Proofs and Contexts: the Debate between Bernoulli and Newton on the Mathematics of Central Force Motion

In this essay I analyze the solutions given by Isaac Newton and Johann Bernoulli to a well-posed mathematical problem known in the eighteenth century as the ‘inverse problem of central forces’. This work prompted polemical exchanges between two rival groups: the first, whose leader was Newton, was based in Oxford, Cambridge, and London; the second, whose leading representatives were Leibniz and Bernoulli, was scattered througout Europe, though centered in Basel and Paris.