Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

Scientists in the 17th and 18th centuries were preoccupied with learning as much about the Earth as possible - its size, age, exact location in space and most of all, its origins. The colorful, multi-talented astronomer Edmond Halley entered into a wager with Sir Christopher Wren, an astronomer who designed immortal cathedrals in his spare time, and Robert Hooke. Hooke had a propensity for taking credit for other people's ideas, and is best remembered as the first person to describe a cell. Wren promised 40 shillings, an amount equal to several weeks' pay, to the first man who could determine why planets orbited in an ellipse, instead of a circle.

Halley was certain that the answer had something to do with the inverse square law. Determined to win the prize, Halley approached Sir Isaac Newton. The brilliant, solitary and paranoid...