Time traveller wants to help Isaac Newton short story ID

I posted this in a GQ thread. I didn’t spoiler-tag it there (my bad), but I will here.

I read a story, possibly in Omni, about a time traveller who went to visit Isaac Newton. The man brought with him a calculator with a tiny nuclear device for power, in the hope that Newton would use it to further his scientific discoveries. It was set to self destruct at some point, possibly after Newton’s death. He demonstrated the calculator by dividing a very large random number by another number. Unfortunately, the answer happened to be…

… 666. Newton, a deeply religious man, determined the time traveller was a demon and chased him away. He threw the calculator into a river, where it exploded some time later.

If anyone remembers this story or, better yet, has a link to the text or at least the issue it appeared in, I’d appreciate it.

Here’s a link to a description of the story - it’s “Newton’s Gift” by Paul Nathan Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church - Gary DeMar - Google Books

Here’s a link to where it was published - Title: Newton's Gift - according to this it was in Omni in January 1979 (this link also corrects the name of the author - Paul Nahin, not Paul Nathan.

Thanks!

ETA: Found it on archive.org. :slight_smile:

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Glad to help - this one I just googled “Newton” “Calculator” and “666” to find.

Huh. I tried “Isaac Newton” nuclear calculator omni 666 and didn’t see it.

I also selected “Books,” which probably helped.

Intriguing premise but dumb as fuck denouement, considering the actual character and intellectual predilections that historical evidence ascribes to Newton.

He was indeed very interested in the analysis of biblical prophecy and numerological interpretation, but he wasn’t some paranoid superstitious Camp-Meeting Mucklewrath who would have

been deathly afraid of a calculating device just because it glowed red :rolleyes: and happened to show the number “666” as the result of a particular calculation.

Just goes to show how a lot of modern science-fiction writers simply have no concept of any nuance in pre-modern religious belief. Any version of biblical literalism must be equivalent to brainless fundie credulity, as far as they’re concerned.

IIRC, he was also dubious because it could perform mathematical operationsWITH NO MOVING PARTS!!! :eek::eek::eek:

That’s some demonic shit, right there.