Celestial Encounters

Florin Diacu is Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Victoria in Canada. Philip Holmes, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is Professor of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics at Princeton University, where he directs the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics.

• Preface and Acknowledgments A Note to the Reader 1. A Great Discovery - And a Mistake 2. Symbolic Dynamics 3. Collisions and Other Singularities 4. Stability 5. KAM Theory Notes Bibliography Index

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1997 "[S]tories about the history of celestial mechanics are the subject of this delightful book. The authors interweave numerous anecdotes about the personalities involved in the discoveries with technical details of the mathematical ideas themselves... a pleasant mix of things technical and things historical... written in a lively and informative way."--Robert L. Devaney, Science "This book, which should be required reading for every nonspecialist astronomer, may well be headed toward becoming a classic."--Choice "A particular strength of Celestial Encounters is the impression, conveyed with a deft touch, that mathematics is an international and collective effort made by real people for real reasons in the real world. All the players in the drama, alive or dead, come over as human beings who happen to have a passion for mathematics and an ability to fulfill that passion. This feature alone justifies buying the book."--Ian Stewart, New Scientist "A lively introduction to the fascinating story of celestial mechanics."--Jacques Laskar, Nature "Throughout the book one finds a vital quality that derives from the authors' real success in presenting mathematics as a human endeavor... A valuable and accessible contribution to the chaos literature."--June Barrow-Green, Isis "A pleasant mix of things technical and things historical... Written in a lively and informative way."--Robert Devaney, Science