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Classic Books of Science?
half_cocked_jack writes "What are the classic books of science from throughout history? I'm currently reading On the Origin of Species on my Kindle 2, and it's sparked an interest in digging up some of the classic books of science. I'm looking for books from the ancient and medieval worlds and books from the golden ages of scientific discovery. Books like: Galileo's The Starry Messenger; Newton's Principia; Copernicus's On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres; and Faraday's The Chemical History of a Candle. I know that I can likely find these books in a format I can use on my Kindle (found a few on Gutenberg already), but what I need is a checklist of these books to guide my reading. Suggestions?"
- The Book Page - provides free on-line classic and not-so-well known books, articles and more. Antiquarian science texts and articles - complete with original wood-cuts and copper-plate Figures read "cover to cover", or use your Browsers search function to find and read specific sections. Choose from HTML, or pdf (eBook) or MS Reader format.
Not a list like you are looking for, but may help in tracking down things you would be interested in reading.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Cool story bro
The Bible!
Oh, wait...
~AA
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do.
On the Shoulders of Giants was a book I picked up on the cheap ... a weighty tome assembled by Stephen Hawking of classic books of science (some of which you listed).
I think I got the hardcover for ~$8 at a used bookstore. Amazon seems to indicate it's not available on the kindle but here's what's in it:
1. Nicolaus Copernicus "On the Revolutions of [the] Heavenly Spheres" (1543)
2. Galileo Galilei "Dialogues [or Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations] Concerning Two [New] Sciences" (1638)
3. Johannes Kepler Book Five of "Harmonies of the World" (1618)
4. Sir Isaac Newton "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" (1687)
5. Albert Einstein "The Principles of Relativity: A Collection of Original Papers on the Special Theory of Relativity" (1922)
My work here is dung.
the Bible. The Whole Truth is there. Right Ms. Palin?
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
Gray's Anatomy... not the show. And I'd add A brief history of time, although fairly recent, I'd tag it in their as a book that will most likely be considered on par with older books in a similar vein.
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
St. Johns teaches from the "great books". e.g. learn physics from Newton, etc...
just nab their sylabus and you have not only what you want but also what you need, a list the great purged of historical anachronisms and ones that are poor for teaching. (e.g. you probably don't want to learn medicine from a list of bodily humors)
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
This is what got a lot of CS in motion due to its "thorough" axiomatization of mathematics into symbolic logic.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Not exactly a "classic", but then again quantum is a relatively new field of study.
Hmmm... You might need Double your Dating (David D'Angelo)
Einstein's "Relativity", Hall & Stevens "Geometry"
If your goal is to learn the subject material, I wouldn't bother with most - equivalents from the 20th century may likely be better.
Don't forget Euclid's Elements. I also think there were some groundbreaking math books from the Arab era, but don't know if you can find them on the Internet - or whether there are translations available.
Beetle B.
don't know why you'd want to waste time collecting them as eBooks, but whatever...
your collection should include this ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Pliny) ), very interesting read
Einstein's relativity paper is free:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5001
"The Double Helix" by James Watson is the best book ever written by a scientist about the process of actually doing science. It's biology, which doen't go down well with the Slashdot crowd, but it's just great.
What about the Feynman Lectures on Physics?
Although it's obviously much newer than all the books you listed, and is still under copyright.
Einstein, The principles of relativity.
Very readable papers on special relativity, essentially the same way it's taught now in a modern physics class (at least mine was).
Feynman, QED
Smart arse replaces great big pile of maths with pretty pictures with arrows in. Excellent.
Copernicus, On the revolutions of Heavenly Spheres,
Won't tell you very much, but worth it for the sheer horror of deriving the motions of the planets as viewed from Earth without using fractions.
Feynman, Lectures
The best presentation of a decent physics course there is. May only be comprehensible to people who already have a physics degree, I never tried reading it until I already had most of one at which point I was entranced.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
It's not a current classic, but will probably be one in 100 years. "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson is a phenominal read that covers all the main discoveries on most scientific disciplines. And it's somehow a page turner as well!
Keep passing the open windows...
An annual publication gathering the best non-fiction science writing for the year. Usually edited by a good science writer (eg. Glick).
I love them because of the variety and it usually gives you a good idea of the science without boring you with mundane details or being too pedantic.
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
the Bible(choose your version for different results of science)
1. Nicolaus Copernicus "On the Revolutions of [the] Heavenly Spheres" (1543)
2. Galileo Galilei "Dialogues [or Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations] Concerning Two [New] Sciences" (1638)
3. Johannes Kepler Book Five of "Harmonies of the World" (1618)
4. Sir Isaac Newton "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" (1687)
5. Albert Einstein "The Principles of Relativity: A Collection of Original Papers on the Special Theory of Relativity" (1922)
I am not certain how easy it is to "capture" HTML to read on the Kindle later but here are some decent translations in English if you want them.
My work here is dung.
Newton - Opticks
Maxwell - A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague De Camp
Absolutely not what you've asked for - but a possibly invaluable essay that I expect would be quite useful to guide your understanding during your quest.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
6. Surak's "A Concise History of Vulcan Logic" (2430)
=Smidge=
Is it just my observation, or is eldavojohn an idiot?
I'd like to have this question answered for math books.
Is that classic enough? Why are you doing this?
This post climbed Mt. Washington.
Is not ancient, but I think a definite classic that will probably stand the test of time.
Aristotle's Organon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organon). Without a firm logical science we would be nowhere.
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
Asking a question like that on Slashdot will inevitably lead to:
1. A flame war over which book/scientist is the most important
2. An outpouring of obscure references as every nerd tries to out-nerd the other with more and more obscure references
EvilCON - Made Famous by
It's a great example of the power of "back of the envelope" estimations, and a very interesting read.
Depending on your definition of science, there are many other classics that should make for an interesting read. Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations and/or Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto for example. As with many soft sciences, they make excellent observations. But ability to predict trends isn't quite as good.
A Marx joke (abbreviated) in former communist countries goes: He was right about capitalism. He was wrong about communism.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Euclid "The Elements" trans T.L. Heath 3 vols. and "The Almagest" by Ptolemy ...best represent the core world view of the ancients although, in the Almagest, you have to slog through all the mystical stuff. The Almagest held sway as one of the most read seminal books up to Newton's time.
ideopath @ play
Lebesgue, "Leçons sur l'intégration et la recherche des fonctions primitives".
Download the courses, crank VLC Player's speed up to 2x, and you can learn the equivalent of a Bachelors Degree in a few weeks. Just yesterday I finished the course called "String and Particle Physics" and learned more in one afternoon than four semesters of Physics.
Isn't modern technology great?
Books are so passe'
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Try and pick up a biography or companion piece to the books you're reading. Each of these authors and works were shaped by their times.
If you're trying to understand the evolution of science as a whole, it will help to understand the cultural influences that acted on these people, and what they might not have published for fear of reprisal.
Remember, the Origin of Species never goes so far as to suggest that humans had evolved from anything, much less monkeys. It was certainly implied, but he probably felt that it was too great a leap for his contemporaries to accept, and he kept his theories to plants and animals.
Of course, he did go back and explicitly state his theory as applies to man in the Decent of Man, 10 years later.
I suggest the New Organon by Francis Bacon. This edition seems to be available for the Kindle.
Or how about even Aristotle's Physics? That's a nice book to read if you've never read any Aristotle or even any philosophy before. Bacon in the New Organon was trying to advocate a new method of science against the Aristotelian tradition.
And it probably cannot be called a classic, but Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions would probably be interesting to you. And as a foil to Kuhn's work, Popper's Conjectures and Refutations.
"An Introduction to the Meaning and Structure of Physics"
Granted, it's only half century old, but imho a classic. Definatelly a good read for anybody even vaguedly interested in physics or science generally.
One that hath name thou can not otter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books ... and, links to online copies:
http://books.mirror.org/gb.titles.html
Oh, sorry, didn't mean to hone in on everyone's ability to drone on incessantly about how smart they are -- I mean, this or that 'great book'. ;-)
Which Geometry book is that. I see some sets of texts, is there a single specific one?
t
For math, remember that you'll also need to look at papers published. One of Gauss' works launched the field of intrinsic differential geometry, I think it's title went something like "On the geometry of curves and surfaces." Also Gauss' Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. You might try history books for other good leads -- the standard references in the history of math is Morris Kline's "Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times." Something of Riemann should be important, since he developed multivariable integration.
De Re Metallica by Georgius Agricola (a.k.a. Georg Bauer)
"Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire" by Carnot
helped everything become more efficient. Big Time.
Credited as one of the levers that started the Environmental Movement. Published in 1962 and wonderfully written.
Micrographia, by Robert Hooke (1665).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1426486766?ie=UTF8&tag=hookelabora-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1426486766
Although I do not adhere to it strictly (for one instance, I keep a copy of Herodotus by the hopper for intermittant rereading), I have rules of thumb that I go by when considering books worth my while:
1. Read fiction by the dead
2. Read nonfiction by the living.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn
Coined the phrase "paradigm shift" and thoroughly smashed the romanticized view of science as linearly progressive.
Well, how about going further back. Copernicus is quite "modern" I would say. He himself had read the work of Aristarchus from the 3rd century BC entitled "On sizes and distances", which not only proposes the heliocentric theory, but even does calculations on the sizes and distances (didn't expect that?) of the Sun and the Moon.
Allow me to note here that although the heliocentric theory was not accepted by many in ancient Greece, the fact that the earth and the heavenly bodies were spheres was common knowledge from the 5th/4th century BC. In fact by the 3rd century BC they knew the radius within 10%. So sad that all this knowledge was lost for centuries...
Anyway, another classic book that is almost a century older than Aristarchus' book is Aristotle's "Physica" (or "Physics"). Aristotle wrote on many subjects (e.g. politics, ethics, physics etc) and his works an all fields were considered the definitive works of the era.
I know you said science, but I thought I should also mention the oldest Science-Fiction book I have read, which is Lucian's "True Story" or "True History" (the Greek word is the same for both, in any case the title has the same effect). The two science books I mentioned are not that easy reads, however this one is a very amusing book from the 2nd century AD. I mean it has battles on the Moon, what else do you want!
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Robert Hooke's Micrographia Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters R.A. Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (Considered to be one of the most important works on the topic since Darwin's) James D. Watson's The Double Helix Richard Dawkin's The Selfish Gene And also some good philosophical works by scientists: Erwin Schrodinger's What is Life? and Mind and Matter Albert Einstein's Ideas and Opinions and The World as I see it Enjoy!
Might want to try taking a look at what Jefferson had in his library: http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/becites/main/jefferson/88607928.toc.html
A great list of great books:
http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/100-or-so-books-that-shaped-a-century-of-science
t
I'd go for the collected papers of JW Gibbs. There's a Dover edition out there, so I think it is in the public domain. One of the bright lights of last century's science. He pretty much made modern thermodynamics, and his work is at the heart of a lot of material science.
Not free, but definitely a good read is GI Barenblatt's Scaling, Self-similarity, and Intermediate Asymptotics. You can learn a lot of applied math/ applied physics from that book. The scaling analysis of the atomic bomb and of Olympic rowers are both really neat.
I would avoid pop-press physics books. They're light on science and heavy on BS.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
I can't remember the names of the books, but I remember finding William Harvey and Antoine Lavoisier interesting back when I was in school. Harvey studied the circulation of blood and Lavoisier did some early work in chemistry, including the discovery of oxygen.
I was also pretty interested in the electromagnetism work by Faraday and Benjamin Franklin, but I remember less about them. By the time it got to Maxwell it was a little too much work. Strangely, I found Einstein much easier to understand than Maxwell, even though the theory itself is a bit whackier.
But if you're more interested in the process of figuring things out than the actual discoveries, then I think Harvey, Lavoisier, and Einstein were all pretty interesting.
You will never look at statistics the same way again after reading this book. Great story about how different measures if intelligence (e.g., IQ) were developed to prove prejudices rather than seek objectivity.
-Chris
C'mon.. from the best selling Author of the Golden Rule. "The Critique of Pure Reason" Immanual Kant
It is not the easiest read, but the discussion of the nature of scientific thought is provoking.
How do you know when it is really science? How can you be so sure? Slash-dotters are so sure.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4280
The structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
Conjectures and Refutations by Karl Popper
The two had a philosophical battle back in the '60s, worth a read to get some info about what science really means and how to properly practice it.
I agree with most of the other posts. Feynman, Einstein, Darwin, Berenbaum, E.O. Wilson etc
The works of Archimedes, a seemingly unending series of geometric proofs that given the technology he had available to him, should make anyone feel like a mathematical idiot by comparison.
I also recommend Brunelleschi's Dome because of the architectural sections and the explanation of medieval project management, etc.
Go through the list of SI units http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_derived_unit most of them are named after the guy who discovered the underlying principle. Read their books.
Before embarking on a study of science, one must first know what the limits of science and understanding are. In this regard, I would recommend Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, and Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Personally I think this should be on any list of important science books.
Years ago I read a book about an engineer that was sent back in time.
He took it upon himself to bootstrap 12th century Poland's technology in order to fight off the Mongols. Many things he does in his book are glazed over and lack a lot of detail I'd like to have seen, but it made me appreciate "low tech tech" for lack of a better term. Too many modern books on subjects assume an industrial base and that certain items can be purchased so they skip over the original processes used to make things. The foxfire books are a good source, but I would have like something a lot more focused on the how to part and less on the wise tails.
Any suggestions?
The Gutenberg project is a good resource for free texts:
http://www.gutenberg.org
Though strictly not a classic "science" book, I'm currently reading Pascal's Pensees, written by one of the great mathematicians in history.
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
I strongly recomend Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. It does a really good idea of exploring why and how science works and has changed the world, for good and bad, through time. As an added bonus you get a full set of debunking tools to learn how to spot junk pretending to be science.
Ascii artist &
I think you mean to say "Classic Books of Religion". "On the Origin of Species" has nothing to do with anything that can be proven via the scientific method.
Le discours de la méthode (Discourse on method). One of the founding books of the scientific method.
I'd strongly recommend Carl Popper's "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" -- quite readable (as these things go) and of critical importance in understanding what science actually is -- even if you don't accept Popper's view of what science is, he shows thoroughly why what often passes for "science" amongst amateurs is actually a mash of incompatible views.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Most "classic" books are theoretical and sometimes philosophical in nature (insert plug for Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" here). How science is actually conducted, and how what's reported differs from what happens, is a matter of examining the facts surround scientific progress. Reporting of these things is extremely illuminating, surprising, sometimes even discouraging. But for anyone interested in real science in the real world, it's at least as necessary as all the other. The sole best work IMO examining this is Collins & Pinch's "The Golem". It's required reading in my 'history and system' and methodology classes.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Look at the list of 100 Great Books at St. John's College. It doesn't separate all the books of science from other important works.
Basic reading list:
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/readlist.shtml
laboratory:
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/laboratory.shtml
I would highly recommend reading The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin. It is a fascinating book in itself, but more importantly, it references hundreds of important works that you might choose to explore more thoroughly.
A really good read. Out of print, but nonetheless every science buff should have a copy in his/her library.
My advice would be not to make an affectation of reading original works. Here is a good article that discusses this "Great Books" paradigm, and points out how poorly it fits in the sciences especially.
One example you gave was Newton's Principia. Well, I'm a physicist, and I've read most of the Principia. I would not recommend it to anyone. First off, it's all written in the language of Euclidean geometry, merely because most of Newton's audience wasn't familiar with algebra, and certainly not with calculus, which had only been published a few years before the Principia came out. Today, the way to approach the subject is to read a treatment that uses modern math that you're familiar with. If you know calculus and analytic geometry, you can read a two-page proof of the elliptical orbit law, a result that took Newton the bulk of his entire book to prove because of the mathematical tools to which he limited himself.
Of course there are exceptions to every rule. I think the first 1/3 of Euclid's Elements is still something that everyone interested in mathematics should read.
Find free books.
Here are excerpts from Science Made Stupid -- be sure to look up the Universe, Life, Chemistry, and Evolution. This book, by Tom Welling (not Tom Weller), has all our Slashdot favorites and more! It is now out of print. I saw a price for a used copy of $195-- which makes me want to sell my beater copy of this book for $100! The master of the pan flute, Zamfir, loved it. You will never have a finer science laugh.
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Possibly get any of these as audiobooks as a Dan Brown interpretation?
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
1,2,3...Infinity :questing for the essence of mind and pattern
Metamagical themas
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/curriculum/index.htm
Awesome book. Highly recommended. Not all science is physics ;)
The only Science book anyone ever need read is the Bible. All others are made up lies written by heretics trying to discredit the FAITH and the GOD.
1. I believe it would be Mrs, she is married.
2. Why do you bring her up, a bit of an obscure reference.
3. Leave Michael Palin's wife out of this. (actually I'm not certain she took his name)
Might not be on a level with Newton's Principia, but it could provide you a framework in which set all these great works that people are recommending.
I tried to find that in the science section at the bookstore, but it was in the mythology section.
"Don't forget Euclid's Elements."
My son, who is a math major, took a 300 level course in Geometry last term. Euclid (in translation) was one of the assigned text books. He enjoyed the course. He told me they spent about a third of the course on Euclid, before moving on to more contemporary topics.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Posting anonymously so the posts I modded up can stay modded up. I recommend the Nokia N800 or N810 internet tablet. I grabbed an N800 on eBay for $140. You can browse the web, hack away on Maemo Linux, and it makes a wonderful book reader which fits in a reasonably sized pocket. I'm working my way through the works of HG Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E Howard via Gutenberg. Good stuff.
Science Since 1500 by H.T. Pledge
More of a philsophical work than pure science per se, the book puts biology, chemistry, math and physics together and discusses each in relation to the other as well in terms of history and application.
Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius
All about ancient architecture and how to build arches, domes, baths, pillared buildings, etc with Roman technology and building techniques.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
The original post doesn't say anything about limiting his readings to books announcing initial discoveries.
The Bryson book illuminates the context and connections between hundreds of scientific discoveries, as well as some of the coincidences or dumb luck that helped them come about. It somehow manages to do so in an engaging and entertaining fashion.
Keep in mind, also that many /. readers do NOT have 4 year degrees from institutions where they were forced to take a broad collection of science courses. As such, the quantity and variety of topics covered by Bryson could be a useful first exposure to many people in need of a little broader scientific perspective.
Keep passing the open windows...
Of all the explanations of relativity, as a relative (heh) layman I was surprised to find Einstein's the best/clearest. Prior to that, I just assumed that someone whose job title was "writer" rather than "scientist" would do a better job. And maybe somewhere, someone has done a better job, but I didn't find it. Einstein's book clobbered all the other ones I tried to get through. It is written well and you will grok relativity after reading it.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
I have three suggestions - The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (1977), A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988), and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (2005)
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
On Growth and Form, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson - a very elegant description of the influence of physics and mechanics on the structures of living organisms
It influenced Western thinking for centuries; throughout the Middle Ages anything in Aristotle was taken as gospel because he was the smartest man they knew. Unfortunately, much of it is bollocks (objects in motion tend to come to rest; the brain is a device for cooling the blood). But it's definitely a "classic" science book.
Freud, too. He was a terrible scientist, but hugely influential. Kinda like Ptolemy's epicycles -- imaginative and dead wrong. Worth knowing about if only to see how far we've come.
I piss off bigots.
Most of Issac Asimov's science fact works are as interesting in his science fiction. I read "Realm of Algebra" right before taking algebra in school and I sailed through the class. It hasn't been in print for awhile, but you can find used copies on eBay and Amazon.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
Robert Hooke's Micrographia. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15491/15491-h/15491-h.htm
Should be required reading for any student of the sciences.
For the love of God, Euclid's Elements. Available for free here:
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.html
http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Set/dp/0201021153
In the history vein I'd like to add Herodotus, the Greek historian from the 5th centrury BC, considered in western culture the father of history. I read one translation of some of his work, the Histories some years ago. Very readable.
This ad space for rent.
Linus Pauling's "The Nature of the Chemical Bond"
James D Watson " The Double Helix"
F. Carl Gauss "Disquisitiones Arithmeticae"
Henri Poincare "Méthodes nouvelles de la mécanique céleste"
Pierre-Simon Laplace "Mécanique Céleste"
Joseph La Grange "Mecanique Analytique"
Isaac Newton "Principia Mathematicae"
Herman Weyl "The Classical Groups"
Samuel Eilenberg, Saunders Maclane, "Algebraic Topology"
Alain Connes "Noncommutative Geometry"
Hi -
Great project you're embarking on - I hope you enjoy it!
Something you might consider adding to the list are a few books on the history and philsopy of science and technology. Wikipedia has a great list here
I'd recommend taking a punt at Kuhn, Popper and Feyerabend first.
Cheers,
awl
What languages do you read? There are a lot of classic scientific literature that are available for free in digital form in their original language, which usually isn't English. It was usually written in the language that was used either internationally in that academic discipline (not English until the second half of the 20th century, usually Latin, German or French) or natively by the author.
Native English speakers with scientific prowess were/are rare, almost nonexistant. The few that existed (or more usually: got famous for other peoples discoveries), get a lot of attention today because English is the dominating business language of today.
If the classic scientific literature are available in English at all (most of it have never been translated), the translation is usually lacking (because English is a turd of a language).
Some examples:
Most books about taxonomy by Linneus and his pupils from the 18th century are available in digital form in Latin or Swedish.
A lot of groundbreaking chemistry literature from the 16th to 19th century are available in German (language used internationally by chemists from the 18th to mid 20th century), Latin, Swedish, Walloon, Arabic (or so I've been told, I can't read Arabic)...
A lot of classic math literature are available in French and German (I'm not sure if any Arabic literature have been digitised).
A lot of classic philosophic literature are available in Latin, French, German, Proto-Italian, Greek, Indian languages, Chinese... (or so I'm told, I can't read Greek, any Indian or Chinese)
Day the Universe Changed by James Burke if your interested in why and how we came to think the way we do. Its based on the philosophy that the universe is as we perceive it. If our perceptions change then the universe is changed. Everyone through out history has thought that their view of the universe was the correct one. If they thought their view was correct 1000 years ago. And we view most of their beliefs as silly now. Why should our view of the universe be any more correct in another 1000 years?
Is he strong? Listen bud, He's got radioactive blood.
The only classic text I remember from school was Science Made Stupid.
translated to English by Robert Kerr in 1790
Dover had a reprint of this in the 1960s. You get a feel by reading this of the creation of modern chemistry and debunking of phlogiston theory. It is fascinating from a history of science perspective and you see the modern scientific method in practice in a rigorous way possibly for the first time.
Not sure what kind of science you're wanting to read, but I always enjoyed this book.
The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla
http://www.amazon.com/Inventions-Researches-Writings-Nikola-Tesla/dp/1564597113
There's a set called "Great Books of the Western World" which you might find very useful... I don't believe it's available in a digital format, though, but it's a great list. Not all science or math though, a lot of it is just literature, but it's a good list to start from. Google it!
Alchemy.
Coelum Philosophorum by Paracelsus
The Treasure of Treasures for Alchemists by Paracelsus
The Aurora of the Philosophers by Paracelsus
Turba Philosophorum by Arisleus
The Hermetic Arcanum
The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus
The Stone of the Philosophers by Edward Kelly
Tract on the Tincture and Oil of Antimony by Roger Bacon
Sig this!
James Gleick - "Chaos: Making a New Science"
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Uh... Galileo? OK, he wasn't burned, but he was imprisoned and forced to recant.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Robert Boyle's book "The Sceptical Chymist" (1661) established Chemistry as a scientific field in and of itself (rather than just a hobby of trying to make gold).
Available on Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22914
I can think of some very important mathematical works from the last century, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to read them:
1. Principia Mathematica, Russell & Whitehead
2. On Undecidable Propositions, Kurt Goedel
3. Classification Theory, Saharon Shelah
4. Topology from the Differentiable Viewpoint, Milnor
I assume you are interested only in original documents, and not summaries or expositions. Unfortunately the technical and specialized nature of modern science is likely to make "accessible science" and "original science" mutually exclusive.
I very much second paiute's opinion (above).
there is an interesting scientific theory, that states that these civilisations were indeed the same one. They got dissected for the sake of gaining authority by separatists dictators dynasties.
It sounds crasy but is supported by real mathematical statistic and astronomy.
For me it explains the otherwise inexplainable gaps in the development of mankind between Egyptian, ancient, and current civilisations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Chronology_(Fomenko)
...a stunned silence fell upon the hall.
It's not of the scope of some of the other texts are and statistical mechanics is kind of dry to a non-physicist, but it's easy to read, short, available for under $10 and written by one of the greatest scientific minds ever.
euler - introductio in analysisin infinitorum -- brilliant work of euler from 1748 containing many striking results. english translation available.
bernhard riemann - on the number of primes less than a given magnitude -- riemann's one paper (~15 pages) on number theory, which introduced his famous zeta function (english version available in riemann's zeta function by edwards, a book dedicated to the very rich subtext of this terse paper)
shannon - a mathematical theory of communication -- seminal paper founding information theory
schrodinger -- find yourself a decent exposition of the analysis of the hydrogen atom using schrodinger wave mechanics. learn where all that junk they taught you in high school chemistry actually comes from!
Feynman Lectures on Physics -- comprehensive account from the man who knew physics as well as anyone.
ahlfors - complex analysis -- best text i know of on this subject in mathematics that shows up in the most surprising places in the sciences.
landau & lifschitz - course on theoretical physics -- 10 volumes on modern physics from classical mechanics to electrodynamics, relativity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, fluids, etc. from nobel prize winner lev landau.
Fourier Analysis - t w korner -- intro to fourier analysis with many applications (after all, applications are the whole point of fourier analysis) from your basic heat equation stuff to calculating the age of the earth and other interesting things.
i think that in compiling this list, you will find two things to be true:
1. increasingly (in the last century, for example), important work is not (initially) published in books, but in papers.
2. trying to read the original works is fun for about 5 minutes. if you really want to learn, modern expositions in textbooks tend to be far better than the originals.
"That this chronology was largely manufactured by Joseph Justus Scaliger in Opus Novum de emendatione temporum (1583) and Thesaurum temporum (1606), and represents a vast array of dates produced without any justification whatsoever, containing the repeating sequences of dates with shifts equal to multiples of the major cabbalistic numbers 333 and 360;"
I would say that this was some definition of the term 'mathematician' I was not previously familiar with,
except it's all too easy to become familiar with this widely accepted, but inaccurate, use of the term 'mathematician'.
Sigh - Pug
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
what happened? Why doesn't the middle east (excluding israel) produce revolutionary scientific thought?
Try Descartes Discourse on Method and Related Writings from Penguin. Descartes revolreally helps to set the foundations of science and the relationship to truth in a way that was not done before.
1. Euclid of Alexandria, "Elements" (300 B.C.). 2. Archimedes, "The Works of Archimedes", (ca. 250 BC), translation by Thomas Heath, Dover Publications (2002). [First mathematical physicist on record]. 3. G. Galilei, "Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze" ("Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences"), Leiden, Louis Elsevier (1638). [Mechanics, kinematics, theory of inertia] 4. I. Newton, "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy") (1687). [Laws of motion] 5. J.C. Maxwell, "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 155, 459-512 (1865). Cfr. "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism", Dover Publications (1954) [Theory of electromagnetism]. For fundamental scientific works in 20th century, see http://strangepaths.com/resources/fundamental-papers/en/
http://strangepaths.com/
Paul Dirac's 'Principles of Quantum Mechanics'
the most elegant, profound and laconic (in the Spartan sense) exposition of quantum mechanics ever written
This short and highly readable work can be regarded as opening the doors on the age of enlightenment. For related info, read Descartes' Bones an interesting read about Descartes was viewed in successive generations.
Either sell your AMZN or get off /.
Abundant resources?
Strategic value?
Colonialized?
Centuries?
The first place you think of is the Middle East?
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
A true classic by D'Arcy Thompson. Clear language and examples of what really amounts to the physics and mathematics of evolutionary biology.
but Luddites don't dominate the politics of, or otherwise rule, the USA.
>It is a statistical certainty (p that there are innocent people being held
> at Guantanamo Bay.
So, it is a statistical certainty (p 10e-11) that there are guilty people being held at Guantanamo Bay. Where does that get us?
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
"If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life" by Stephen Webb One of the best books I've read. And something you can read a small part on every breakfast. :)
Mr. Wizard's Experiments for Young Scientists by Don Herbert
Seriously, you will not need any other science book *EVER*!
and here's why:
Euclid's Elements of Geometry (~300BC) is the foundation of mathematical rigor.
He starts with a few definitions and axioms (like "two straight lines cannot enclose a space"), and uses them to prove some simple theorems. By constantly using prior theorems as building blocks, he's proving the Pythagorean Theorem by proposition 47. He proves the infinitude of primes a few chapters later. It's astounding how far he goes on such a modest foundation.
Definitions, axioms, theorems, lemmas -- this is where it all started.
I believe Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond will probably be regarded as a classic a couple of years from now.
I wish that there was a Project Gutenberg version of Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson. Maybe not to the criteria, but for being close to 100 years old, it still helped me learn calculus. A PDF of the second addition. http://djm.cc/library/Calculus_Made_Easy_Thompson.pdf
http://books.google.com/books?id=x_A5AAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage&output=html
So this isn't quite what you asked for, but I think it's something everyone should read. Galileo's Commandment, edited by Edmund Bolles, is the best collection I've seen of papers across the sciences. It's organized to highlight different aspects of the scientific process - including papers that highlight careful observation, or clever hypothesis checking. In the process, it covers essentially all aspects of science, hitting the key points, in the words of the scientists themselves (I was amazed to find that so many of the key scientists of history have been skillful popularizers, as well)
My favorite excerpts includes a section from Leonardo Da Vinci's private journals, revealing that he figured out that there was no world wide biblical flood (and kept it to himself! Self-preservation at work...), and Mach's discussion of experiments exploring the kinesthetic sense by placing people in chambers that could spin along multiple axes. Galileo shows up a couple of times - both highlighting the importance of new tools and careful observation and of careful theoretical interpretation of observation.
I'm currently on my third copy - everytime I loan it, I seem to not get it back.
http://books.google.com/books?id=8sZbhAA1tGsC&dq=galileo%27s+commandment&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=NcQVw8annR&sig=yWhVBURl1RpXlCkXQrbyQIZoja4&hl=en&ei=L40ASundMJe6tgOv3p3vBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#PPP8,M1
The Log from the Sea of Cortez - John Steinbeck .
Although not natural science, this book by Edward Gibbon is considered the first modern history book and spawned the science of historical research. The author goes to great length comparing various sources and trying to discern the truth rather than repeating stuff from a few authoritative works. Also, it is a literary accomplishment. Those six volumes are filled with some of the most beautiful prose I have read in the English language.
Lord Rayleigh: The Theory of Sound. A thorough (for the time) explanation of waves in solids and fluids.
What you cite is Fomenko's criticism of the current mainstream chronology. Not the content of the Fomenko's own theory itself. I think the way Wikipedia text is structured is a bit misleading.
So your comment actually second Fomenko's disappointment with the current chronology.
You can check the source of the citation here:
http://books.google.de/books?id=ORx_6NlgsngC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=a+t+fomenko+Scaliger&source=bl&ots=5lEsgEnONz&sig=sN-EHAur2j7YY3z-NE9UAWkmQbY&hl=en&ei=gJEASpqLH4u8_AbB4Oz_Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA91,M1
The book is published at a very famous Springer Verlag, if that is of any familiarity to you.
I am a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics myself and did not find Fomenko's argument crminaly insane or inscientific :-) They may be wrong, however, like any theory.
QUOTE:
These two volumes which concern mathematical statistical chronology represent a major, unique work and are the first of its kind published in the English language. A comprehensive set of mathematical and statistical techniques is presented for the analysis of chronological data. These include, as main tool, the means to compare texts and other sequential data and the ability to judge them in terms of similarity and, hence, closeness. These techniques constitute a new important trend in applied statistics. Volume I concentrates mainly on the development of the mathematical statistical tools and their application to astronomical data, including the Almagest and simulated data (to test the validity of the methods). Substantial material dealing with historical data and chronology is also included. Volume II concentrates on the application of these tools to narrative texts and ancient and medieval records (such as Egyptian, Byzantine, Roman, Greek, Babylonian, etc.). An astonishing wealth of historical data is considered. The conclusions which are drawn concerning the accepted chronological dating of events in ancient history will certainly provoke controversy and serious debate. These two volumes provide the necessary background and material for intelligent participation in such debates. For statisticians, historians, astronomers, archaeologists, and others with an interest in the integrity of historical dating and the means to analyze this.
More details
Empirico-statistical Analysis of Narrative Material and Its Applications to Historical Dating: The development of the statistical tools
By A. T. Fomenko
Edition: illustrated
Published by Springer, 1994
ISBN 0792326040, 9780792326045
204 pages
...a stunned silence fell upon the hall.
beats me how my parent post get modded offtopic in a thread about historical books on science. Whereas I refer to a scientific history theory (book) that is supposed to explain why there are same discoveries seemingly getting forgotten between civilizations.
...a stunned silence fell upon the hall.
The seminal text on geology, mining and metallurgy. The 1912 translation to English by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover is recommended.
http://books.google.com/books?id=oWoChuYV2GUC&dq=de+re+metallica&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=mHJ6dGNnqk&sig=phMM4KkW6DTzkepp_GE0rf4x704&hl=en&ei=C5gASsGAJdG9twfWydWZBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#PPP1,M1
On Growth and Form.
A very fat book about structure in nature. Thompson saw not only typed similarities of form in nature but observed mechanical and physical constraints that create those forms. Now over 90 years old but still fascinating. (Well, to me at least!)
Both Principia Mathematica books, by Isaac Newton and Bertand Russell, have been important to the development of science. These were math books, of course, and as such weren't actually science. But since mathematics is fundamental to understanding most sciences, they should be in any list of Classic Books of Science. We might also note that Russell chose the same title because his intent was to replace Newton's great work with something even more important. Many people think he succeeded, in the same sense that Einstein succeeded in replacing Newtonian physics. But of course this doesn't detract at all from the importance of Newton's works. (Just take care to avoid his theological writings. ;-)
Statistics is a branch of mathematics that's very important to science, but a quick attempt to learn the "classic" books in the correct sense of that term didn't work very well. Google just returned lots of ads for books that use "classic" in the marketing sense of "current best seller that has had more than one edition". Does anyone have references to truly classic statistics texts that have been important to scientists in the past?
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
This book (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Value_of_Science) published in 1905 provides a fascinating insight into the state of physics just prior to the breakthroughs of relativity and quantum mechanics. A few chapters appear dated, but most is well-worth reading. It appears to be freely available in French (and relatively easy reading). I have not seen any free translations into English.
I recommend quite a few. Ptolemy's Almagest is the first really unified mathematical theory of the motions of the heavens. Kepler's Epitome of Copernican Astronomy cleans up Copernicus' theory and gives us the first really usable heliocentric theory. If you're interested in biology I suggest Harvey's Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. Apollonius' Conics is a beautiful work of ancient geometry and works under the same rules as Euclid's Elements. Descartes' Geometry opens with the solution of problems that Apollonius could not solve. Vitruvius' Ten Books on Architecture give a great summary of classical architechture and applications of ancient mathematics. Most of these works are difficult. The Euclidean system has been left behind for the Cartesian one, so it seems very strange. Euclid takes some getting used to, but it's undeniably beautiful, and gives you the context for modern mathematics and science. But don't forget, it all starts with Euclid and Aristotle :)
Harvey's "Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals" has to be on your list. It's one of the first works that reports on real medical experiments, rather than just quoting the Ancients.
Robert Hookes' "Micrographia" is an astounding read. In it he describes some really early adventures with microscopy, but also shows what it was like back in the 17th century when so much was being discovered. My opinion is that it should be required reading for all would-be scientists - if you don't get excited then science is probably not really for you.
You want a classic book of science? Why not read the works of the man who invented it?
I see some idiot is talking about the Novum Organon. Can you name ANY branch of science that Sir Francis influenced? In any case, by 1620 the idea of experiment was in the air. ROGER Bacon is the man you need.
In 1260 (as far back from Francis as Francis is from us!) Roger Bacon was arguing for a Scienta Experimentalis, complete with a world network of Universities, studying Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He fought his order and the Pope for this vision, and was locked up in the March of Ancona for 13 years because of it.
Look at Blish's commentary on a passage in De Multiplicatione Specierum, where Bacon is talking about the metrical frame of the /universe, invents the concept of the luminiferious ether, and only a moment later throws the notion out in favour of Einsteinian Relativity, skipping over Newtonian inertial frames in a sentence or two. And that in 1267!!
Here is a link to a copy - don't worry, it's even translated: http://www.amazon.com/Roger-Bacons-Philosophy-Nature-Multiplicatione/dp/1890318752
And the engineers are not left out either (though Roger Bacon) was a Big Picture theorist at heart:
"Narrabo igitur nunc primo opera artis et naturae miranda, ut postea causas et modum assignem, ut videatur quod omnis magica potestas sit inferior his operibus et indigna. Nam instrumenta navigandi possunt fieri ut naves maximae ferantur uno solo homine regente, majori velocitate quam si plenere essent hominibus. Currus possunt fieri ut sine animale moveantur cum impetu inestimabili. Possunt fieri instrumenta volandi ut homo sedeat in medio alae artificialiter factere area varberent modo avis volantis. Possunt etiam instrumenta fieri ambulandi in mari vel fluminibus sine periculo....Haec autem facta sunt antiquitus et nostrios temporibus facta sunt, ut certem est..."
That brought the roof down at Oxford in 1250. And don't complain that you can't read Latin - Bacon could read at least 14 languages.
The anthology Galileo's Commandment has samples of classic science writing dating back to Herodotus and his surprisingly mathematical account of the silting of the Nile. da Vinci, Voltaire, Lavoisier, Wallace, Maxwell, Einstein, and more are represented. The book should be on every science reader's desk.
The Crusades along with the destruction of Baghdad, the center of worlds intellect, around 1250 started the decline. The fall of Muslim Spain in the 1400's and a rise in religious conservatism finished it off.
Many of the troubles during those years were seen as punishment from God and ever since then there has been a movement to not go down that path again.
Most of the knowledge from Spain passed to the West and kicked off the Renaissance.
I am an American Jew, and I have to point out that the Muslim world was the center for thought and knowledge for a very long time. It's not like the Middle East is filled with idiots, they still have fantastic schools and scientists along with a thriving culture. They just aren't the center of the world anymore... honestly, I don't think we are anymore, either.
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
It's more on the border between science (cognitive neuroscience), linguistics and philosophy, but this book provides the assembly language of human reason, otherwise known as embodied cognition. It will one day be recognized as one of the great works of early 21st century.
If you are on the CS kick, then I highly recommend Knuth's "Art of Computer Programming". All the volumes are excellent. A little of the dense side, though; you had better really love algorithms.
Don't forget von Neumann, Turing, Russell and Whitehead, and Dirac!
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
What about Dianetics?
of crowds, Charles Mackay. not on kindle yet. Human psych's best work to date.
Newton's Principia Mathematica is without a doubt a classic, though, it is a little dense.
Both the Netwon's original and the 20th century work of the same name.
The three pillars of physics: Newton, Einstein, (both already mentioned) and --
A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
by James Clerk Maxwell, 1873
http://www.antiquebooks.net/readpage.html#maxwell
Dragons of the Eden - Carl Sagan... nothing beats it!!
Here are some science/math/technology books that I've found to be educational, interesting, or otherwise thought-provoking. I'm sure I'm leaving many out, but these in particular stand out to me.
They're listed in rough order of the amount of math and thought required (The Road To Reality being very difficult and very fascinating.)
Cosmos (C. Sagan)
Zero (C. Seife)
The Joy of Pi (D. Blatner)
Chaos (J. Gleick)
Artificial Life (S. Levy)
Linked (A.-L. BarabÃsi)
The Mathematical Tourist (I. Peterson)
A Brief History of Time (S. Hawking)
The Mystery of the Aleph (A. Aczel)
Finite and Infinite Games (J. Carse)
An Imaginary Tale: The Story of i (P. Nahin)
e: The Story of a Number (E. Maor)
The Fractal Geometry of Nature (B. Mandelbrot)
The Road to Reality (R. Penrose)
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
Although it's a bit more modern than the real oldies mentioned in the post, I consider D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form (1917) to be one of the great classic timeless science books. I had it as a text book for a physiology class 20 years ago and it is still on my shelf. Every once in a while I just like to thumb through it and bask in its coolness (and I am NOT a biologist).
Djikstra's lectures are amazing, and while very modern and maybe not quite what you're looking for, are definitely worth reading. They are obviously more applicable to computer scientists than other general science geeks, but many of them are totally approachable. In particular, The Cruelty of Really Teaching Computer Science was an excellent read.
The book "A New Kind of Science" by Steven Wolfram is an essential book for anyone, scientist or not. It is revolutionary in it's scope and provides proable evidence that complex systems such as life derive from simple systems in Nature. This eliminates all the silly Intelligent Design nonsense with a little bit of cellular automata that you can work out with a pencil. Chapter 2 is essential.
You can even preview any part of the book online at Wolfram Science.
For a video of wolfram presenting an overview see: Wolfram presents A New Kind of Science.
Darwin's best selling account of his travels on the H.M.S. Beagle.
The first mixup is the idea of crimes committed on a battlefield. Now this has a long and storied history, but in most situations, these cases end up in some sort of international court, not the internal court system of one country or other.
This can be illustrated by asking one question. You want the prisoners tried in American courts, then tell me, which courts have jurisdiction and what law(s) are they accused of violating?
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
As a mathematician, I'd personally be a bit more interested in the "modern" scientific classics of my field.
One particular standout that I must recommend is Godel's "ON FORMALLY UNDECIDABLE PROPOSITIONS OF PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA AND RELATED SYSTEMS" (sorry about the caps... copied the title from elsewhere... to lazy to type it).
It is an astounding statement that, one could argue, helped to kick off the entire 20th century's drive toward scientific certainty as well as post-modernism. It's implications are much stronger (in this humble author's opinion) than any other major mathematical proof in the past century. That alone makes it worth the read.
Hawking reaches this conclusion after rigorous scientific work.
Darwin discovered that life could progress without divine intervention, Hawking found that the only place where there could be a god is in the singularity, which for all practical matters, is of no importance to us.
These people don't intend to antagonize religion, the physical world and the logical conclusions they reach show them that gods and religions are the dreams of a species that eventually will know better.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Instead try "Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture" which is immensely more interesting thanks to its brevity.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
And the book is still rubbish, I needed only one lecture to realize that :-p
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I suggest "The Genesis Record" by Henry Morris as an antidote to a book that never actually mentions any species' origins. Instead, the author describes some animals and merely asserts that some things he sees happening now have been happening in the past. Okay, but where's the origin? Or is my "faith" supposed to insert something here? "The Genesis Record" is a much more satisfying read from a merely scientific view. If a student had ever submitted something like "Origin" to me as class work, I'd have given him a D for claims without proof.
Cranky educator.
... because it is a book badly written.
Instead try "Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture" which is immensely more interesting thanks to its brevity, touches many of the same points in a more succinct manner and is actually quite a well written book.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Not for difficult books.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
A social science which deals with non deterministic phenomena.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
1 book covers a few for you, "on the shoulders of giants" great reading. technical. newtons principia, einstein,galileo.all good stuff. should be able to find it free somewhere
I've had very hit or miss experiences with old (very old) books on math and physics. I'm dangerously close to graduating with an undergrad degree in math and physics, so I wasn't entirely unprepared to tackle such books (I hope).
On one hand, I picked up Newton's Principia, and frankly I found it incomprehensible. From what I understand, his mathematical notation is entirely different from what we use today, and a lot of his reasoning is hidden in impenetrable text or absurd geometric diagrams. If you wanted to learn classical mechanics, there are several more modern books that would serve you better.
On the other hand, I've read some things by Euler and a few 19th century mathematical papers, and I found them clear and readable. Euler apparently popularized a lot of mathematical notation, so I suspect works subsequent to him would be a lot easier for a modern reader to understand.
Geoffrey Chaucer (the author who wrote The Canterbury Tales) wrote what is believed to be the first surviving technical manual in English: A Treatise on the Astrolabe. It's a letter to his ten year old son Lewys that explains how to use an astrolabe, and it was written around 1391. Google for it, it's all over the internet.
If you have an astrolabe, the instructions are still valid. If not, you should get one, they're cool, and you'll know how to use it.
It's a short paper. The spelling is tough to get past, but once you figure out how to read it it's not that bad.
John
Great Books of the Western World is a series of books originally published in the United States in 1952 by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. to present the western canon in a single package of 54 volumes. The series is now in its second edition and contains 60 volumes. The list of Great Books is maintained by the Great Books Foundation, and is part of the Great Books curriculum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World
...can romantic delusion be insightful, and challenging, rational argument be flamebait.
Stick Men
Sorry that I can't take much longer to reply - got a ton of stuff to do today (touring a hosting facility that I contracted with at 2 in the morning is just one of those "things" - they answer their phones at 2 am, and they're local - I'm sold).
De Rerum Natura by Titus Lucretius Carus (died ca. 55 BC) transmits the concepts of Epicurean Physics, which include the idea of matter being composed of atoms. It has survived the millenia not so much because of the subject matter, but because Lucretius' style of Latin verse was a model for later scholars.
De Re Metallica by Georg Agricola (1494-1555) marks the beginnings of geology as a science. An English translation was published by an American mining engineer, Herbert Hoover, and his wife in 1912 (yes, THAT Herbet Hoover).