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Newton's Clock: Chaos in the Solar System
With his critically acclaimed bestsellers Mathematical Tourism & Islands of Truth, Peterson took readers to the frontiers of modern mathematics. His new book provides an up-to-date look at one of science's greatest detective stories: the search for order in the workings of the solar system. In the late 1600s, Sir Isaac Newton provided what astronomers had long sought: a seemingly reliable way of calculating planetary orbits & positions. His laws of motion & his coherent, mathematical view of the cosmos dominated scientific discourse for centuries. At the same time, observers recorded subtle, unexpected movements of the planets & other bodies, suggesting that the solar system is not as placid & predictable as its venerable clockwork image suggests. Today, scientists can go beyond the hand calculations, mathematical tables & massive observational logs that limited the explorations of Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe etc. Using supercomputers to simulate the dynamics of the solar system, astronomers are learning more about the motions they observe & uncovering some examples of chaotic behavior in the heavens. Nonetheless, the long-term stability of the solar system remains a perplexing, unsolved issue, with each step toward its resolution exposing additional uncertainties & deeper mysteries. To show how the view of the solar system has changed from clocklike precision to chaos & complexity, Newton's Clock describes the development of celestial mechanics thru the ages--from the star charts of ancient navigators to the seminal discoveries of the 17th century from the crucial work of Poincare to the sometimes controversial findings & theories made possible by modern mathematics & computer simulations. The result makes for provocative reading, equal parts science, history & intellectual adventure.
333 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 1, 2013
Is the solar system stable? What stops planets from just flying off into the sun or into deep space?
It's at first natural to say "conservation of energy + angular momentum", but this actually isn't quite true. You could imagine that over time, inter-planet interactions would distort orbits to the point where the solar system gets disrupted. Certainly, asteroids, comets, and moons sometimes collide or get ejected from the solar system. And dynamical systems in general can be chaotic, and can transition in surprising ways from stability to chaos. The real answer is more complicated and this book tries to explain it.
The first part was a rehash of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler that didn't add anything to my understanding. The interesting bits start about a third of the way through when the author starts talking about Newton, Laplace, and classical efforts to prove that the solar system was stable. The author then highlights the dynamical discoveries of Poincare. The final third discusses late-20th-century computer simulations.
The real answer about solar system dynamics seems to be "the solar system is chaotic, but only within limits." The basic orbital parameters, such as planetary orbit diameters, seem fixed. But some of the other parameters do vary chaotically. There are funny resonances that result in some dynamical variables, such as the eccentricity of Pluto's orbit or the rotational axis of Mars-- changing chaotically.
As a student, I took courses in dynamical systems, and I've worked on simulating them as a researcher. I felt like I would have had a hard time understanding this part of the book without that background. I get the concept of a phase space in a fairly intuitive way, and so it makes sense to me that a system can be chaotic in some dimensions but not others. Readers who don't have the same background as me might find this all a bit heavy going.
It's at first natural to say "conservation of energy + angular momentum", but this actually isn't quite true. You could imagine that over time, inter-planet interactions would distort orbits to the point where the solar system gets disrupted. Certainly, asteroids, comets, and moons sometimes collide or get ejected from the solar system. And dynamical systems in general can be chaotic, and can transition in surprising ways from stability to chaos. The real answer is more complicated and this book tries to explain it.
The first part was a rehash of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler that didn't add anything to my understanding. The interesting bits start about a third of the way through when the author starts talking about Newton, Laplace, and classical efforts to prove that the solar system was stable. The author then highlights the dynamical discoveries of Poincare. The final third discusses late-20th-century computer simulations.
The real answer about solar system dynamics seems to be "the solar system is chaotic, but only within limits." The basic orbital parameters, such as planetary orbit diameters, seem fixed. But some of the other parameters do vary chaotically. There are funny resonances that result in some dynamical variables, such as the eccentricity of Pluto's orbit or the rotational axis of Mars-- changing chaotically.
As a student, I took courses in dynamical systems, and I've worked on simulating them as a researcher. I felt like I would have had a hard time understanding this part of the book without that background. I get the concept of a phase space in a fairly intuitive way, and so it makes sense to me that a system can be chaotic in some dimensions but not others. Readers who don't have the same background as me might find this all a bit heavy going.
December 21, 2017
Around halfway through it started getting too complicated for me. It still kept me interested, though. I'm guessing it was written when Chaos theory was in fashion, since it keeps mentioning it. It would be nice to have an updated edition with the discoveries made since the mid '90s.
August 21, 2022
Redundant; every chapter reads as if it were written to be read independently of the rest, like a series of articles stitched together into a book a la Frankenstein's monster. Took 300 pages to say of the fate of the solar system: we just don't know.
October 15, 2019
Still one of my favorite books of all time
March 22, 2015
Astronomy was my first scientific interest, books in that area occupying much of my time while I was simultaneously getting into science fiction. So great was my evident interest that Dad bought me one of those cardboard reflector telescopes while I was still in elementary school. Although never having gotten beyond an elementary understanding of astrophysics, I've kept a hand in, reading books about astronomy now and again throughout the years. This popular treatment is typical.
December 15, 2008
Brilliant, informative writing with elegant and beautiful counter-examples to the mechanical solar system we thought we knew. Hyperion tumbles!
December 29, 2010
This was a really good book! You might think it would be dry and boring, but it's well written and presents the history and material in an exciting and enjoyable way.
February 5, 2012
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10429113
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10429113
April 5, 2013
Amazing, accessible tale of how our understanding of the solar system developed. The asteroid section really opened my eyes.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews