Re: reason for "s = distance traveled"

[brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>]

At 19:42 8/24/97 EDT, Tom Wayburn wrote:
> ...
> > I would have wished to consult an English translation of
> > "Principia..." where I fancy Newton may possibly have used
> > the symbol; but I have no copy.
> >
> > It would be particularly pleasing if he used s as a reasonable
> > initial letter for a term in his written language; something like
> > s - secta (path, method etc.) but this is wild speculation.
....
> Leibnitz and Gauss are candidates for first use of
> lower-case ess for arclength. 
> ...  The style of Newton is not entirely accessible, is it?
>
> Tom
It is not, as Chandrasekhar found to his cost in the final 
year of his life on the publication of his review of Newton's 
major works. 
It turned out that he misunderstood Newton's use of base 60 
fractions to serve the purpose for which we now use decimal fractions.

Regards

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK