If he had lived, we might have known something.’

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(4)
Cotes as first Plumian Professor, and as editor of Newton's Principia	5	(15)
Logometria	20	(14)
New methods in the calculus	34	(33)
Cotes' factorisation theorem	67	(13)
Astronomy	80	(32)
Numerical methods	112	(22)
The missing works	134	(4)
Conclusion	138	(5)
Appendix 1 English translation of Logometria	143	(44)
Appendix 2 Commentary on Proposition IV of Logometria	187	(4)
Appendix 3 Cotes' eighteen forms of fluents	191	(4)
Appendix 4 Logometria, Part III, Problem X: the Cotes spiral and related orbits	195	(10)
Appendix 5 A manuscript in Trinity College Library, Cambridge	205	(2)
Select bibliography	207	(2)
Index	209