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Brahmagupta (c. 598 – c. 668 CE) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer.He is the author of two early works on mathematics and astronomy: the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (BSS, "correctly established doctrine of Brahma", dated 628), a theoretical treatise, and the Khandakhadyaka ("edible bite", dated 665), a more practical text.
In 1784, Le Sage posited that gravity could be a result of the collision of atoms, and in the early 19th century, he expanded Daniel Bernoulli's theory of corpuscular pressure to the universe as a whole. [89] A similar model was later created by Hendrik Lorentz (1853–1928), who used electromagnetic radiation instead of corpuscles.
The publication of the law has become known as the "first great unification", as it marked the unification of the previously described phenomena of gravity on Earth with known astronomical behaviors. [1] [2] [3] This is a general physical law derived from empirical observations by what Isaac Newton called inductive reasoning. [4]
Newton acknowledged the problem that the stars would have to be precisely placed to maintain such an unstable equilibrium without collapse, and later claimed that God prevented the collapse by making "constant minute corrections"; "a continual miracle is needed to prevent the Sun and the fixt stars from rushing together through gravity." [1] [2]
The first observation of a decrease in orbital period due to the emission of gravitational waves was made by Hulse and Taylor, using the binary pulsar PSR1913+16 they had discovered in 1974. This was the first detection of gravitational waves, albeit indirect, for which they were awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in physics. [98]
Although it has been said that the apple story is a myth and that he did not arrive at his theory of gravity at any single moment, [231] acquaintances of Newton (such as William Stukeley, whose manuscript account of 1752 has been made available by the Royal Society) do in fact confirm the incident, though not the apocryphal version that the ...
A main contributor to this field was Shen Kuo (1031–1095), a polymath and statesman who was the first to describe the magnetic-needle compass used for navigation, as well as establishing the concept of true north. In optics, Shen Kuo independently developed a camera obscura. [8]
[250] [251] LIGO-VIRGO and Fermi constrain the difference between the speed of gravity and the speed of light in vacuum to 10 −15. [252] This marks the first time electromagnetic and gravitational waves are detected from a single source, [253] [254] and give direct evidence that some (short) gamma-ray bursts are due to colliding neutron stars ...