This is the fascinating story of two women who lives were guided by
a passion for mathematics and an insatiable curiosity to know and
understand the world around them - the beautiful, outrageous Emilie
du Chatelet and the charmingly subversive Mary Somerville. Against
great odds, Emilie and Mary taught themselves mathematics, and did
it so well that they each became a world authority on Newtonian
mathematical physics. Seduced by Logic begins with Emilie du
Chatelet, an 18th-century French aristocrat, intellectual, and
Voltaire's lover, whose true ambition was to be a mathematician.
She strove not only to further Newton's ideas in France, but to
prove that they had French connections, including to the work of
Descartes, whom Newton had read. She translated the great Principia
Mathematica into French, in what became the accepted French version
of Newton's work, and was instrumental in bringing Newton's
revolutionary opus to a Continental audience. A century later, in
Scotland, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from
genteel poverty to become a figure of authority on Newtonian
physics. Living in France, she became acquainted with the work of
one of Newton's proteges, Pierre Simon Laplace, and translated his
six-volume Celestial Mechanics into English. It remained the
standard astronomy text for the next century, and was considered
the most influential work since Principia. Connected by their love
for mathematics, Emilie and Mary bring to life a period of
remarkable political and scientific change. Combining biography and
history of science, Robyn Arianrhod's book explores the roles both
women played in bringing Newton's Principia to a wider audience,
and reveals the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian
revolution and the origins of intellectual and political liberty.
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