Isaac Newton's sinister heraldry
Abstract
After Isaac Newton was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 he adopted an unusual coat of arms: a pair of human tibiae crossed on a black background, like a pirate flag without the skull. After some general reflections on Newton's monumental scientific achievements and on his enigmatic life, we investigate the story of his coat of arms. We also discuss how its simple design illustrates the concept of chirality, which would later play an important role in the philosophical arguments about Newton's conception of space, as well as in the development of modern chemistry and particle physics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1310.7494,
title = {Isaac Newton's sinister heraldry},
author = {Alejandro Jenkins},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.7494},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
13 pages, 7 figures, two-column format. v2: added discussion in Sec. VII of Descartes's role in the development of the concept of chirality, and possible connections with Newton. Other improvements to the text and references. Submitted to the American Journal of Physics