The Magical Mathematician: Sir Isaac Newton and the Principia Mathematica

On a frozen January day in 1684 three friends – Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley - met at a London coffee house to confront one of the great questions in knowledge: planetary motion. Their conversation and speculations led, in a few months, to Isaac Newton’s chambers at Trinity College in Cambridge and initiated one of the most thrilling episodes in the entire history of science. In this fourth episode of Travels Through Time, Professor Simon Schaffer of the University of Cambridge takes us to three scenes in the year 1684, and to the genesis of that paradigm-shattering book, the Principia Mathematica.

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Professor Simon Schaffer

Producer: Maria Nolan