Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 in Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. Newton is clearly the most influential scientist who ever lived. His accomplishments in mathematics, optics, and physics laid the foundations for modern science and revolutionized the world. Newton studied at Cambridge and was professor there from 1669 to 1701, succeeding his teacher Isaac Barrow as Lucasian professor of mathematics. His most important discoveries were made during the two-year period from 1664 to 1666, when the university was closed and he retired to his hometown of Woolsthorpe. At that time he discovered the law of universal gravitation, began to develop the calculus, and discovered that white light is composed of all the colors of the spectrum. These findings enabled him to make fundamental contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and theoretical and experimental physics. Newton summarized his discoveries in terrestrial and celestial mechanics in his Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (mathematical principles of natural philosophy) in 1687, one of the greatest milestones in the history of science. In it he showed how his principle of universal gravitation provided an explanation both of falling bodies on the earth and of the motions of planets, comets, and other bodies in the heavens. The first part of the Principia is devoted to dynamics and includes Newton's three famous laws of motion; the second part to fluid motion and other topics; and the third part to the system of the world, for example, the unification of terrestrial and celestial mechanics under the principle of gravitation and the explanation of Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Although Newton used the calculus to discover his results, he explained them in the Principia by use of older geometric methods. Newton's discoveries in optics were presented in his Opticks in 1704, in which he elaborated his theory that light is composed of corpuscles, or particles. His corpuscular theory dominated optics until the early 19th century when it was replaced by the wave theory of light. The two theories were combined in the modern quantum theory. Among his other accomplishments were his construction of a reflecting telescope in 1668 and his anticipation of the calculus of variations, founded by Gottfried Leibniz and the Bernoullis. In later years, Newton considered mathematics and physics a recreation and turned much of his energy toward alchemy, theology, and history, particularly problems of chronology. Newton was his university's representative in Parliament from 1689--90 and 1701--2 and was president of the Royal Society from 1703 until his death.
In 1687, Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (also known as Principia). The Principia was the “climax of Newton's professional life” (“Sir Isaac Newton”, 370). This book contains not only information on gravity, but Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. The First Law states that an object in constant motion will remain in motion unless an outside force is applied. The Second Law states that an object accelerates when a force is applied to a mass and greater force is needed to accelerate an object with a larger mass. The Third Law states that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. These laws were fundamental in explaining the elliptical orbits of planets, moons, and comets. They were also used to calculate
Sir Isaac Newton made an enormous amount of contributions to the world of physics. He invented the reflecting telescope, proposed new theories of light and color, discovered calculus, developed the three laws of motion, and devised the law of universal gravitation. His greatest contribution to physics was the development of the three laws of motion. The first law was called the law of inertia; this law stated that, “Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.” The second law is called the law of acceleration; this law stated that, “Force is equal to the chan...
In this essay, published in 1738, Voltaire explains the philosophies of not only Newton, but in a large part Descartes because of his contributions in the fields of geometry. In Voltaire's concise explanation of Newton's and other philosophers' paradigms related in the fields of astronomy and physics, he employs geometry through diagrams and pictures and proves his statements with calculus. Voltaire in fact mentions that this essay is for the people who have the desire to teach themselves, and makes the intent of the book as a textbook. In 25 chapters, and every bit of 357 pages, as well as six pages of definitions, Voltaire explains Newton's discoveries in the field of optics, the rainbow spectrum and colors, musical notes, the Laws of Attraction, disproving the philosophy of Descarte's cause of gravity and structure of light, and proving Newton's new paradigm, or Philosophy as Voltaire would have called it. Voltaire in a sense created the idea that Newton's principles were a new philosophy and acknowledged the possibility for errors.
Isaac Newton, (1642-1727) was an English scientist and statesman. Although his views were thought to contradict the bible he was the only man of these three which proved his views to be true. He discovered gravity and the laws of motion. He stated that, 'every particle in the universe is attracted to every other particle by a force that is directly related to the product of their masses and inversely related to the squares of the distance between them.
Sir Isaac Newton was born in England on December 25, 1642 during the time when studying motion was prevalent. He was known as one of the greatest mathematicians that ever lived. When Sir Isaac Newton matured he attended Free Grammar School and then later went on to Trinity College Cambridge. While he was in college he grew a strong passion for physics, math and astronomy. He received his bachelor and mater degree through his matriculation in college. Also, while in college he grew a passion for the study of motion. Before Isaac was born the study of motion was done by Galileo who discovered the projectile motion causing him to be one of the first scientists to experiment on moving objects. After Galileo’s death, Sir Isaac Newton took on the
As Newton came closer to the teenage age, he also came closer to his mother. He reunited with her after her second husband passed. Eventually, Newton was introduced into the fine ole’ chemistry,he enrolled at King's’ School in Lincolnshire, Grantham. Newton’s mother had
He also devoted a lot of time to alchemy. He became the master of The Royal Mint in 1699, a position that he held until the end of his life. In 1705 he became the first ever scientist to be knighted. In 1717 As a result of a report that he wrote to the treasury, It was forbidden to exchange gold guineas for more than 21 shillings, this eventually led to the britain changing their silver standard to a gold standard as it caused a silver shortage. Newton eventually moved in with his niece and her husband to spend the later years of his life. He died in his sleep in march 20, 1726 after his death his hair was examined and there were found to contain mercury possibly resulting from his persuasion of alchemy. Mercury poisoning could have been the cause of his odd behavior in the later years of his life as well as his
Newton’s birth in 1646 came at the tail-end of the 30-years war which was fought in Central Europe. The war began in 1618 in Bohemia over religious differences between Protestants and Catholics; however as time passed, the war became more political and soon most countries in Europe were involved (Ellis & Esler, 1999). The war ended in 1648 by a series of treaties knows as the Pease of Westphalia with France coming out victorious gaining land from both Spain and Germany (Ellis & Esler, 1999). The tension felt between the Protestants and Catholics was mirrored in England where there was a civil war beginning in 1640 and continuing until 1659. Early in the civil war Oliver Cromwell was chosen as leader of Parliament with his staunch Puritan beliefs; he soon became a leader of the Protestant side of the war. During this time, many considered England to be almost in anarchy with groups such as the Ranters, Levellers, and Diggers battling over various religious and political beliefs (Merriman, 1996). In 1649 Charles I, who had been King of England prior to the civil war, was beheaded and England became a Commonwealth and ...
Isaac Newton’s story of how an apple falling from a tree that hit his head inspired him to formulate a theory of gravitation is one that all school children grow up hearing about. Newton is arguably one of the most influential scientific minds in human history. He has published books such as Arithmetica Universalis, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, Methods of Fluxions, Opticks, the Queries, and most famously, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia MathematicaHe formulated the three laws of gravitation, discovered the generalized binomial theorem, developed infinitesimal calculus (sharing credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz, who developed the theory independently), and worked extensively on optics and refraction of light. Newton changed the way that people look at the world they live in and how the universe works.
The three laws of motion are three rules that explain the motion of an object. The first law is the law of inertia. It states that every object remains at rest unless it is compelled by an external force. The second law is the law of acceleration. This law shows when there is a change in force, it causes a change in velocity. Finally, the third law states that every force in nature has an equal and opposite reaction. His discovery in calculus help confirms his second law of motion. Calculus also gave Isaac Newton powerful ways to solve mathematical problems. Lastly, for the color spectrum, he produced a beam of light from a tiny hole in a window shade. He placed a glass prism in front of the beam of light creating a color spectrum. In Newton’s undergraduate days, Newton was greatly influenced by the Hermetic tradition. After learning about the Hermetic tradition it influenced him to look at a different perspective into his discoveries and theories. One of the myths that followed the discovery is his discovery of universal gravitation. It is said that while Isaac Newton was thinking about the forces of nature, an apple fell on his head and he found the theory of gravity. There is no evidence that an apple fell on Newton’s head, but the evidence is shown that Newton got an idea of the theory of gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree. During his life; however, Isaac Newton faced many obstacles. When he published some of his ideas in Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society, some people challenged his ideas such as Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens to a point where Newton stopped publishing his work. During his life, he also suffered a nervous breakdown in a period of his life. He was convinced his friends were conspiring against him, and he couldn’t sleep at all for five
"Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, let Newton be! And all was light." - - Alexander Pope
Newton was born in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, United Kingdom on January fourth, 1643. He was the only son of a prosperous local farmer, also named Isaac Newton, who died three months before he was born. A premature baby born tiny and weak, Newton was not expected to survive. When he was 3 years old, his mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, remarried a minister, Barnabas Smith, and went to live with him, leaving Newton behind. The experience left an imprint on Newton, later manifesting itself as an acute sense of insecurity. He anxiously obsessed over his published work, defending its ideas with irrational behavior. Newt...
With the Scientific Revolution in full swing, Sir Isaac Newton became very interested in advanced science and philosophy. In fact, he...
He conducted experiments on sunlight and prisms. He discovered that sunlight was made up of different colors. This lead to his work on reflecting telescopes. At the same time he was working out his ideas of planetary motion. He returned to Cambridge in 1667 and became the a fellow, earned his MA and the following year became the chair of the math department. he then wrote a book on optics. Newton worked cooperatively wiht other scientists such as Robert Hookeand Edmund Halley on planetary motion. But he was later bitter and resentfull not wanting to give other any credit for their contributions to his work. Newton went on to serve in government positions such as a member of Parliament and later as Warden of the Mint. His only words spoken as a member of parliament were "shut the window." He had a mental breakdown of sorts resulting in thoughts of persecutiojn mania later in life.
Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 in Woolsthorpe, England where he grew up. His father, also named Isaac Newton, was a prosperous farmer who died three months before Isaacs’s birth. Isaac was born premature; he was very tiny and weak and wasn’t expected to live (bio).