December 14: The Millau Viaduct

Millau Viaduct from above

 I like bridges. When I was in grammar school, there was a pedestrian footbridge over the flood control channel that ran along the playground boundary. There were students who lived “beyond the wash” and got to use the bridge every day to get to school. The bridge transcended the division that slashed the neighborhood in… Continue reading December 14: The Millau Viaduct

December 10: Newton’s Proof of Kepler’s Laws

Newton's Letter to Halley, Royal Society archives

In November of 1684, Edmund Halley received a letter from Isaac Newton in answer to a question he had asked earlier that year. The question (based on Halley’s account some years later) asked for a description of the “Curve that would be described by the Planets supposing the force of attraction towards the Sun to… Continue reading December 10: Newton’s Proof of Kepler’s Laws