Reid Lecture Series in Mathematics
Distinguished author and mathematical historian William Dunham of Bryn Mawr College will deliver a lecture entitled Your Humble Servant, Isaac Newton. He will discuss interesting examples of Newton's letters. From his earliest known letter (where he scolded a friend for being drunk), through exchanges with Leibniz, Locke, and others, and up to documents written when he ran the Mint in London, these writings give glimpses of Isaac Newton at his best and his worst. In the process Professor Dunham will discuss Newton’s first great mathematical discovery: the generalized binomial theorem and its use in approximating square roots. He will conclude with Newton’s most famous letter and tell how his search for the original led, improbably, to a library in Philadelphia. In the Student Union.