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Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician famous for his laws of physics. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century.
(1643-1727)
In 1687, he published his most acclaimed work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) , which has been called the single most influential book on physics. In 1705, he was knighted by Queen Anne of England, making him Sir Isaac Newton.
Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Using the "old" Julian calendar, Newton's birth date is sometimes displayed as December 25, 1642.
Newton was the only son of a prosperous local farmer, also named Isaac, 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 well-to-do minister, Barnabas Smith, and went to live with him, leaving young Newton with his maternal grandmother.
The experience left an indelible imprint on Newton, later manifesting itself as an acute sense of insecurity. He anxiously obsessed over his published work, defending its merits with irrational behavior.
At age 12, Newton was reunited with his mother after her second husband died. She brought along her three small children from her second marriage.
Newton was enrolled at the King's School in Grantham, a town in Lincolnshire, where he lodged with a local apothecary and was introduced to the fascinating world of chemistry.
His mother pulled him out of school at age 12. Her plan was to make him a farmer and have him tend the farm. Newton failed miserably, as he found farming monotonous. Newton was soon sent back to King's School to finish his basic education.
Perhaps sensing the young man's innate intellectual abilities, his uncle, a graduate of the University of Cambridge's Trinity College , persuaded Newton's mother to have him enter the university. Newton enrolled in a program similar to a work-study in 1661, and subsequently waited on tables and took care of wealthier students' rooms.
When Newton arrived at Cambridge, the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century was already in full force. The heliocentric view of the universe—theorized by astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, and later refined by Galileo —was well known in most European academic circles.
Philosopher René Descartes had begun to formulate a new concept of nature as an intricate, impersonal and inert machine. Yet, like most universities in Europe, Cambridge was steeped in Aristotelian philosophy and a view of nature resting on a geocentric view of the universe, dealing with nature in qualitative rather than quantitative terms.
During his first three years at Cambridge, Newton was taught the standard curriculum but was fascinated with the more advanced science. All his spare time was spent reading from the modern philosophers. The result was a less-than-stellar performance, but one that is understandable, given his dual course of study.
It was during this time that Newton kept a second set of notes, entitled "Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae" ("Certain Philosophical Questions"). The "Quaestiones" reveal that Newton had discovered the new concept of nature that provided the framework for the Scientific Revolution. Though Newton graduated without honors or distinctions, his efforts won him the title of scholar and four years of financial support for future education.
In 1665, the bubonic plague that was ravaging Europe had come to Cambridge, forcing the university to close. After a two-year hiatus, Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 and was elected a minor fellow at Trinity College, as he was still not considered a standout scholar.
In the ensuing years, his fortune improved. Newton received his Master of Arts degree in 1669, before he was 27. During this time, he came across Nicholas Mercator's published book on methods for dealing with infinite series.
Newton quickly wrote a treatise, De Analysi , expounding his own wider-ranging results. He shared this with friend and mentor Isaac Barrow, but didn't include his name as author.
In June 1669, Barrow shared the unaccredited manuscript with British mathematician John Collins. In August 1669, Barrow identified its author to Collins as "Mr. Newton ... very young ... but of an extraordinary genius and proficiency in these things."
Newton's work was brought to the attention of the mathematics community for the first time. Shortly afterward, Barrow resigned his Lucasian professorship at Cambridge, and Newton assumed the chair.
Newton made discoveries in optics, motion and mathematics. Newton theorized that white light was a composite of all colors of the spectrum, and that light was composed of particles.
His momentous book on physics, Principia , contains information on nearly all of the essential concepts of physics except energy, ultimately helping him to explain the laws of motion and the theory of gravity. Along with mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Newton is credited for developing essential theories of calculus.
Newton's first major public scientific achievement was designing and constructing a reflecting telescope in 1668. As a professor at Cambridge, Newton was required to deliver an annual course of lectures and chose optics as his initial topic. He used his telescope to study optics and help prove his theory of light and color.
The Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope in 1671, and the organization's interest encouraged Newton to publish his notes on light, optics and color in 1672. These notes were later published as part of Newton's Opticks: Or, A treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light .
Between 1665 and 1667, Newton returned home from Trinity College to pursue his private study, as school was closed due to the Great Plague. Legend has it that, at this time, Newton experienced his famous inspiration of gravity with the falling apple. According to this common myth, Newton was sitting under an apple tree when a fruit fell and hit him on the head, inspiring him to suddenly come up with the theory of gravity.
While there is no evidence that the apple actually hit Newton on the head, he did see an apple fall from a tree, leading him to wonder why it fell straight down and not at an angle. Consequently, he began exploring the theories of motion and gravity.
It was during this 18-month hiatus as a student that Newton conceived many of his most important insights—including the method of infinitesimal calculus, the foundations for his theory of light and color, and the laws of planetary motion—that eventually led to the publication of his physics book Principia and his theory of gravity.
In 1687, following 18 months of intense and effectively nonstop work, Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) , most often known as Principia .
Principia is said to be the single most influential book on physics and possibly all of science. Its publication immediately raised Newton to international prominence.
Principia offers an exact quantitative description of bodies in motion, with three basic but important laws of motion:
A stationary body will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it.
Force is equal to mass times acceleration, and a change in motion (i.e., change in speed) is proportional to the force applied.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Newton’s three basic laws of motion outlined in Principia helped him arrive at his theory of gravity. Newton’s law of universal gravitation states that two objects attract each other with a force of gravitational attraction that’s proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
These laws helped explain not only elliptical planetary orbits but nearly every other motion in the universe: how the planets are kept in orbit by the pull of the sun’s gravity; how the moon revolves around Earth and the moons of Jupiter revolve around it; and how comets revolve in elliptical orbits around the sun.
They also allowed him to calculate the mass of each planet, calculate the flattening of the Earth at the poles and the bulge at the equator, and how the gravitational pull of the sun and moon create the Earth’s tides. In Newton's account, gravity kept the universe balanced, made it work, and brought heaven and Earth together in one great equation.
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Not everyone at the Royal Academy was enthusiastic about Newton’s discoveries in optics and 1672 publication of Opticks: Or, A treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light . Among the dissenters was Robert Hooke , one of the original members of the Royal Academy and a scientist who was accomplished in a number of areas, including mechanics and optics.
While Newton theorized that light was composed of particles, Hooke believed it was composed of waves. Hooke quickly condemned Newton's paper in condescending terms, and attacked Newton's methodology and conclusions.
Hooke was not the only one to question Newton's work in optics. Renowned Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens and a number of French Jesuits also raised objections. But because of Hooke's association with the Royal Society and his own work in optics, his criticism stung Newton the worst.
Unable to handle the critique, he went into a rage—a reaction to criticism that was to continue throughout his life. Newton denied Hooke's charge that his theories had any shortcomings and argued the importance of his discoveries to all of science.
In the ensuing months, the exchange between the two men grew more acrimonious, and soon Newton threatened to quit the Royal Society altogether. He remained only when several other members assured him that the Fellows held him in high esteem.
The rivalry between Newton and Hooke would continue for several years thereafter. Then, in 1678, Newton suffered a complete nervous breakdown and the correspondence abruptly ended. The death of his mother the following year caused him to become even more isolated, and for six years he withdrew from intellectual exchange except when others initiated correspondence, which he always kept short.
During his hiatus from public life, Newton returned to his study of gravitation and its effects on the orbits of planets. Ironically, the impetus that put Newton on the right direction in this study came from Robert Hooke.
In a 1679 letter of general correspondence to Royal Society members for contributions, Hooke wrote to Newton and brought up the question of planetary motion, suggesting that a formula involving the inverse squares might explain the attraction between planets and the shape of their orbits.
Subsequent exchanges transpired before Newton quickly broke off the correspondence once again. But Hooke's idea was soon incorporated into Newton's work on planetary motion, and from his notes it appears he had quickly drawn his own conclusions by 1680, though he kept his discoveries to himself.
In early 1684, in a conversation with fellow Royal Society members Christopher Wren and Edmond Halley, Hooke made his case on the proof for planetary motion. Both Wren and Halley thought he was on to something, but pointed out that a mathematical demonstration was needed.
In August 1684, Halley traveled to Cambridge to visit with Newton, who was coming out of his seclusion. Halley idly asked him what shape the orbit of a planet would take if its attraction to the sun followed the inverse square of the distance between them (Hooke's theory).
Newton knew the answer, due to his concentrated work for the past six years, and replied, "An ellipse." Newton claimed to have solved the problem some 18 years prior, during his hiatus from Cambridge and the plague, but he was unable to find his notes. Halley persuaded him to work out the problem mathematically and offered to pay all costs so that the ideas might be published, which it was, in Newton’s Principia .
Upon the publication of the first edition of Principia in 1687, Robert Hooke immediately accused Newton of plagiarism, claiming that he had discovered the theory of inverse squares and that Newton had stolen his work. The charge was unfounded, as most scientists knew, for Hooke had only theorized on the idea and had never brought it to any level of proof.
Newton, however, was furious and strongly defended his discoveries. He withdrew all references to Hooke in his notes and threatened to withdraw from publishing the subsequent edition of Principia altogether.
Halley, who had invested much of himself in Newton's work, tried to make peace between the two men. While Newton begrudgingly agreed to insert a joint acknowledgment of Hooke's work (shared with Wren and Halley) in his discussion of the law of inverse squares, it did nothing to placate Hooke.
As the years went on, Hooke's life began to unravel. His beloved niece and companion died the same year that Principia was published, in 1687. As Newton's reputation and fame grew, Hooke's declined, causing him to become even more bitter and loathsome toward his rival.
To the very end, Hooke took every opportunity he could to offend Newton. Knowing that his rival would soon be elected president of the Royal Society, Hooke refused to retire until the year of his death, in 1703.
Following the publication of Principia , Newton was ready for a new direction in life. He no longer found contentment in his position at Cambridge and was becoming more involved in other issues.
He helped lead the resistance to King James II's attempts to reinstitute Catholic teaching at Cambridge, and in 1689 he was elected to represent Cambridge in Parliament.
While in London, Newton acquainted himself with a broader group of intellectuals and became acquainted with political philosopher John Locke . Though many of the scientists on the continent continued to teach the mechanical world according to Aristotle , a young generation of British scientists became captivated with Newton's new view of the physical world and recognized him as their leader.
One of these admirers was Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, a Swiss mathematician whom Newton befriended while in London.
However, within a few years, Newton fell into another nervous breakdown in 1693. The cause is open to speculation: his disappointment over not being appointed to a higher position by England's new monarchs, William III and Mary II, or the subsequent loss of his friendship with Duillier; exhaustion from being overworked; or perhaps chronic mercury poisoning after decades of alchemical research.
It's difficult to know the exact cause, but evidence suggests that letters written by Newton to several of his London acquaintances and friends, including Duillier, seemed deranged and paranoiac, and accused them of betrayal and conspiracy.
Oddly enough, Newton recovered quickly, wrote letters of apology to friends, and was back to work within a few months. He emerged with all his intellectual facilities intact, but seemed to have lost interest in scientific problems and now favored pursuing prophecy and scripture and the study of alchemy.
While some might see this as work beneath the man who had revolutionized science, it might be more properly attributed to Newton responding to the issues of the time in turbulent 17th century Britain.
Many intellectuals were grappling with the meaning of many different subjects, not least of which were religion, politics and the very purpose of life. Modern science was still so new that no one knew for sure how it measured up against older philosophies.
In 1696, Newton was able to attain the governmental position he had long sought: warden of the Mint; after acquiring this new title, he permanently moved to London and lived with his niece, Catherine Barton.
Barton was the mistress of Lord Halifax, a high-ranking government official who was instrumental in having Newton promoted, in 1699, to master of the Mint—a position that he would hold until his death.
Not wanting it to be considered a mere honorary position, Newton approached the job in earnest, reforming the currency and severely punishing counterfeiters. As master of the Mint, Newton moved the British currency, the pound sterling, from the silver to the gold standard.
In 1703, Newton was elected president of the Royal Society upon Robert Hooke's death. However, Newton never seemed to understand the notion of science as a cooperative venture, and his ambition and fierce defense of his own discoveries continued to lead him from one conflict to another with other scientists.
By most accounts, Newton's tenure at the society was tyrannical and autocratic; he was able to control the lives and careers of younger scientists with absolute power.
In 1705, in a controversy that had been brewing for several years, German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz publicly accused Newton of plagiarizing his research, claiming he had discovered infinitesimal calculus several years before the publication of Principia .
In 1712, the Royal Society appointed a committee to investigate the matter. Of course, since Newton was president of the society, he was able to appoint the committee's members and oversee its investigation. Not surprisingly, the committee concluded Newton's priority over the discovery.
That same year, in another of Newton's more flagrant episodes of tyranny, he published without permission the notes of astronomer John Flamsteed. It seems the astronomer had collected a massive body of data from his years at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.
Newton had requested a large volume of Flamsteed's notes for his revisions to Principia . Annoyed when Flamsteed wouldn't provide him with more information as quickly as he wanted it, Newton used his influence as president of the Royal Society to be named the chairman of the body of "visitors" responsible for the Royal Observatory.
He then tried to force the immediate publication of Flamsteed's catalogue of the stars, as well as all of Flamsteed's notes, edited and unedited. To add insult to injury, Newton arranged for Flamsteed's mortal enemy, Edmund Halley, to prepare the notes for press.
Flamsteed was finally able to get a court order forcing Newton to cease his plans for publication and return the notes—one of the few times that Newton was bested by one of his rivals.
Toward the end of this life, Newton lived at Cranbury Park, near Winchester, England, with his niece, Catherine (Barton) Conduitt, and her husband, John Conduitt.
By this time, Newton had become one of the most famous men in Europe. His scientific discoveries were unchallenged. He also had become wealthy, investing his sizable income wisely and bestowing sizable gifts to charity.
Despite his fame, Newton's life was far from perfect: He never married or made many friends, and in his later years, a combination of pride, insecurity and side trips on peculiar scientific inquiries led even some of his few friends to worry about his mental stability.
By the time he reached 80 years of age, Newton was experiencing digestion problems and had to drastically change his diet and mobility.
In March 1727, Newton experienced severe pain in his abdomen and blacked out, never to regain consciousness. He died the next day, on March 31, 1727, at the age of 84.
Newton's fame grew even more after his death, as many of his contemporaries proclaimed him the greatest genius who ever lived. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but his discoveries had a large impact on Western thought, leading to comparisons to the likes of Plato , Aristotle and Galileo.
Although his discoveries were among many made during the Scientific Revolution, Newton's universal principles of gravity found no parallels in science at the time.
Of course, Newton was proven wrong on some of his key assumptions. In the 20th century, Albert Einstein would overturn Newton's concept of the universe, stating that space, distance and motion were not absolute but relative and that the universe was more fantastic than Newton had ever conceived.
Newton might not have been surprised: In his later life, when asked for an assessment of his achievements, he replied, "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
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Sir Isaac Newton (Jan. 4, 1643–March 31, 1727) was a superstar of physics, math, and astronomy even in his own time. He occupied the chair of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge in England, the same role later filled, centuries later, by Stephen Hawking . Newton conceived of several laws of motion , influential mathematical principals which, to this day, scientists use to explain how the universe works.
Newton was born in 1642 in a manor house in Lincolnshire, England. His father had died two months before his birth. When Newton was 3 his mother remarried and he remained with his grandmother. He was not interested in the family farm, so he was sent to Cambridge University to study.
Newton was born just a short time after the death of Galileo , one of the greatest scientists of all time. Galileo had proved that the planets revolve around the sun, not the earth as people thought at the time. Newton was very interested in the discoveries of Galileo and others. Newton thought the universe worked like a machine and that a few simple laws governed it. Like Galileo, he realized that mathematics was the way to explain and prove those laws.
Newton formulated laws of motion and gravitation. These laws are math formulas that explain how objects move when a force acts on them. Newton published his most famous book, "Principia," in 1687 while he was a mathematics professor at Trinity College in Cambridge. In "Principia," Newton explained three basic laws that govern the way objects move. He also described his theory of gravity, the force that causes things to fall down. Newton then used his laws to show that the planets revolve around the suns in orbits that are oval, not round.
The three laws are often called Newton’s Laws. The first law states that an object that is not being pushed or pulled by some force will stay still or will keep moving in a straight line at a steady speed. For example, if someone is riding a bike and jumps off before the bike is stopped, what happens? The bike continues on until it falls over. The tendency of an object to remain still or keep moving in a straight line at a steady speed is called inertia.
The second law explains how a force acts on an object. An object accelerates in the direction the force is moving it. If someone gets on a bike and pushes the pedals forward, the bike will begin to move. If someone gives the bike a push from behind, the bike will speed up. If the rider pushes back on the pedals, the bike will slow down. If the rider turns the handlebars, the bike will change direction.
The third law states that if an object is pushed or pulled, it will push or pull equally in the opposite direction. If someone lifts a heavy box, they use force to push it up. The box is heavy because it is producing an equal force downward on the lifter’s arms. The weight is transferred through the lifter’s legs to the floor. The floor also presses upward with an equal force. If the floor pushed back with less force, the person lifting the box would fall through the floor. If it pushed back with more force, the lifter would fly up in the air.
When most people think of Newton, they think of him sitting under an apple tree observing an apple fall to the ground. When he saw the apple fall, Newton began to think about a specific kind of motion called gravity. Newton understood that gravity was a force of attraction between two objects. He also understood that an object with more matter or mass exerted the greater force or pulled smaller objects toward it. That meant that the large mass of the Earth pulled objects toward it. That is why the apple fell down instead of up and why people don’t float in the air.
He also thought that maybe gravity was not just limited to the Earth and the objects on the earth. What if gravity extended to the Moon and beyond? Newton calculated the force needed to keep the Moon moving around the earth. Then he compared it with the force that made the apple fall downward. After allowing for the fact that the Moon is much farther from the Earth and has a much greater mass, he discovered that the forces were the same and that the Moon is also held in orbit around Earth by the pull of earth’s gravity.
Newton moved to London in 1696 to accept the position of warden of the Royal Mint. For many years afterward, he argued with Robert Hooke over who had actually discovered the connection between elliptical orbits and the inverse square law, a dispute that ended only with Hooke's death in 1703.
In 1705, Queen Anne bestowed a knighthood upon Newton, and thereafter he was known as Sir Isaac Newton. He continued his work, particularly in mathematics. This led to another dispute in 1709, this time with German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz. They both quarreled over which of them had invented calculus.
One reason for Newton's disputes with other scientists was his overwhelming fear of criticism, which led him to write, but then postpone publication of, his brilliant articles until after another scientist created similar work. Besides his earlier writings, "De Analysi" (which didn't see publication until 1711) and "Principia" (published in 1687), Newton's publications included "Optics" (published in 1704), "The Universal Arithmetic" (published in 1707), the "Lectiones Opticae" (published in 1729), the "Method of Fluxions" (published in 1736), and the "Geometrica Analytica" (printed in 1779).
On March 20, 1727, Newton died near London. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, the first scientist to receive this honor.
Newton’s calculations changed the way people understood the universe. Prior to Newton, no one had been able to explain why the planets stayed in their orbits. What held them in place? People had thought that the planets were held in place by an invisible shield. Newton proved that they were held in place by the sun’s gravity and that the force of gravity was affected by distance and mass. While he was not the first person to understand that the orbit of a planet was elongated like an oval, he was the first to explain how it worked.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was an English mathematician and physicist widely regarded as the single most important figure in the Scientific Revolution for his three laws of motion and universal law of gravity. Newton's laws became a fundamental foundation of physics, while his discovery that white light is made up of a rainbow of colours revolutionised the field of optics.
Isaac Newton was born on 25 December 1642. His family in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, was of the yeomanry class, but it was clear that Isaac was destined for a career other than farming. Isaac's father died a few months before he was born, and his stepfather, a minister, died when he was 14. His mother was Hannah Ayscough, and her second husband insisted that Isaac be separated from his mother for a number of years. Some historians have read into this period of neglect the cause of Newton's notoriously prickly character and hypersensitivity to criticism later in life.
The young Isaac had a prodigious interest in all things mechanical, and he made several working models of his own, but he did not do particularly well at school. He was mischievous and once sent out into the night sky a series of candle-lit lanterns, which startled the local villagers into thinking a shower of comets was about to strike them down. An uncle of Isaac was adamant he was sent to study law at Trinity College, Cambridge, in June 1661. It was not law, though, but mathematics at which the young scholar excelled.
Isaac supplemented his orthodox education by taking private lessons with the mathematician and theologian Isaac Barrow (1630-1677). Barrow would later recommend Newton for his own soon-to-be-vacant chair at Trinity College. Newton graduated in April 1665, but any hope of a quick career launch was scuppered when there was an outbreak of the Black Death plague . Isaac was obliged to return to the family home in Woolthorpe for a year or more.
Isaac did not waste his year of forced seclusion as he launched into a series of scientific investigations, so much so that he described 1665 to 1666 as his "year of wonder" (Burns, 217). Newton discovered "the binomial theory, the differential and integral calculus, and the refraction of light, and he began to work out the theory of universal gravitation" ( ibid ). Heady stuff. Newton was determined to use all manner of methodologies and thinking, from alchemy to mechanical philosophy , in order to find out scientific truths that can be expressed mathematically. To this end, he relentlessly squirrelled away kernels of ancient and contemporary knowledge, experimentation, and even lore in a few select and very private leather-bound volumes, thus preserving his findings for later consumption when his scientific theories became clearer. As Newton himself once stated in a private letter, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" (Wootton, 341).
Newton was also a Protestant Christian (although an unorthodox one in private) and saw no conflict in his endeavours to explain why things happened the way they do in the physical world with the story of the Bible . Indeed, the imperfections of the physical world his theories proved all required, Newton said, a Creator to adjust them every now and then. Some Christians saw this as denying the perfection of the Creator, others saw it as support for having a Creator in the first place. For Newton, space was "an eminent effect of God ," and "he seems to have gone so far as to later identify space with the immensity of God, so that the biblical pronouncements that 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being' (Acts 17:28) was taken quite literally" (Henry, 89).
Like many thinkers of the time, Newton was convinced that great knowledge had been gained and then lost over the centuries and so careful research of past intellectual endeavours was essential in order to recapture this lost wisdom (known as prisca sapientia ). This belief in a lost or secret knowledge – a peculiar eccentricity for a scientist – may also explain why Newton was notoriously reticent to publish his own discoveries. He seemed to relish secrecy, just as was the tradition of the great alchemists of the Middle Ages. Fortunately for the progress of humanity, Newton did eventually make his ground-breaking research public.
Newton did not find the esteemed Royal Society very receptive to his new ideas, particularly on optics, and so he got his foot in the door of that institution by designing a reflective telescope in 1668. This type of telescope used a curved mirror made of a tin and copper alloy, which improved the clarity of the image seen by reducing chromatic aberration, that is, when all colours fail to converge in a single point (a problem of glass lenses at the time). Newton's telescope had a magnification of 40 times and was ten times shorter than the standard refracting telescope of the same strength would have been. The Royal Society was hooked, and Newton was elected to that learned body in 1672; he then submitted his research on optics, which had, in fact, made his super-duper telescope possible.
Between 1666 and 1668, Newton had conducted optical experiments where he captured a narrow beam of light through an aperture, which was then projected onto a wall in a dark room. The light was made to shine through a prism. Others had done this sort of thing before, but, significantly, Newton put his prism near the hole and far from the wall on which was projected a block of rainbow colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Even more crucial – in what he called his experimentum crucis – Newton then had various colour beams of the split white light go through a second prism, and these left that second prism the same colour as they entered, i.e. they could not be split further. Newton was thus able to develop a new theory of light, which was that white light is made up of a spectrum of different colours, each with a different angle of refraction, just like a rainbow one could see in the sky after a shower of rain. In the rainbow in the sky, drops of water function as a prism, that is, the white light is refracted. Newton also discovered that in the tiny airspace between a lens and a sheet of glass, coloured concentric rings can be seen, and these are now called Newton's rings.
Newton's idea of heterogeneous light, published in Philosophical Transactions in 1672, went directly against the standard theory of the time, which was the inverse of Newton's. Champions of the standard theory included Robert Hooke (1635-1703), who dismissed Newton's theory and later even accused him of plagiarism (without foundation). Newton, who was "of somewhat paranoid temperament" (Burns, 73) and "socially dysfunctional" (Jardine, 36), promptly withdrew from the Royal Society and would not even accept its presidency until Hooke had departed this earth. In 1704, Newton finally published his work on light in detail in his Optics . It took some time for Newton's theory to become widely accepted, but it is now a cornerstone of the science of optics.
The German astronomer Johannes Kepler created the most accurate yet system of planetary astronomy, with the heavenly bodies moving in elliptical orbits around the Sun and not the traditional model of perfect circles as proposed by thinkers from Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100 to c. 170) to Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). The discovery that the planets increased their speed as they drew closer to the Sun was essential for Newton to build his own work upon. Newton's law of gravity would provide the cause for Kepler's keen observations of elliptical planetary motions. Encouraged, both with words and money, by his good friend Edmund Halley (1656-1742), Newton finally presented his theory of gravity in Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy ( Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ), published in 1687.
The effects of gravity have been known since antiquity. Ancient thinkers formed theories as to why objects fell to the ground, the most common being that this was because Earth was the very centre of the universe and so some mysterious force attracted all objects to the central point. Similarly, thinkers like Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) had pondered what kind of force was responsible for the Sun seemingly pulling orbiting planets more speedily to its centre the closer they got to it. Magnetism was often suggested as the answer, but many thinkers remained unconvinced.
An apple may not have actually fallen from a branch and hit Newton on the head, but it does seem that his observation of fruit falling set him pondering what force was involved and how to measure it. Newton had also noticed many other 'attractions' and 'repulsions' between many other objects and substances, and so he began to formulate a theory that could measure such phenomena and finally bring together (or at least reconcile) two ancient but often opposing strands of human thought: mechanics and mathematics.
In his Principia , Newton put forward his theory of universal gravitation, but first, he presented a system of mathematical laws, which became known as 'Newton's laws of motion', here summarised by W. E. Burns:
That there is an attractive force between bodies that varies with the inverse square of the distance between them – and Newton's three laws of motion – 1. a body at rest or in motion in a straight path will tend to stay in that state, 2. a change of motion in a body varies with the force impressed, and 3. each action has an equal and opposite reaction. (218)
Newton then presented his theory of gravity:
That between any two bodies in the universe there exists a force directly proportional to the product of the masses of the two bodies and inversely proportional to the square of their distance. (Burns, 245)
Newton's theory of gravity was universal because it applied to everything from spinning planets to the movement of comets to the tides of the sea to that apocryphal apple dropping from a tree. The law of gravity (actually called a 'law' by Newton only in his later Optics ) applied equally to terrestrial affairs and to the heavens. Newton could now make accurate predictions of the effects of gravity. This was a new science. Of course, not everyone immediately adopted Newton's theories. The mechanical philosophers and the Cartesian followers of René Descartes (1596-1650), for example, could not accept that one physical body can affect another body without something, a third element, touching the two. Put simply, gravity was rather mysterious, since nobody, not even Newton, knew where it came from, why it exists, and who or what ensures its persistence. Contemplation on this fact and the inference that these forces act without any consideration of humanity led in some ways to a disenchantment regarding a new and pitiless world, at least for those who did not believe that a god of some kind was behind it all.
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Newton's work on gravity was ultimately well received, particularly in England , and he was made a fellow of Trinity College in 1687. Two years later, Newton became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics there. A circle of devoted international followers sprang up around Newton, including the Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier (1664-1753), who became very close to him. From 1688, Newton became ambitious to forge a political career. The scientist had hoped to move to London but suffered a nervous breakdown in 1693, perhaps because of the end of his relationship with Fatio de Duillier but certainly made worse by his chronic insomnia and possibly even a consequence of mercury poisoning, a key ingredient of Newton's experiments in alchemy. Recovered by 1696, Newton was made the warden of the royal mint in the Tower of London , which carried with it both prestige and a handsome salary. Newton, taking a hands-on approach which had not been required for what was, in effect, an honorary position, impressed his employers so much that he was made the mint master in 1699. He performed the role with remarkable dedication for the next 28 years, much to the chagrin of the countless counterfeiters he identified (who were then invariably hanged).
It was also in 1699 that Newton was appointed a member of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, the first foreigner to gain entry. In 1703, he was elected President of the Royal Society, and he used his position to skew the society's endeavours much more towards practical experimentation (as opposed to merely reading the academic papers of others) throughout his tenure, which ended in 1727. Less admirable was his ongoing feud with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , which significantly held back mathematics in Britain . Newton accused Leibniz of plagiarising his work on the calculus (a mathematical tool for calculating curves and their areas). In reality, both men had developed the calculus independently, and although most historians consider Newton to have got there first, Leibniz's version was superior. Newton was knighted by Anne, Queen of Great Britain (r. 1702-1714) in 1705, probably more for his service in the royal mint than his tremendous contribution to science, but, nevertheless, it was a memorable moment for all scientists past and present since he was the first to be so honoured.
Newton was famous in his own lifetime for his discoveries, as we have seen with his various appointments to prestigious institutions at home and abroad. Rather oddly for a man so associated with science, Newton spent his final years studying biblical prophecies, an area he believed was just as valid as scientific experimentation. Sir Isaac Newton died of kidney failure on 20 March 1727; he was 84 years old. He had never married and left no children. Newton was given a state funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey. Alexander Pope provided the memorable epitaph:
Nature and Nature's Laws lay hid by Night: GOD said, Let Newton be! And all was Light. (Wootton, 361)
Newton, in one of those statements he frequently made where one wonders if he is being genuinely modest, remarked upon his career and discoveries in the following terms:
I don't know what I may seem to the world but, as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. (Gleick, 4)
There would be many more breakthroughs in science after Newton, but nothing as revolutionary as his work until the development in the 20th century of relativity and quantum physics.
There developed a definite movement, known as Newtonianism, which pushed the idea that scientific knowledge should be presented as a series of mathematical laws which could predict tendencies of motion in relation to hypothetical accelerative forces. In addition, because Newton's research was so complex and inaccessible to the majority, a great number of writers sprang up who simplified Newton's work so that it could be understood by the reasonably well-educated. Newtonianism gradually spread across Europe to become the dominant approach in universities and amongst intellectuals. Newton's approach to knowledge, spread to new minds by such thinkers as Voltaire (1694-1778) in his Elements of Newton's Philosophy (1738), was an important part of the Enlightenment movement, where the improvement of the human condition became the ultimate goal of philosophy and science, despite Newton having split those two disciplines apart forever. Even that great modern genius Albert Einstein (1879-1955), with his new theory of relativity, could not overthrow Newtonianism but only extend it to new and bold horizons. As Einstein once said of Newton: "He stands before us strong, certain, and alone" (Gleick, 9).
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A short history of Sir Isaac Newton, the mathematician and physicist that helped invent and explain some of the most fundamental laws of science.
Bibliography.
Sir Isaac Newton contributed significantly to the field of science over his lifetime. He invented calculus and provided a clear understanding of optics. But his most significant work had to do with forces, and specifically with the development of a universal law of gravitation and his laws of motion .
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day to a poor farming family in Woolsthorpe, England, in 1642. At the time of Newton's birth England used the Julian calendar, however, when England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, his birthday became 4th January 1643.
Isaac Newton arrived in the world only a few months after his father, Isaac Newton Sr, had died. "The boy expected to live managing the farm in the place of the father he had never known," wrote James Gleick in "Isaac Newton" ( Vintage, 2004 ).
However, when it became clear a farming life was not for him, Newton attended Trinity College in Cambridge, England. "He did not know what he wanted to be or do, but it was not tend sheep or follow the plough and the dung cart," wrote Gleick. While there, he took an interest in mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy .
After his graduation, he began to teach at the college and was appointed as the second Lucasian Chair there. Today, the chair is considered the most renowned academic chair in the world, held by the likes of Charles Babbage and Stephen Hawking .
In 1689, Newton was elected as a member of parliament for the university. In 1703, he was elected as president of the Royal Society, a fellowship of scientists that still exists today. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705. He never married.
Newton's most famous work came with the publication of his " Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica " ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), generally called Principia. In it, he determined the three laws of motion for the universe .
Newton's first law describes how objects move at the same velocity unless an outside force acts upon them. (A force is something that causes or changes motion.) Thus, an object sitting on a table remains on the table until a force — the push of a hand, or gravity — acts upon it. Similarly, an object travels at the same speed unless it interacts with another force, such as friction.
His second law of motion provided a calculation for how forces interact. The law states that a force is equal to the change in the momentum (mass multiplied by velocity) per change in time. Therefore, when more force is applied to an object, its acceleration also increases, but when the mass of the object increases and the force remains constant, its acceleration decreases.
Newton's third law states that for every action in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If one body applies a force on a second, then the second body exerts a force of the same strength on the first, in the opposite direction.
From all of this, Newton calculated the universal law of gravitation. He found that as two bodies move farther away from one another, the gravitational attraction between them decreases by the inverse of the square of the distance. Thus, if the objects are twice as far apart, the gravitational force is only a fourth as strong; if they are three times as far apart, it is only a ninth of its previous power.
These laws helped scientists understand more about the motions of planets in the solar system , and of the moon around Earth.
Related: What makes Newton's laws work? Here's the simple trick.
A popular myth tells of an apple falling from a tree in Newton's garden, which brought Newton to an understanding of forces, particularly gravity. Whether the incident actually happened is unknown, but historians doubt the event — if it occurred — was the driving force in Newton's thought process.
The myth tells of Isaac Newton having returned to his family farm in Woolsthorpe, escaping Cambridge for a short time as it was dealing with a plague outbreak. As he sat in the farm's orchard, an apple fell from one of the trees (in some tellings it hit Newton on the head). Watching this happen, Newton began to consider the forces that meant the apple always fell directly towards the ground, beginning his examination of gravity.
One of the reasons that this story gained a foothold in popular understanding is that it is an anecdote Newton himself seems to have shared. "Toward the end of his life, Newton told the apple anecdote around four times, although it only became well known in the nineteenth century," wrote Patricia Fara, a historian of science at the University of Cambridge, in a chapter of " Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science " (Harvard University Press, 2020).
However, it would be at least 20 years before Newton published his theories on gravity. It seems more likely that Newton used the story as a means of connecting the concept of gravity's impact on objects on Earth with its impact on objects in space for his contemporary audience.
The apple tree in question — known as the "Flower of Kent" — still blooms in the orchard of Woolsthorpe Manor, and is now a popular tourist attraction.
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While a student, Newton was forced to take a two-year hiatus when plague closed Trinity College. At home, he continued to work with optics, using a prism to separate white light, and became the first person to argue that white light was a mixture of many types of rays, rather than a single entity. He continued working with light and color over the next few years and published his findings in " Opticks " in 1704.
Disturbed by the problems with telescopes at the time, he invented the reflecting telescope, grinding the mirror and building the tube himself. Relying on a mirror rather than lenses, the telescope presented a sharper image than refracting telescopes at the time. Modern techniques have reduced the problems caused by lenses, but large telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope use mirrors.
As a student, Newton studied the most advanced mathematical texts of his time. While on hiatus, he continued to study mathematics, laying the ground for differential and integral calculus. He united many techniques that had previously been considered separately, such as finding areas, tangents, and the lengths of curves. He wrote De Methodis Serierum et Fluxionum in 1671 but was unable to find a publisher.
Newton also established a cohesive scientific method, to be used across disciplines. Previous explorations of science varied depending on the field. Newton established a set format for experimentation still used today.
However, not all of Newton's ideas were quite as revolutionary. In P rincipia, Newton describes how rarefied vapor from comet tails is pulled into Earth's gravitational grasp and enables the movements of the planet's fluids along with the "most subtle and useful part of our air, and so much required to sustain the life of all things with us."
"Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles magis amica verita."
(Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.)
—Written in the margin of a notebook while a student at Cambridge. In Richard S. Westfall, Never at Rest (1980), 89.
"Genius is patience."
—The Homiletic Review, Vol. 83-84 (1922), Vol. 84, 290.
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
—Letter to Robert Hooke (5 Feb 1675-6).In H. W. Turnbull (ed.), The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, 1, 1661-1675 (1959), Vol. 1, 416.
"I see I have made my self a slave to Philosophy."
—Letter to Henry Oldenburg (18 Nov 1676). In H. W. Turnbull (ed.), The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, 1676-1687 (1960), Vol. 2, 182.
"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
—First reported in Joseph Spence, Anecdotes, Observations and Characters, of Books and Men (1820), Vol. 1 of 1966 edn, sect. 1259, p. 462
"To any action there is always an opposite and equal reaction; in other words, the actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and always opposite in direction."
— The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)
"Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things."
—'Fragments from a Treatise on Revelation". In Frank E. Manuel, The Religion of Isaac Newton (1974), 120.
Newton died in 1727 during his sleep at the age of 84. Although the cause of death is unknown, a 1979 study published by Newton's own Royal Society suggests mercury poisoning may have contributed to the decline of his physical and mental health. During the exhumation of his body, large amounts of mercury were found in the scientist's system, likely due to his work with alchemy. Newton conducted several experiments to convert base metals, such as mercury and copper into precious metals, such as gold and silver.
"In 1693 Newton suffered from insomnia and poor digestion; and he also wrote irrational letters to friends. Although most scholars have attributed Newton's breakdown to psychological factors, it is possible that mercury poisoning may have been the principal cause," wrote L. W. Johnson and M. L. Wolbarsht " Mercury Poisoning: A probable cause of Isaac Newton's physical and mental ills: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London Vol. 34. No. 1. " .
After his death, his body was moved to a more prominent place in Westminster Abbey. His white and grey marble monument stands in the nave of the Abbey's choir screen and boasts sculptures of Newton lounging surrounded by children using the many instruments, such as telescopes, associated with Newton's work. The inscription on the monument — originally written in Latin — reads:
" Here is buried Isaac Newton, Knight, who by a strength of mind almost divine, and mathematical principles peculiarly his own, explored the course and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, the tides of the sea, the dissimilarities in rays of light, and, what no other scholar has previously imagined, the properties of the colours thus produced. Diligent, sagacious and faithful, in his expositions of nature, antiquity and the holy Scriptures, he vindicated by his philosophy the majesty of God mighty and good, and expressed the simplicity of the Gospel in his manners. Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great an ornament of the human race! He was born on 25th December 1642, and died on 20th March 1726. " The date of his death on his monument is given in the Julian calendar.
If you want to learn more about the impact of this celebrated scientist, then you should read about how Isaac Newton Changed the World . If you're wondering whether Newton's second law of motion works in space then an Astronaut has tested the theory out.
"Isaac Newton" by James Gleick (Vintage, 2004 )
" Mercury Poisoning: A probable cause of Isaac Newton's physical and mental ills: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London Vol. 34. No. 1. " by L. W. Johnson and M. L. Wolbarsht (July 1979)
" The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy " by Isaac Newton (Flame Tree Collections, 2020)
" Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science " edited by Ronald L. Numbers and Kostas Kampourakis (Harvard University Press, 2020)
" Life After Gravity: Isaac Newton's London Career " by Patricia Fara (Oxford University Press, 2021)
"Isaac Newton" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2007)
"Isaac Newton" University of St Andrews (2000)
"Sir Isaac Newton" Westminster Abbey (2023)
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Sir Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, in 1643, to a relatively poor farming family. His father died three months before he was born. His mother later remarried, but her second husband did not get on with Isaac; leading to friction between Isaac and his parents. The young Isaac attended school at King’s School, Grantham in Lincolnshire (where his signature is still inscribed on the walls.) Isaac was one of the top students, but before completing his studies his mother withdrew him from school, so Isaac could work as a farmer. It was only through the intervention of the headmaster that Isaac was able to return to finish his studies; he passed his final exams with very good results and was able to go to Trinity College, Cambridge.
Sir Isaac Newton, has been referred to as one of the greatest geniuses of history. His mathematical and scientific achievements give credence to such a view. His many accomplishments in the field of science include:
Developing a theory of calculus . Unfortunately, at the same time as Newton, calculus was being developed by Leibniz. When Leibniz published his results, there was a bitter feud between the two men, with Newton claiming plagiarism. This bitter feud lasted until Leibniz death in 1713, it also extended between British mathematicians and the continent.
The most popular anecdote about Sir Isaac Newton is the story of how the theory of gravitation came to him, after being hit on the head with a falling apple. In reality, Newton and his friends may have exaggerated this story. Nevertheless, it is quite likely that seeing apples fall from trees may have influenced his theories of gravity.
As well as being a scientist, Newton actually spent more time investigating religious issues. He read the Bible daily, believing it to be the word of God. Nevertheless, he was not satisfied with the Christian interpretations of the Bible. For example, he rejected the philosophy of the Holy Trinity; his beliefs were closer to the Christian beliefs in Arianism (basically there was a difference between Jesus Christ and God)
Newton was fascinated with the early Church and also the last chapter of the Bible Revelations. He spent many hours poring over the Bible, trying to find the secret Bible Code. He was rumoured to be a Rosicrucian. The religious beliefs that Newton held could have caused serious embarrassment at the time. Because of this, he kept his views hidden, almost to the point of obsession. This desire for secrecy seemed to be part of his nature. It was only on his death that his papers were opened up. The bishop who first opened Newton’s box, actually found them too shocking for public release, therefore, they were kept closed for many more years.
Newton was also interested in alchemy. He experimented on many objects, using a lot of Mercury. Very high levels of mercury in his bloodstream may have contributed to his early death and irregularities in later life.
Newton was made a member of the Royal Society in 1703. He was also given the job of Master of Mint in 1717. He took this job seriously and unofficially was responsible for moving England from the silver standard to the gold standard.
Newton was an extraordinary polymath; the universe simply fascinated him. He sought to discover the hidden and outer mysteries of life. With his sharp intellect and powers of concentration, he was able to contribute to tremendous developments in many areas of science. He was a unique individual. John Maynard Keynes , a twentieth-century genius, said of Newton:
“I do not think that any one who has pored over the contents of that box which he packed up when he finally left Cambridge in 1696 and which, though partly dispersed, have come down to us, can see him like that. Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago. Isaac Newton, a posthumous child born with no father on Christmas Day, 1642, was the last wonderchild to whom the Magi could do sincere and appropriate homage.” [1]
Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Sir Isaac Newton”, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net , 18th May. 2009. Last updated 28 Feb 2018.
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[1] Keynes on Newton the Man
Isaac Newton’s name is synonymous with the scientific revolution of the 17th century. Newton contributed significantly to the fields of mathematics , physics, and astronomy, and his discoveries continue to influence modern scientific research. If you’re interested in learning more about Newton’s life and work, there are many excellent books to choose from. In this article, we’ll explore some of the best Isaac Newton books to read.
Isaac Newton is widely considered one of the most influential scientists in history. His contributions to science and mathematics have had a profound impact on our understanding of the world around us. In this article, we will explore some of Newton’s most significant contributions and their practical applications.
One of Newton’s most significant contributions to science is his three laws of motion. These laws explain the relationship between an object’s motion and the forces acting on it. The first law states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. The second law states that the force acting on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. The third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Newton’s laws of motion have practical applications in many fields, from engineering to sports. For example, engineers use these laws to design cars, airplanes, and bridges that are safe and efficient. Athletes use them to improve their performance in sports such as gymnastics, diving, and figure skating.
If you want to learn more about Newton’s laws of motion, we recommend reading “Newton’s Laws of Motion” by Subodh Mahanti. This book offers a thorough, accessible explanation of Newton’s work and features many helpful illustrations and diagrams.
Another of Newton’s most famous contributions is the universal law of gravitation. This law states that every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a force proportional to their masses and the distance between them. In other words, the greater the mass of an object, the greater its gravitational pull, and the farther apart two objects are, the weaker their gravitational attraction.
The universal law of gravitation has had a profound impact on our understanding of the universe. It has helped us explain phenomena such as the orbits of planets around the sun, the tides, and the behavior of black holes.
If you want to learn more about Newton’s work in gravity, we recommend reading “ Newton and the Counterfeiter ” by Thomas Levenson. This book delves into the story of Newton’s quest to root out counterfeiters while exploring his groundbreaking work in gravity. It is a fast-paced, engaging read that weaves together intellectual history and true crime .
Calculus is another area in which Newton made crucial contributions. He invented calculus simultaneously with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and the two are generally credited with its creation. Calculus is a branch of mathematics that deals with rates of change and slopes of curves.
Calculus has practical applications in many fields, from physics to economics. For example, physicists use calculus to study the motion of objects, while economists use it to study the behavior of markets and economies.
If you want to learn more about calculus, we recommend reading “ Calculus Made Easy ” by Silvanus P. Thompson. This book teaches the basics of calculus without getting bogged down in excessive mathematical jargon. It is written in accessible language and features many helpful examples and exercises.
In conclusion, Isaac Newton’s contributions to science and mathematics have had a profound impact on our understanding of the world around us. His laws of motion, universal law of gravitation, and work in calculus continue to be studied and applied today.
Isaac Newton is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists in history. His contributions to the fields of physics and mathematics are still studied and admired today. In this article, we will take a closer look at three of his most significant works.
“ Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ,” often referred to simply as the “Principia,” is Newton’s masterpiece and one of the most significant works in the history of science. In it, he lays out his laws of motion and theory of gravity. For readers interested in engaging directly with Newton’s work, the “Principia” is an obvious choice. In “ The Principia: The Authoritative Translation and Guide ” by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman, readers can explore the “Principia” with the help of a modern translation and extensive annotations.
The “Principia” is not only a scientific work but also a philosophical one. Newton’s ideas about the nature of the universe and the role of mathematics in understanding it were groundbreaking. His laws of motion and theory of gravity revolutionized the way scientists understood the physical world and laid the foundation for modern physics.
Newton’s work on optics also made significant contributions to the field of physics. In “ Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light ,” Newton explores the properties of light and offers a scientific explanation for many optical phenomena. The book is fascinating both for its historical significance and for the beauty of its prose.
One of the most interesting aspects of “Opticks” is Newton’s experiments with prisms. He discovered that white light is actually made up of different colors and that each color has a different wavelength. This discovery led to the development of the modern theory of color and the understanding of how light interacts with matter.
Although less well-known than his work in math and physics, Newton also made contributions to the field of history. In “ The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended ,” Newton argues that the timeline of ancient history needs to be revised based on new astronomical observations. The book is a fascinating glimpse into a lesser-known area of Newton’s intellectual pursuits.
Newton’s approach to history was heavily influenced by his scientific background. He believed that historical events could be understood and explained through careful observation and analysis, just like scientific phenomena. His work on the chronology of ancient kingdoms challenged traditional views of history and paved the way for a more scientific approach to the study of the past.
Overall, Isaac Newton’s contributions to science and mathematics are immeasurable. His work laid the foundation for modern physics and helped shape our understanding of the universe. His legacy continues to inspire scientists and scholars today.
Isaac Newton is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists in history. His groundbreaking work in mathematics, physics, and astronomy laid the foundation for modern science. His discoveries and theories revolutionized the way we understand the natural world. Given his immense impact, it’s no surprise that many biographies and histories have been written about his life and work. Here are a few notable examples:
For readers looking for a comprehensive biography of Newton’s life and work, “ The Life of Isaac Newton ” by Richard S. Westfall is an excellent choice. Westfall draws on extensive archival research to offer a detailed and nuanced portrait of Newton. The book covers Newton’s early life, his education, his scientific discoveries, and his later years. Westfall’s writing can be a bit dense at times, but it’s an essential read for anyone looking to understand Newton’s life and legacy in full.
One interesting aspect of Westfall’s biography is his focus on Newton’s religious beliefs. Newton was a deeply religious man, and his faith played a significant role in his scientific work. Westfall explores this aspect of Newton’s life in detail, shedding light on how his religious convictions influenced his scientific theories.
For a more accessible biography, “ Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer ” by Michael White offers a lively and engaging look at Newton’s life and times. White’s writing style is more conversational than Westfall’s, making the book an excellent choice for readers looking for a more casual read. Despite its accessibility, the book doesn’t skimp on detail. White covers all the major events in Newton’s life and provides plenty of context for his scientific discoveries.
One of the strengths of White’s biography is his focus on Newton’s personality. He humanizes Newton, bringing the historical figure to life. White explores Newton’s relationships with his family, his colleagues, and his rivals, painting a vivid picture of the man behind the science.
Another option for a biography is “Newton: A Life of Discovery” by Peter Ackroyd. This book, like White’s, offers a more accessible and engaging portrait of Newton. Ackroyd takes a slightly more literary approach, emphasizing the drama and conflict inherent in Newton’s story. The result is a compelling and accessible read.
Ackroyd’s biography covers all the major events in Newton’s life, but he also spends time exploring the broader historical context. He examines the political and social upheaval of the time, showing how Newton’s work was influenced by the larger world around him.
Overall, these biographies offer a fascinating look at one of history’s most brilliant minds. Whether you’re a casual reader or a serious scholar, there’s something here for everyone.
Newton’s alchemical pursuits.
Newton was deeply interested in alchemy and spent many years pursuing it. In “ Newton and the Origin of Civilization ” by Jed Z. Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold, readers can explore Newton’s alchemical pursuits and their broader implications for his work in science and theology. The book is a dense, scholarly work, but it offers a unique and fascinating look at a lesser-known aspect of Newton’s life.
Newton was also deeply interested in theology and spent many years studying and writing about religious texts. In “The Religion of Isaac Newton” by Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel, readers can learn about Newton’s views on religious matters and their relationship to his scientific work. The book is an accessible and engaging read that sheds light on an often-overlooked aspect of Newton’s life.
Finally, in “ Newton’s Philosophy of Nature: Selections from His Writings ,” readers can explore Newton’s unpublished work on biblical prophecies. The book offers a unique look at Newton’s views on religion and theology and their intersection with his work in science. It’s a dense but rewarding read for those interested in exploring Newton’s intellectual pursuits beyond his better-known work in math and physics.
Whether you’re a serious student of science, a casual reader, or just interested in learning more about Newton’s life and legacy, there’s an Isaac Newton book out there for you. The selections above are some of the best and most accessible options out there, offering a wealth of insight into one of the most important figures in the history of science.
Isaac Newton was one of the most important and influential scientists of all time. He lived during the 17th and 18th centuries and developed some of the core scientific values we use today. He is most famous for discovering gravity by watching an apple fall from a tree.
Opticks, Method of Fluxions, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, and A Compleat System of General Geography are just a handful of the books he has written.
Isaac Newton was making major scientific discoveries with almost no equipment or existing scientific principles to work with. He is a marker of patience, tactfulness, and determination.
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By: History.com Editors
Updated: October 16, 2023 | Original: March 10, 2015
Isaac Newton is best know for his theory about the law of gravity, but his “Principia Mathematica” (1686) with its three laws of motion greatly influenced the Enlightenment in Europe. Born in 1643 in Woolsthorpe, England, Sir Isaac Newton began developing his theories on light, calculus and celestial mechanics while on break from Cambridge University.
Years of research culminated with the 1687 publication of “Principia,” a landmark work that established the universal laws of motion and gravity. Newton’s second major book, “Opticks,” detailed his experiments to determine the properties of light. Also a student of Biblical history and alchemy, the famed scientist served as president of the Royal Society of London and master of England’s Royal Mint until his death in 1727.
Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The son of a farmer who died three months before he was born, Newton spent most of his early years with his maternal grandmother after his mother remarried. His education was interrupted by a failed attempt to turn him into a farmer, and he attended the King’s School in Grantham before enrolling at the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College in 1661.
Newton studied a classical curriculum at Cambridge, but he became fascinated by the works of modern philosophers such as René Descartes, even devoting a set of notes to his outside readings he titled “Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae” (“Certain Philosophical Questions”). When the Great Plague shuttered Cambridge in 1665, Newton returned home and began formulating his theories on calculus, light and color, his farm the setting for the supposed falling apple that inspired his work on gravity.
Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 and was elected a minor fellow. He constructed the first reflecting telescope in 1668, and the following year he received his Master of Arts degree and took over as Cambridge’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. Asked to give a demonstration of his telescope to the Royal Society of London in 1671, he was elected to the Royal Society the following year and published his notes on optics for his peers.
Through his experiments with refraction, Newton determined that white light was a composite of all the colors on the spectrum, and he asserted that light was composed of particles instead of waves. His methods drew sharp rebuke from established Society member Robert Hooke, who was unsparing again with Newton’s follow-up paper in 1675.
Known for his temperamental defense of his work, Newton engaged in heated correspondence with Hooke before suffering a nervous breakdown and withdrawing from the public eye in 1678. In the following years, he returned to his earlier studies on the forces governing gravity and dabbled in alchemy.
In 1684, English astronomer Edmund Halley paid a visit to the secluded Newton. Upon learning that Newton had mathematically worked out the elliptical paths of celestial bodies, Halley urged him to organize his notes.
The result was the 1687 publication of “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), which established the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravity. Newton’s three laws of motion state that (1) Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it; (2) Force equals mass times acceleration: F=MA and (3) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
“Principia” propelled Newton to stardom in intellectual circles, eventually earning universal acclaim as one of the most important works of modern science. His work was a foundational part of the European Enlightenment .
With his newfound influence, Newton opposed the attempts of King James II to reinstitute Catholic teachings at English Universities. King James II was replaced by his protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and Newton was elected to represent Cambridge in Parliament in 1689.
Newton moved to London permanently after being named warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, earning a promotion to master of the Mint three years later. Determined to prove his position wasn’t merely symbolic, Newton moved the pound sterling from the silver to the gold standard and sought to punish counterfeiters.
The death of Hooke in 1703 allowed Newton to take over as president of the Royal Society, and the following year he published his second major work, “Opticks.” Composed largely from his earlier notes on the subject, the book detailed Newton’s painstaking experiments with refraction and the color spectrum, closing with his ruminations on such matters as energy and electricity. In 1705, he was knighted by Queen Anne of England.
Around this time, the debate over Newton’s claims to originating the field of calculus exploded into a nasty dispute. Newton had developed his concept of “fluxions” (differentials) in the mid 1660s to account for celestial orbits, though there was no public record of his work.
In the meantime, German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz formulated his own mathematical theories and published them in 1684. As president of the Royal Society, Newton oversaw an investigation that ruled his work to be the founding basis of the field, but the debate continued even after Leibniz’s death in 1716. Researchers later concluded that both men likely arrived at their conclusions independent of one another.
Newton was also an ardent student of history and religious doctrines, and his writings on those subjects were compiled into multiple books that were published posthumously. Having never married, Newton spent his later years living with his niece at Cranbury Park near Winchester, England. He died in his sleep on March 31, 1727, and was buried in Westminster Abbey .
A giant even among the brilliant minds that drove the Scientific Revolution, Newton is remembered as a transformative scholar, inventor and writer. He eradicated any doubts about the heliocentric model of the universe by establishing celestial mechanics, his precise methodology giving birth to what is known as the scientific method. Although his theories of space-time and gravity eventually gave way to those of Albert Einstein , his work remains the bedrock on which modern physics was built.
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The books released include the biography of the former vice president titled venkaiah naidu – life in service, celebrating bharat – the mission and message of shri m venkaiah naidu as 13th vice president of india and mahaneta – life and journey of shri m venkaiah naidu..
Venkaiah Naidu, several other leaders and prominent personalities attended the event in Hyderabad.
Speaking on the occasion, Modi said he is happy that he got the opportunity to release the books and expressed confidence that the former Vice President's biography would inspire people. He further said thousands of party workers, including himself, got the opportunity to learn from Naidu.
"Tomorrow, 1st July, is Venkaiah Naidu's birthday. His life journey is completing 75 years. These 75 years have been of extraordinary achievements. These 75 years have been of amazing milestones. I am happy that today I have got the opportunity to release his biography as well as 2 more books. I believe that these books will inspire people and show them the right direction of national service. I have had the opportunity to work with Venkaiah Naidu for a very long time. When he was the national president of the party, when he was a senior cabinet colleague in the government when he was the Vice President of the country and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha," said the Prime Minister.
PM Modi further said that he was the only minister in India who worked for rural development during the time of Atal ji and worked with us as a senior colleague in the cabinet as the Urban Development Minister.
"It has been 50 years since the Emergency was imposed by Congress by tarnishing the prestige of the Constitution. Venkaiah ji was among those who fought against the Emergency and at that time Venkaiah ji was in jail for about 17 months. I consider him as my true comrade who was tested in the fire of Emergency. Power is not a means of happiness but a means of service and accomplishment of resolutions. Venkaiah ji proved this even when he got the opportunity to join Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji's government. Venkaiah ji knew that he would probably get any ministry he wished for, but he went ahead and said that it would be good if I was given the Rural Development Ministry. Naidu ji wanted to serve the villagers, poor and farmers. He was the only minister in India who worked for rural development during the time of Atal ji and worked with us as a senior colleague in the cabinet as the Urban Development Minister," he added.
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A brisk new biography by the National Book Award-winning historian Tiya Miles aims to restore the iconic freedom fighter to human scale.
By Jennifer Szalai
When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.
NIGHT FLYER: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People , by Tiya Miles
Harriet Tubman led such an eventful life — so filled with hardship, extreme peril and close calls — that even an atheist might find it hard to deny that her nine decades of survival on this Earth were nothing short of miraculous.
Tubman herself credited God with guiding her dangerous work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad during the 1850s; she made an estimated 13 trips below the Mason-Dixon line and spirited as many as 80 souls north, often all the way to Canada. Tubman’s own escape in 1849 was legendary. After a first attempt with her brothers, who were so frightened that they insisted on turning back to their enslaver’s estate near the Chesapeake Bay, an undaunted Tubman made the treacherous 90-mile journey from Maryland to Pennsylvania on her own.
“Where others saw shut doors and unscalable brick walls, she dreamed into being tunnels and ladders,” the historian Tiya Miles writes in “Night Flyer,” a short biography of Tubman that is the first in a new series, called Significations and edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., about notable Black figures. For decades after her death in 1913, Tubman’s extraordinary life was mostly relegated to books for children and young adults. Thorough, probing biographies by the historians Catherine Clinton and Kate Clifford Larson were published two decades ago. More recently, Tubman was the subject of a Hollywood biopic and “She Came to Slay,” an illustrated volume by the historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar, featuring a drawing of a pistol-toting Tubman on the cover.
Perhaps inevitably, all the pop-cultural attention has been double-edged, commemorating Tubman’s formidable accomplishments while also making it harder to discern who she actually was. Miles admits that before she started this project, Tubman “had become a stock figure in my imagination, a known hero in the cast of characters that we might call the abolitionist avengers.” Recognizing Tubman’s idiosyncrasies and physical ailments “resizes Tubman the cultural icon to human scale.”
Miles calls “Night Flyer” a “faith biography,” emphasizing Tubman’s spirituality along with her ecological awareness, expressed as a profound attentiveness to the natural world. Miles also draws on the life stories of “similar women,” such as the preachers Jarena Lee and Zilpha Elaw , to try to illuminate some of the more interior experiences that Tubman took care to keep hidden.
Such gaps in the historical record are familiar to Miles. Having written about Indigenous people and African Americans, including in the National Book Award-winning “All That She Carried,” she frequently faces what she has called “the conundrum of the archives.” Tubman did not read or write; she dictated her life story to “typically white, middle-class, antislavery women,” like her first biographer, Sarah Bradford. Although usually “well-meaning,” Tubman’s amanuenses sometimes “demeaned” her, casting her as an exotic, almost otherworldly figure.
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There are a number of haunting moments in the new biography Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar , written by critic and former Village Voice columnist Cynthia Carr. There’s the revelation that Peter Hujar, whose prolific and sensitive documentation of queer New York in the 1970s and ’80s includes a striking image of Darling on what became her deathbed, would die in that very same room 13 years later when the hospital floor was repurposed to care for those with HIV. Carr also reveals that Darling’s funeral was held in the same room of the Campbell Funeral Chapel on the Upper East Side as Judy Garland’s — a Hollywood connection Darling might have appreciated.
But perhaps most striking is a moment that comes early in the book. We learn that in the 1950s actress Christine Jorgensen , one of the most famous trans women of the 20th century, had moved into a house just a 30-minute walk from Darling’s childhood home in Massapequa Park, Long Island. “Candy would make her way over there, then walk back and forth in front of the house hoping to see Jorgensen appear,” Carr writes. “But she never did.”
Candy Darling would go on to appear in 10 films, most notably Andy Warhol’s 1971 Women in Revolt (directed by Paul Morrissey), as well as plays by Tennessee Williams, Jackie Curtis, and Tom Eyen. She was the subject of “Walk on the Wild Side” (1972), perhaps Lou Reed’s best-known song, and she inspired music and lyrics written by the Rolling Stones. She was photographed not only by Hujar, but also by the likes of Richard Avedon, Laura Rubin, and Francesco Scavullo, and she would be featured on the cover of After Dark magazine , in the pages of Esquire , Women’s Wear Daily , Photoplay , and multiple issues of Interview , among other publications. Despite her death in 1974 at the age of 29, due to lymphoma, her legacy has rippled across multiple generations, influencing artists ranging from Greer Lankton to Anohni to St. Vincent.
But the story that Carr brings to light of a young Darling is so palpable — ensconced in the brutal conformity of Long Island (birthplace of Levittown ), quietly hoping to encounter a trans foremother in person, perhaps seeking a bit of Jorgensen’s knowledge and experience in a world where most people refused to acknowledge the possibility of transgender existence, perhaps also hoping for a bit of her stardust (Jorgensen transmuted her extraordinarily public outing into a decades-long career as a performer, public speaker, and activist). But even without meeting her, Jorgensen must have offered some sense that Darling was not alone, that there was a precedent for her existence, and that one could achieve some measure of the fame she coveted.
Given the celebrity Darling did achieve, it’s notable that there hasn’t been a biography until now, 50 years after her passing. There is the 2009 documentary film Beautiful Darling , but it is littered throughout with both casual and vehement transphobia. The heavy influence on the film of Darling’s close friend and unreliable narrator Jeremiah Newton feels overbearing at times, though he does deserve credit for becoming the keeper of her physical archive and ashes when her mother, Theresa Slattery, sought to rid herself of them. He also went on to record countless interviews with people who knew Darling, creating an archive Carr acknowledges as crucial to her work on the book.
Darling herself, as Carr is careful to note, was an unreliable narrator whose obfuscations were widely acknowledged by those in her life, whether they be tall tales about how she’d spent an evening or fabrications about her upbringing. But the author emphasizes that Darling was not only in the position of having to craft her own existence but also of reckoning with the painful contradiction that, more often than not, her fame was attached to the public pigeonholing her as a drag queen or “transvestite,” and not as the woman she knew herself to be.
Unlike the documentary, Carr’s biography is extremely well-researched and deeply empathetic. Readers witness the relentless transphobia Darling faced, but also come to understand her fabulations and dissimulations as both coping mechanisms and a refusal to accept the limitations others tried to impose on her. With no home of her own at any point in her adulthood and largely without money, Darling’s existence was precarious, even as she walked into some of New York’s toniest parties on the arm of Warhol at the height of his fame.
That said, the fact that she was a lithe White woman who fit within the beauty standards of her time gave her entrée not available to many of her non-White trans contemporaries or those whose bodies don’t conform to entrenched and largely unattainable beauty standards. I don’t note this to critique Darling; she used what she had to survive. Instead I raise the point to critique a discriminatory society and, by extension, historical record. This book offers a rich and nuanced portrait of what it took to fly in the face of that society, and to do so with great style and flourish. It’s crucial to have full, compelling portraits of those who broke ground, proving that we can be both flawed and remarkable. And here we learn unquestionably that Darling was a remarkable woman.
Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr (2024) is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and is available online and through independent booksellers.
Alexis Clements is a writer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She recently started a podcast, The Answer is No, focused on artists sharing stories about challenging the conditions under which they are... More by Alexis Clements
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The superb quality of this book promises to give it a prominent place in the modern scholarly literature about Isaac Newton." David L. Heiserman, Science Books & Films "Although there have been other biographies of Newton in the past, this is the first one to be based on an extensive use of the manuscript sources. It is more than merely the ...
1 Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton by Richard S. Westfall. 2 A Portrait of Isaac Newton by Frank E. Manuel. 3 Newton and the Origins of Civilization by Jed Z. Buchwald & Mordechai Feingold. 4 Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton by Rob Iliffe. 5 Isaac Newton and Natural Philosophy by Niccolò Guicciardini.
Isaac Newton. Paperback - June 8, 2004. by James Gleick (Author) 4.3 748 ratings. See all formats and editions. Isaac Newton was born in a stone farmhouse in 1642, fatherless and unwanted by his mother. When he died in London in 1727 he was so renowned he was given a state funeral—an unheard-of honor for a subject whose achievements were in ...
4.16. 306 ratings29 reviews. This richly detailed 1981 biography captures both the personal life and the scientific career of Isaac Newton, presenting a fully rounded picture of Newton the man, the scientist, the philosopher, the theologian, and the public figure. Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres ...
Nature 'The first detailed biography of Newton written by a professional historian of science who, over the years, has mastered the prodigious literature, weighed it judiciously, and still manages to reveal new insights by delving into the mass of Newton's unpublished writings. Westfall has produced a work of major significance.'
Isaac Newton (born December 25, 1642 [January 4, 1643, New Style], Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England—died March 20 [March 31], 1727, London) was an English physicist and mathematician who was the culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. In optics, his discovery of the composition of white light integrated the phenomena of colours into the science of light and ...
This richly detailed 1981 biography captures both the personal life and the scientific career of Isaac Newton, presenting a fully rounded picture of Newton the man, the scientist, the philosopher, the theologian, and the public figure. Professor Westfall treats all aspects of Newton's career, but his account centres on a full description of Newton's achievements in science.
Sir Isaac Newton FRS (25 December 1642 - 20 March 1726/27) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author who was described in his time as a natural philosopher. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His pioneering book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical ...
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Isaac Newton was indisputably one of the greatest scientists in history. His achievements in mathematics and physics marked the culmination of the movement that brought modern science into being. Richard Westfall's biography captures in engaging detail both his private life and scientific career, presenting a complex picture of Newton the man, and as scientist, philosopher, theologian ...
Isaac Newton has 761 books on Goodreads with 42512 ratings. Isaac Newton's most popular book is The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philos...
Isaac Newton: The True And Surprising Story Of The Life Of Sir Isaac Newton (History Books) Tom King. ... Great biography of a great British scientist. Read more. Report. Marcos Okida. 5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente! Reviewed in Brazil on April 15, 2019. Verified Purchase. Livro curto e conciso! Passa por toda a vida do genial Isaac Newton e ...
Name: Isaac Newton. Birth Year: 1643. Birth date: January 4, 1643. Birth City: Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Birth Country: United Kingdom. Gender: Male. Best Known For: Isaac Newton was an ...
Biography of Isaac Newton, Mathematician and Scientist. Sir Isaac Newton (Jan. 4, 1643-March 31, 1727) was a superstar of physics, math, and astronomy even in his own time. He occupied the chair of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge in England, the same role later filled, centuries later, by Stephen Hawking.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was an English mathematician and physicist widely regarded as the single most important figure in the Scientific Revolution for his three laws of motion and universal law of gravity. Newton's laws became a fundamental foundation of physics, while his discovery that white light is made up of a rainbow of colours revolutionised the field of optics.
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day to a poor farming family in Woolsthorpe, England, in 1642. At the time of Newton's birth England used the Julian calendar, however, when England adopted the ...
Biography Sir Isaac Newton. Sir Issac Newton (1643- 1726) was an English mathematician, physicist and scientist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time, developing new laws of mechanics, gravity and laws of motion. His work Principia Mathematica ( 1687) laid the framework for the Scientific Revolution of the ...
The Life of Isaac Newton by Richard S. Westfall. For readers looking for a comprehensive biography of Newton's life and work, " The Life of Isaac Newton " by Richard S. Westfall is an excellent choice. Westfall draws on extensive archival research to offer a detailed and nuanced portrait of Newton. The book covers Newton's early life ...
Top Sir Isaac Newton titles. Page 1 of 4. The Principia: The Authoritative Translation and…. 421. The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Nat…. 73. The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended To whi…. 33. Newton's Revised History of Ancient Kingdoms.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1927) was an English mathematician and physicist who developed influential theories on light, calculus and celestial mechanics. Years of research culminated with the 1687 ...
Samuel Arbesman Author. K.J. Soze Author. John Derbyshire Author. Georgia Irby Author. C.A. Farlow Author. Andrew Zangwill Author. +8. 14 authors created a book list connected to Isaac Newton, and here are their favorite Isaac Newton books. Shepherd is reader supported.
Family suggests memorial contributions to ACC C.U.R. E. for Adrenal gland cancer research in Tom Kent Newton's memory. Friends may call at the FERFOLIA FUNERAL HOME 356 W. AURORA RD. (ST. RT. 82) SAGAMORE HILLS Where Funeral Services will be held Friday at 10:00AM. VISITATION THURSDAY FROM 3-8PM. Interment All Saints Cemetery. www ...
Listen to this episode from My Blog » Sami77Mcconnell on Spotify. Download EPUB Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge Paperback Library) by Richard S. Westfall on Audible Full Edition read EPUB Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge Paperback Library) by Richard S. Westfall is a great book to read and thats why I recommend reading or downloading ebook Never at ...
The books released include the biography of the former Vice President titled Venkaiah Naidu - Life in Service, Celebrating Bharat - The Mission and Message of Shri M Venkaiah Naidu as 13th ...
The Dark Side of Isaac Newton: A Modern Biography. by Nick Kollerstrom. Paperback. $2995. Pre-order Price Guarantee. FREE delivery Fri, Apr 19 on $35 of items shipped by Amazon. Or fastest delivery Thu, Apr 18. This title will be released on April 18, 2024. SIR ISAAC NEWTON: One of the Greatest Minds of All-Time.
A brisk new biography by the National Book Award-winning historian Tiya Miles aims to restore the iconic freedom fighter to human scale. Share full article Harriet Tubman, circa 1885.
Half a century after the Warhol film star's death, writer and critic Cynthia Carr brings Darling's life to light in an empathetic, well-researched new book. by Alexis Clements June 27, 2024 ...
Isaac Newton made some of the most impactful discoveries in the history of science and mathematics. I have reviewed other historical sources, and verified the material in this book it is an excellent way to introduce young students into the lives of individuals that have impacted the science, which is largely taken for granted today.
Now two books further scrutinize different aspects of the man. Samuel Graydon's "Einstein in Time and Space" is not an exhaustive biography. Instead it presents 99 vignettes, most of them ...