Easy Newton ?

[FredPuli43]

Students of science and maths now learn in a few years that which it took many generations of clever people to discover. Newton's Principia is said to be "beautiful maths". What level of maths would a student be at now to understand or do the maths which Newton did in the C17 ?

[argorstran]

I think you need a maths expert to answer this , but I'd guess degree level - I don't think A-level would be enough .

[Old_Geezer]

No expert but I'd have thought by the time you'd finished secondary school you'd have that sort of level under your belt.

[LazyGun]

Lost track of what kind of math is taught in schools now. Certainly a good understanding of geometry and planar geometry, and calculus and differential equations.

Calculus because thats pretty much what Newton invented, and geometry because that was the way he proved his equations

[argorstran]

This brings back bad memories of attempting A-level physics over 30yrs ago , we got the gravitation formula to apply , but the mathematics required to derive that formula from scratch is beyond A- level , I have no idea how they teach it nowadays , maybe Factor30 or someone else could shed some light on it .

[Buenchico]

The Principia is more to do with physics (or astronomy) than it is with maths. It contains elements of what would now be in an A-level (or possibly AS level) physics course.

[weecalf]

newton was way ahead of his time .An apple fell on his head yet the ipad had not been invented for another 300 years

[jake-the-peg]

Newton kind of invented calculus but he kept it secret - when Liebenitz also came to the same discovery Newton flew into a rage and accused him of stealing it.

He also had lots of other petty hatreds

Think Sheldon Cooper with power a vicious streak a mile wide!

A level Maths is pretty much Newton level I'd say although perhaps there is less emphasis on geometry and more on some things like Complex numbers which were not "proper maths" in Newton's day - indeed he dismissed the notion!

Ah even Newton failed to see that one!

[LazyGun]

I like that image of a vicious Sheldon Cooper as Newton, Jake :)

[tonywiltshire]

I Have A level maths and went up to university aged 26, and there any possible comparison with Isaac Newton ends, the mathematics he took would easily exclude me and it is my view that my A level maths were far more difficult than now taken (many disagree). I managed without a degree for a number of years in a responsible situation which I would not do today and remember Newton was at Trinity when he possibly met James Gregory who may have been a mathematical genius.

[jake-the-peg]

I don't see any reference to Gregory at Cambridge Tony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gregory_%28mathematician%29

I think the biggest handicap is the language, the nomenclature and the symbolism.

What techniques of Newton's mathematics do you see as outside of today's A level curriculum?

Complex numbers, calculus, infinite series, logarithms all of these are solidly in the A-level syllabus today

You might well say that A level maths is firmly rooted in the 17th and 18th century.

[tonywiltshire]

You are quite right J-t-p Gregory was at St Andrews but it is reputed to have travelled to Cambridge to see Newton.

[heathfield]

For a great many years after Newton's time, calculus was taught at universities. I did it at secondary school.

[FredPuli43]

Thinking that about the recent syllabus too, heathfield. When I did O level maths (circa MCMLXII), calculus wasn't in the syllabus and nor were complex numbers. Now, a 13 year- old I know has already started to use both. Mind, she doesn't know what a slide rule is, so I still feel superior