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Mon, 04 Jan 2010

11:41 – Newtonmas revisited

Google is celebrating Newton's birthday today. Better late than never, but in the interest of historical accuracy, I feel it should be celebrated on 25 December and not on 4 January.

I am aware of the fact that the calendar was fiddled with around the time of Newton's birth, but I think the key defining element of a "birthday" is the day one is born (or birthed, depending on perspective). I'm sure Sir Isaac's mother thought it was 25 December.

If Newton was born in the 21st century, his mother would have had to fight her way through a forest of "christmas" trees to get to the delivery room.

[ category: /activism | 4 comments on this entry ]

I think that working with fractions of Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun is more precise and totally unbiased (because based on mathemathics and geometry), compared to flawed calendar systems invented by hunams (because they are based on fairy tales).

If we don't take the mean tropical year as a base, but Milankovitch cycles (precession), then we can say that the Earth was on (or near) its perihelion on the day that Isaac Newton was born. In other words, the Earth was nearest to the sun when he was born, and now, 367 orbits later, the Earth is again in the same position relative to the Sun.

Isaac Newton, a mathematician, physicist and astronomer, would probably have appreciate that little factoid. :)

Posted by Amedee Van Gasse at Mon Jan 4 14:08:19 2010
Sofie was wondering whether you put an apple tree (rather than the usual spruce) in your house during the holiday season? :-)

Posted by Geert Hendrickx at Mon Jan 4 20:53:05 2010
Geert/Sofie: I like trees outside.  I'm sure the trees like it there too.  If they didn't, they'd build their own houses. :-)

Posted by Philip Paeps at Mon Jan 4 21:00:24 2010
I've known a couple of indoorsy bonsai, but they usually don't come with apples :-(

Posted by Bram at Mon Jan 4 22:10:17 2010

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