I will send you the outline on conic sections within the week.
Sincerely,
Isaac Barrow
1 February 1667
London
Dear Mr. Newton:
In reference to your letter of 14 January 1667, on the simplified algebraic formulae for the prediction of the paths of cannon balls, our staff has considered the matter and found that not only is your mathematics incomprehensibly confusing, but the results are highly inaccurate. Where, may I ask, did you get such data as that? On what experimental evidence do you base your deductions? The actual data we have on hand are not at all in agreement with your computations.
Men with more experience than yours, sir, have been working on this problem for several years, and nothing in our results suggests anything like what you put forth. Finding data is a matter of hard work and observation, not of sitting back in one's armchair and letting one's mind wander.
It would, indeed, be gratifying if our cannon would shoot as far as your equations say they should—but they do not. I am afraid we shall have to depend on our test results rather than on your theories. It is fact—not fancy—which is required in dealing with military operations.
Sincerely,
Edward Ballister-ffoulkes, Bart.
General, Army Artillery