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1694: On a freezing night in Oxford, three men meet each other with the usual warmth. It's a dark chamber and our "star astronomers"-lords-sit around an oval platform with a green top (actually, an unusually shaped billiards table). Edmond Halley is the host. He is passing the cues and keeping score. "Halley, don't
just stand there behind those three stumps. Hurry up, I need a
cue," says a player. "Left, right or centre?" says
Halley. He moves around the table in an elliptical path and settles at a
point from where he can have a better view of the game. The players are
his guests and friends-Isaac Newton and David Gregory. "Halley,
your moving around the park affects my concentration. Here, I'll mark a
crease for you. Step out of it and I'll stump you (beat you with a
stump, that is; a stump here is a cue)," says Gregory.
"Uh, sorry gentlemen, but the light's bad. I called you here in this weather because I had to discuss a most unusual vision I've had." "A vision?" say the players, as they break for tea. "In the night sky, I saw a star with a smoke tail!" Newton: "My dear Halley, haven't you seen a comet before?" "Yes, but this one's unusual. My calculations tell me..." Newton (interrupting): "Leave what the calculations tell you. Besides, why are you after this comet when there are so many planets revolving around our own Sun?" Gregory (who has been taking notes): "Yes lord, but how many planets revolve around the Sun?" Newton (the query takes him by surprise): "Ahem... umm... good question, which reminds me of... yes, of these balls on the billiards table... and how these touch each other." Gregory: "Lord, how many spheres of equal size can touch a given sphere without overlapping?" The guests have a long debate on this, but when disagreement persists, they decide to flip a coin to settle the issue. This leads to another long debate on how many coins can be placed (in two dimensions) around a coin so that they all touch the one in the centre, but not overlap. "Looking for a decision, they turn to the man behind the stumps and say: "Howzzat?" Halley (tired, insulted and angry by now): "Out, Out." (As they fall violently on the grass
outside) Gregory: "This is not..." Just then Newton spots
something moving in the grass. "Cricket!" Gregory: "Yes,
this is not cricket." They didn't see Halley for another 76 years.
(Write at The Tribune or adityarishi99@yahoo.co.in) |
