i just learned about it last month in are darwinism class... Newton wrote a book called the "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" only two people in the WORLD have been able to decipher it... it was written in calculus which Newton himself coined the term and on top of that he re-wrote it in geometry.. i suggest everyone look at a page in the book here is a link to a page you can see what it looks like!!! (so yes he has wieght to the world ending in 2060, i again heard this before it was on the news)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Principia_Page_1726.jpg (thats the picture of the page)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophiae_...pia_Mathematica (tells u about book)

Firstly, the book would have been written in Latin, which any scientist worth his salt back then would have been able to read.

Secondly, he doesn't "predict the end of the world" in that book. Towards the end of his life he became obsessed with biblical dates, much like he was obsessed with the similarly misguided art of alchemy earlier in his life. This doesn't give his end of the world date any more "weight". He was a christian, and believed the bible, just as most other scientists did back then.

Just because he was clever, doesn't mean he wasn't clouded by the ignorance of the times he lived in.

I know many people have trouble with freshman physics but I wouldn't go so far as to say its indecipherable. . .

...did anyone else picture that as meaning Newton predicted the world would lose its gravity in 2060 and we'd all suddenly go flying off into space?

What a waste of time, reading this thread.

Startraveler said it best, and in a much more polite manner than I would have used.

Harte

I dont quite understand how it is that only two people have ever understood the paper...

2012 isnt even here and we setting another date??

So tell me... what exactly is undecipherable about calculus or latin?? Latin I learnt at school and calculus is a tool that I use every day in my working life!
As for Gravity... Newton wrongly assumed it was a "force", whereas it is an "effect", and one that can be explained in Geometric terms just as easily.

I bet it's not so much as only two people have been able to read it as it is only two people have bothered to read it. Really, who would sit there and read a book written in that?! If Newton did predict the end of the world in 2060 then why wouldn't he just write it in an easier to read language? With this, he would know that not many people could decipher it, therefore not giving him the risk of being revelaed as the fraud that he was.

Remember, Newton is alot like Newman from Seinfeld, the most sinister villain to ever walk the face of the Earth.

because to decipher it means an agonising death at the hands of the Illuminatii. It was actually the book of daniel that newton spent the latter part of his life working on and the reason it was never published was because basically....it was crap.

Funny, here's a translation from Amazon. I suspect this means that a bit more than 2 people have understood it.

yo lilly, thats a book descrptiion.. there is no users talking about it lol like other books.. u got a descrpition of the book.. i can tell u about the descrpition..

I refuse to take a look at anymore "end of the world" theories/predictions, seeing as the end of the world has been predicted so much throughout the ages. The world is going to end when it ends... either a comet/asteroid will collide with our planet, or the sun will burn us up. Or nuclear holocaust. One or the other. The end of the world can't be predicted.

' . . . Principia Mathmatica.' That could be "The DaVinci Code." The Fibionacci sequence and all.

Completely meaningless, as usual.

The Da Vinci Code is a fictional book. The Fibonacci numbers are a sequence defined by recurrence relation. The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica is about using calculus to observe the effects on bodies in motion and the effects of gravity in the solar system.

So again, well done. A typical UM post: 3 completely meaningless subjects picked at random and forced into some form of mystical relationship.

A gold star for you.

Take a valium, I'm almost positive the OP's intent wasn't meant to offend, or make anyone go postal.

<.< At least I'm not the only one. Though that statement did make me go get another cup of coffee.



I predict the world will end in 2010. I have spoken. *newbie trundles off giggling*


I want a gold star!


Anyway, as most people have said, the idea that no more than two people have read and understood this book is ... well akin to saying that J.R.R. Tolkien wasn't writing about a fictional place called Middle Earth, but that Middle Earth is really Earth and he was a time traveler. IE, preposterous.

This book was actually talked about in my AP Calculus class in high school. Did I read it? Heck no. I had better things to do. Like yanno, read my Darwinism book in the middle of class at a catholic school. My calculus teacher however -had- read it. So um.....apparently Mr. Burton was no. 2? O.o