Isaac and Amanda

About the Book

The play “Isaac and Amanda” is among other things a love story about Isaac Newton and a woman named Amanda. It also contains material about the conflicts that Newton had with the scientist Robert Hooke and the mathematician Leibniz. The latter conflict deals with the issue of who should receive credit for the discovery of Calculus. Furthermore, it deals with that period of Newton’s life when he was an official in the Mint (the equivalent in the United States of the Treasury Department) trying to solve Britain’s currency problems and his difficulties with the master counterfeiter Challoner and especially Challoner’s wife. Finally, it brings up the issue of Newton’s year when he was so depressed that some people say he had a nervous breakdown. Some of the material in “Isaac and Amanda” is to be found in the play ”On the Shoulders of Giants,” written by the same authors.

About the Author

Arthur Ziffer is a mathematician and has had a lifelong interest in Isaac Newton. He lives in New York City. Herbert Hauptman won a Nobel prize (the first mathematician to do so) in Chemistry for his work applying advanced mathematics to crystallography. Herbert Hauptman passed away in 2011.