Eric Aiton

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Eric John Aiton (born September 8, 1920 in Dumfermline , † February 22, 1991 in Oldham ) was a British physics and mathematics historian .

Aiton grew up in Yorkshire (where he is also buried in the mining town of Allerton Bywater). His childhood was marked by the miners' strike of 1926 and he did not go to school until he was eight. He studied mathematics on a scholarship at the University of Manchester with a bachelor's degree in 1944 and was then a scientific officer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough (Hampshire) until 1946 . He then taught mathematics in secondary schools for over twenty years (including the Bablake School in Coventry in 1955). From 1975 to 1985 he was a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Didsbury College of Education (later part of the Manchester Polytechnic).

He was also a science historian with a master's degree from the University of London in 1954 (on tidal theory in the 18th century) and a doctorate in 1958 (later published as The vortex theory of planetary motions ). In 1987 he received a D.Sc. for his publications. of the University of London.

He dealt with the history of physics, mechanics, astronomy and mathematics from the time of Nikolaus Kopernikus to Leonhard Euler , including Johannes Kepler , René Descartes , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Isaac Newton . In particular, he dealt with Descartes' vortex theory, which was pushed completely into the background by Newton's work, but played an important role in the 17th century, especially in Leibniz's celestial mechanics. In 1985 he published a biography of Leibniz and dealt with Leibniz and the I Ching and analyzed Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws (trajectories on conic sections) from the dependence of the force of gravity (inverse Kepler- Problem). He published text editions by Georg von Peuerbach (Theoricae novae planetarum, 1987) and Kepler (Mysterium Cosmographicum, Harmonices mundi). He was involved in the edition of the remaining three volumes of series 2 (mechanics, astronomy) of Euler's Opera Omnia , but volume 31 on cosmic physics could not be published posthumously until 1996.

From 1973 he was President of the Manchester Division of the Mathematical Association for three years. He was interested in applications of the history of mathematics in class. He was also President of the British Society for the History of Science at the time of his death . Since 1986 he has been a corresponding member of the Académie internationale d'histoire des sciences .

He had connections to Japan, where his lectures and his Leibniz biography appeared in translation.

Fonts

  • The vortex theory of planetary motion, London: Macdonald 1972, reprint 1975 (also The vortex theory of planetary motion, 3 parts, Annals of Science, Volume 13, 1957, pp. 249-264, Volume 14, 1958, pp. 132– 147, 157-172)
  • Leibniz: A Biography, Bristol: Adam Hilger 1985
    • German translation: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a biography, Insel Verlag 1991

Some essays:

  • The contribution of Newton, Bernoulli and Euler to the theory of tides, Annals of Science, Volume 11, 1955, pp. 206-223
  • The Cartesian theory of Gravity, Annals of Science, Vol. 15, 1961, pp. 27-49
  • The celestial mechanics of Leibniz, Annals of Science, Volume 16, 1960, pp. 65-82
  • The celestial mechanics of Leibniz in the light of Newtonian criticism, Annals of Science, Volume 18, 1962, pp. 31-41
  • The celestial mechanics of Leibniz: a new interpretation, Annals of Science, Volume 20, 1965, pp. 111-123
  • The inverse problem of central forces, Annals of Science, Volume 18, 1964, pp. 81-99
  • Galilei and the theory of tides, Isis, Vol. 56, 1965, pp. 56-61
  • Kepler's second law of planetary motion, Isis, Volume 60, 1969, pp. 75-90
  • Ioannes Marcus Marci (1595-1667), Annals of Science, Vol. 26, 1970, pp. 153-164
  • Leibniz on motion in a resisting medium, Archive for history of exact sciences, Volume 9, 1972, pp. 257-274
  • Infinitesimals and the area law, Internat. Kepler Symposium, Weil der Stadt 1971, Hildesheim 1973, pp. 285–305
  • How Kepler discovered the elliptical orbit, Math. Gazette, Vol. 59, 1975, pp. 250-260
  • Johannes Kepler in the light of recent research, History of Science, Volume 14, 1976, pp. 77-100
  • Johannes Kepler and the Mysterium Cosmographicum, Sudhoffs Archiv, Volume 61, 1977, pp. 173-194
  • Kepler's path to the construction and rejection of his first oval orbit of Mars, Annals of Science, Volume 35, 1978, pp. 173-190
  • Celestial spheres and circles, Hist. Sci., Vol. 19, 1981, pp. 75-114
  • The contributions of Isaac Newton, Johann Bernoulli and Jakob Hermann to the inverse problem of central forces, Studia Leibnitiana, Sonderheft 17, 1989, pp. 48-58
  • The solution of the inverse problem of central forces in Newton's Principia, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences , Volume 38, 1988, pp. 272-276
  • The Cartesian Vortex Theory, in: R. Taton, C. Wilson, General History of Astronomy, Volume 21, Cambridge UP 1989, pp. 207-221

Editor:

  • Kepler, Mysterium Cosmographicum (= The secret of the universe), New York: Abaris Books 1981 (text in Latin and English, with Alistair M. Duncan as translator, commentary by Aiton, foreword by I. Bernard Cohen)
  • Euler, Commentationes mechanicae et astronomicae ad physicam cosmicam pertinentes, Opera Omnia, series 2, volume 31, Birkhäuser 1996
  • Kepler, Harmonice Mundi, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1997 (with AM Duncan, JV Field, translation and commentary)
  • Peurbach's Theoricae novae planetarum, a translation with commentary, Osiris, Volume 3, 1987, pp. 5-44

literature

  • Ivor Grattan-Guinness : Eric Aiton, An appreciation, Ann. Sci., Vol. 48, 1991, pp. 305-308
  • Ivor Grattan-Guinness: Eric Aiton, in Joseph W. Dauben , Christoph J. Scriba (eds.): Writing the history of mathematics , Birkhäuser 2002, pp. 351–352
  • Curtis Wilson: Eric John Aiton (1920-1991), Historia Mathematica, Volume 18, 1991, pp. 390-392
  • J. Bruce Brackenridge: Eloge Eric John Aiton, Isis, Vol. 82, 1991, pp. 689-691
  • AM Duncan: Eric John Aiton, British J. for the History of Science, Vol. 25, 1992, pp. 253-254

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry at the Académie.
  2. ^ Five lectures on the history of science given in Japan in May and June 1990, International Christian University, Tokyo


personal data
SURNAME Aiton, Eric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aiton, Eric John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British physics and mathematics historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Dumfermline
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1991
Place of death Oldham