Newton's depiction of the color wheel in Opticks
Newton's law of cooling holds that the rate at which an object will change temperature is directly proportional to the temperature difference between it \((T_{obj})\) and its environment \((T_{env}):\)
\[\frac{dT_{obj}}{dt} = k (T_{env} - T_{obj}).\]
If the environment remains at constant temperature, this implies that \(T_{obj}\) will asymptotically approach \(T_{env}:\)
\[T_{obj} = T_{env} + \big(T_{obj}(0) - T_{env}\big) e^{-kt},\]
which can be shown using differential equations .
A thermometer reading \(80^\circ F\) is taken outside. Five minutes later the thermometer reads \(60^\circ F\). After another 5 minutes it reads \(50^\circ F\).
What is the temperature outside \((\)in \(^\circ F)?\)
Assume that this process follows Newton's law of cooling.
In addition to his lasting scientific discoveries, Newton also investigated alchemy, the study of turning one element into another. While the techniques that Newton investigated led nowhere, alchemy was in a sense rediscovered in the form of nuclear physics. It is now strictly possible to turn lead into gold using a particle accelerator. However, at an estimated quadrillion dollars per ounce, it would be a poor financial choice [5] .
Newton was devoutly religious and would frequently study the Bible, attempting to make predictions based on its contents. He once wrote that the world would end no sooner than the year 2060 based on the Book of John [6] .
[1] Westfall, Richard. Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton. p. 143. 1983.
[2] Newton's Generalization of the Binomial Theorem . Retrieved from http://www.wwu.edu/teachingmathhistory/docs/psfile/newton1-student.pdf on February 22, 2016.
[3] Connor, Steve. The Core of Truth Behind Sir Newton's Apple. The Independent. January 17, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-core-of-truth-behind-sir-isaac-newtons-apple-1870915.html on February 22, 2016.
[4] Leibniz's Philosophy of Physics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Published December 17. 2007. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-physics/ on February 22, 2016.
[5] Matson, John. Fact Or Fiction?: Lead Can Be Turned Into Gold. Scientific American. January 31, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-lead-can-be-turned-into-gold/ on February 22, 2016.
[6] Newton, Sir Isaac. Sir Isaac Newton's Daniel and the Apocalypse. 1733. Retrieved from http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/sir-isaac-newtons-daniel-and-the-apocalypse-1733/ on February 22, 2016.
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Isaac Newton Biography
Isaac Netwon is synonymous with apples and gravity. He rose to become the most influential scientist of the 17th century, his ideas becoming the foundation of modern physics, after very humble beginnings. But first, the big question: Did an apple really fall on Newton's head and spur him to figure out gravity? Historians say there is likely no more than a grain of truth to the story.
Sir Isaac Newton was born, premature and tiny, in 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England. His father, wealthy but uneducated, died before Newton was born, and he ended up being raised by his grandmother after his mother remarried. It’s said he didn’t excel at school, but he ended up studying law at Trinity College Cambridge, part of Cambridge University. He worked as a servant to pay his bills. And he kept a journal about his ideas.
What got Newton interested in math? He bought a book on the subject and couldn't comprehend it. After getting his bachelor's degree in 1665; he studied math, physics, optics and astronomy on his own (Cambridge was closed for a couple of years due to the plague known as the Black Death). By 1666 he had completed his early work on his three laws of motion . Later he got his master's degree.
Later work focused on the diffraction of light (he used a prism to discover that white light is made of a spectrum of colors ) and the concepts he'd become known for: universal gravitation, centrifugal force, centripetal force, and the effects and characteristics of bodies in motion. His laws are still used by physics students today:
- An object will remain in a state of inertia unless acted upon by force.
- The relationship between acceleration and applied force is F=ma.
- For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Isaac Newton quotes
Newton said many things worth remembering, including these philosophical gems:
- "I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."
- "To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me."
Newton once said that if he had achieved anything in his research, it was "by standing on the shoulders of giants ." The quote was prophetic. A couple of centuries later, Albert Einstein puzzled over how to reconcile Newton's law of gravity with special relativity, which after several years led to Einstein's theory of general relativity .
Isaac Newton inventions
While he's best known for his work on gravity, Newton was a tinkerer, too, but more with ideas than physical inventions. He did invent reflecting lenses for telescopes, which produced clearer images in a smaller telescope compared with the refracting models of the time. In his later years, he developed anti-counterfeiting measures for coins, including the ridges you see on quarters today.
Among his biggest " inventions " was calculus. Yes, that's right. Mere math and algebra weren't enough to explain the ideas in his head, so he helped invent calculus (German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz is typically credited with developing it independently at about the same time).
It's said that Newton invented a cat door so his cats would stop scratching to get in, but the truth of that one is a bit sketchy.
He also conceived of an "orbital cannon" that would poke out of a huge mountain, up in space, and with just the right amount of gunpowder could put a cannonball into orbit. This was not something Newton actually imagined building, but rather a way to think about his theories.
Later years
Urged by astronomer Edmond Halley (who was studying his now-famous comet), Newton continued to study his notion of gravity and apply it to the motions of the Earth, sun and moon. It all led to his seminal work, published in 1687, called the "Principia" — considered by many as the greatest science book ever written.
Newton's research stopped in 1679 when he had a nervous breakdown. Later, recovered, he spoke out against King James II, who wanted only Roman Catholics to be in powerful government and academic positions. When James was later driven out of England, Newton was elected to Parliament. He had a second breakdown in 1693, then retired from research. Isaac Newton died in 1727.
Among his more eccentric pastimes, Newton also dabbled (or more than dabbled) in alchemy, also called chymistry, with some historians estimating that he wrote more than a million words of alchemical notes, according to curator of rare books at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, James Voelkel.
And in March 2016, researchers announced they had found bought a 17th-century alchemy manuscript written by Newton . The manuscript, which had been hidden in a private collection for decades and turned up at an auction at Bonhams, provided the recipe for "philosophic" mercury, which was considered a step in the process for concocting a mysterious substance known the philosopher's stone; this material was thought to have supernatural powers — the ability to turn any metal into gold and to grant immortality. The manuscript will be available online for enthusiasts to explore.
Further reading
- Isaac Newton's Three Laws of Motion
- Inertia & Newton's First Law of Motion
- Force, Mass & Acceleration: Newton's Second Law of Motion
- Equal & Opposite Reactions: Newton's Third Law of Motion
- How Isaac Newton Changed the World
- What Is Gravity?
- What Is Einstein's Theory of Relativity?
- What Is Classical Mechanics?
- The Top 10 Inventions that Changed the World
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MacTutor
Isaac newton.
Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them.
... setting my heart on money, learning, and pleasure more than Thee ...
... changed his mind when he read that parallelograms upon the same base and between the same parallels are equal.
Thus Wallis doth it, but it may be done thus ...
[ Newton ] brought me the other day some papers, wherein he set down methods of calculating the dimensions of magnitudes like that of Mr Mercator concerning the hyperbola, but very general; as also of resolving equations; which I suppose will please you; and I shall send you them by the next.
... having no more acquaintance with him I did not think it becoming to urge him to communicate anything.
- investigations of the colours of thin sheets
- 'Newton's rings' and
- diffraction of light.
... that the Attraction always is in a duplicate proportion to the Distance from the Center Reciprocall ...
After his 1679 correspondence with Hooke , Newton, by his own account, found a proof that Kepler's areal law was a consequence of centripetal forces, and he also showed that if the orbital curve is an ellipse under the action of central forces then the radial dependence of the force is inverse square with the distance from the centre.
... asked Newton what orbit a body followed under an inverse square force, and Newton replied immediately that it would be an ellipse. However in 'De Motu..' he only gave a proof of the converse theorem that if the orbit is an ellipse the force is inverse square. The proof that inverse square forces imply conic section orbits is sketched in Cor. 1 to Prop. 13 in Book 1 of the second and third editions of the 'Principia', but not in the first edition.
... all matter attracts all other matter with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Be courageous and steady to the Laws and you cannot fail.
Newton was of the most fearful, cautious and suspicious temper that I ever knew.
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Additional Resources ( show )
Other pages about Isaac Newton:
- John Maynard Keynes' Newton the Man
- Newton's Arian beliefs
- Flamsteed v Newton
- Charles Bossut on Leibniz and Newton
- Newton's Principia Preface
- John Collins meets Isaac Newton
- Julian and Gregorian calendars
- Newton-Raphson method
- Woolsthorpe Manor
- The title page of Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica ( The Principia 1687)
- The title page of Analysis per quantitatum series fluxiones (1711)
- Isaac Newton by his contemporaries
- Multiple entries in The Mathematical Gazetteer of the British Isles ,
- Astronomy: The Reaches of the Milky Way
- Astronomy: The Dynamics of the Solar System
- Henry Taylor on Isaac Newton
- Miller's postage stamps
- Heinz Klaus Strick biography
Other websites about Isaac Newton:
- Dictionary of Scientific Biography
- Dictionary of National Biography
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Newton Project ( UK )
- The Galileo Project
- G Don Allen
- Sci Hi blog
- A Google doodle
- Kevin Brown ( More about Newton's birthday )
- Mathematical Genealogy Project
- MathSciNet Author profile
Honours ( show )
Honours awarded to Isaac Newton
- Lucasian Professor 1669
- Fellow of the Royal Society 1672
- President of the Royal Society 1703 - 1727
- Lunar features Crater Newton
- Paris street names Rue Newton (16 th Arrondissement )
- Popular biographies list Number 3
- Google doodle 2010
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Sir Isaac Newton biography: Inventions, laws and quotes
A short history of Sir Isaac Newton, the mathematician and physicist that helped invent and explain some of the most fundamental laws of science.
Isaac Newton's early life
Isaac Newton's apple
- Inventions and discoveries
Additional resources
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.
What are Isaac Newton's laws of motion?
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.
Isaac Newton's inventions and discoveries
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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."
Isaac Newton quotes
"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.
How did Sir Isaac Newton die?
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
Apart from discovering the cause of the fall of an apple from a tree, that is, the laws of gravity, Sir Isaac Newton was perhaps one of the most brilliant and greatest physicists of all time. He shaped dramatic and surprising discoveries in the laws of physics that we believe our universe obeys, and hence it changed the way we appreciate and relate to the world around us.
Table of Contents
About sir isaac newton, sir isaac newton’s education, awards and achievements, some achievements of isaac newton in brief.
- Universal Law of Gravitation
Optics and Light
Sir Isaac Newton was born on 4th January 1643 in a small village of England called Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth. He was an English physicist and mathematician, and one of the important thinkers in the Scientific Revolution.
He discovered the phenomenon of white light integrated with colours which further laid the foundation of modern physical optics. His famous three laws of Motion in mechanics and the formulation of the laws of gravitation completely changed the track of physics across the globe. He was the originator of calculus in mathematics. A scientist like him is considered an excellent gift by nature to the world of physics.
Isaac Newton studied at the Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1661. At 22 in 1665, a year after beginning his four-year scholarship, Newton finished his first significant discovery in mathematics, where he revealed the generalized binomial theorem. He was bestowed with his B.A. degree in the same year.
Isaac Newton held numerous positions throughout his life. In 1671, he was invited to join the Royal Society of London after developing a new and enhanced version of the reflecting telescope.
He was later elected President of the Royal Society (1703). Sir Isaac Newton ran for a seat in Parliament in 1689. He won the election and became a Member of Parliament for Cambridge University. He was also appointed as a Warden of the Mint in 1969. Due to his exemplary work and dedication to the mint, he was chosen Master of the Mint in 1700. After being knighted in 1705, he was known as “Sir Isaac Newton.”
His mind was ablaze with original ideas. He made significant progress in three distinct fields – with some of the most profound discoveries in:
- Calculus, the mathematics of change, which is vital to our understanding of the world around us
- Optics and the behaviour of light
- He also built the first working reflecting telescope
- He showed that Kepler’s laws of planetary motion are exceptional cases of Newton’s universal gravitation.
Sir Isaac Newton’s Contribution in Calculus
Sir Isaac Newton was the first individual to develop calculus. Modern physics and physical chemistry are almost impossible without calculus, as it is the mathematics of change.
The idea of differentiating calculus into differential calculus, integral calculus and differential equations came from Newton’s fertile mind. Today, most mathematicians give equal credit to Newton and Leibniz for calculus’s discovery.
Law of Universal Gravitation
The famous apple that he saw falling from a tree led him to discover the force of gravitation and its laws. Ultimately, he realised that the pressure causing the apple’s fall is responsible for the moon to orbit the earth, as well as comets and other planets to revolve around the sun. The force can be felt throughout the universe. Hence, Newton called it the Universal Law of Gravitation .
Newton discovered the equation that allows us to compute the force of gravity between two objects.
Newton’s Laws of Motion
- First law of Motion
- Second Law of Motion
- Third law of Motion
Watch the video and learn about the history of the concept of Gravitation
Sir Isaac Newton also accomplished himself in experimental methods and working with equipment. He built the world’s first reflecting telescope . This telescope focuses all the light from a curved mirror. Here are some advantages of reflecting telescopes from optics and light –
- They are inexpensive to make.
- They are easier to make in large sizes, gathering lighter, allowing advanced magnification.
- They don’t suffer focusing issues linked with lenses called chromatic aberration.
Isaac Newton also proved that white light is not a simple phenomenon with the help of a glass prism. He confirmed that it is made up of all of the colours of the rainbow, which could recombine to form white light again.
Watch the video and solve complete NCERT exercise questions in the chapter Gravitation
Frequently Asked Questions
How did newton discover gravity.
Seeing an apple fall from the tree made him think about the forces of nature.
What is Calculus in Mathematics?
Calculus is the study of differentiation and integration. Calculus explains the changes in values, on a small and large scale, related to any function.
Define Reflecting Telescope.
It’s a telescope invented by Newton that uses mirrors to collect and focus the light towards the eyepiece.
Name all the Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion.
Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion are:
- The Law of Ellipses
- The Law of Equal Areas
- The Law of Harmonies
Who discovered Gravity?
Watch the full summary of the chapter gravitation class 9.
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7 Fascinating Facts about Sir Isaac Newton
Today we celebrate Newton’s birthday as January 4th. Originally, according to the “old” Julien calendar, he was born on Christmas Day in 1642. No matter what the case, Newton lived an amazing life. Here are a few interesting tidbits about this important figure in the scientific revolution:
Newton’s life got off to a rough start
He never knew his father Isaac, who had died months before he was born. Newton’s own chances of survival seemed slim at the beginning. He was a premature and sickly infant that some thought would not live long. Newton was dealt another difficult blow when he was only three years old. His mother, Hannah, remarried, and his new stepfather, Reverend Barnabas Smith, wanted nothing to do with Isaac. The child was raised by his maternal grandmother for many years. The loss of his mother left Newton with a lingering insecurity that followed him the rest of life.
Newton was deeply religious from a young age
He felt compelled to jot down a list of his sins in one of his notebooks. Already a student at Trinity College at Cambridge University at the time, he divided these sins into acts that happened before and after Whitsunday 1662, or the seventh Sunday after Easter. Newton took even small lapses quite seriously, such as having unclean thoughts or using the Lord’s name. The list also showed a darker side of Newton, including him making threats to burn his mother and stepfather in their home.
Newton got a career boost from the Great Plague of 1665
He completed his bachelor’s degree at Cambridge University’s Trinity College in 1665 and wanted to continue his studies, but an epidemic of the bubonic plague soon altered his plans. The university closed its doors not long after the disease had begun its deadly sweep through London. During the first seven months of the outbreak, roughly 100,000 London residents had died.
Back at his family home, Woolsthorpe Manor, Newton actually began working on some of his most important theories. It was here that he explored ideas of planetary motion and made progress on his understanding of light and color. Newton may have also made advances in his theory about gravity by observing an apple fall from a tree in his garden.
Long before his breakthrough work was published, Newton was considered one of England’s leading thinkers
He was named the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge in 1669, taking over the post from his mentor Isaac Barrow. Later geniuses to hold this position included Charles Babbage (also known as “the father of computing”), Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking .
Newton got into several conflicts with other scientists and mathematicians
He and Robert Hooke , a scientist perhaps best known for his microscopic experiments, had a long-lasting grudge match. Hooke thought Newton’s theory of light was wrong and denounced the physicist’s work. The pair later clashed over planetary motion with Hooke claiming that Newton had taken some of his work and included it in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica .
Newton also argued with German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz over who discovered infinitesimal calculus first. Leibniz claimed that Newton had stolen his ideas. The Royal Society launched an investigation into the matter in 1712. With Newton as the president of the society since 1703, it was no surprise that the organization favored Newton in its findings. It was later determined that the two mathematicians had probably made their discoveries independent of each other.
In his later life, Newton enjoyed a political career
He was elected to Parliament as a representative for Cambridge in 1689 and returned to Parliament from 1701 to 1702. Newton was also active in the economic life of his country. In 1696, he was appointed Warden of the Royal Mint. Newton became the master of the mint three years later and actually changed the English pound from a sterling to gold standard.
Newton was given a send-off fit for a king
He was a famous and wealthy man at the time of his death in 1727, and he was mourned by the nation. His body lay in state in Westminister Abbey, and the Lord Chancellor was one of his pallbearers. Newton was laid to rest in the famed abbey, which also hosts the remains of such monarchs as Elizabeth I and Charles II . His elaborate tomb stands in the abbey’s nave and features a sculpture of reclining Newton with an arm resting on a stack of his great printed works. Other scientists, such as Charles Darwin , were later buried near Newton. The Latin inscription on the tomb praises him for possessing “a strength of mind almost, and mathematical principles peculiarly his own,” according to the official Westminister Abbey website.
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Biographies for Kids
Isaac newton.
- Occupation: Scientist, mathematician, and astronomer
- Born: January 4, 1643 in Woolsthorpe, England
- Best known for: Defining the three laws of motion and universal gravitation
- Gravity - Newton is probably most famous for discovering gravity. Outlined in the Principia, his theory about gravity helped to explain the movements of the planets and the Sun. This theory is known today as Newton's law of universal gravitation.
- Laws of Motion - Newton's laws of motion were three fundamental laws of physics that laid the foundation for classical mechanics.
- Calculus - Newton invented a whole new type of mathematics which he called "fluxions." Today we call this math calculus and it is an important type of math used in advanced engineering and science.
- Reflecting Telescope - In 1668 Newton invented the reflecting telescope . This type of telescope uses mirrors to reflect light and form an image. Nearly all of the major telescopes used in astronomy today are reflecting telescopes.
- He studied many classic philosophers and astronomers such as Aristotle, Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Rene Descartes, and Galileo.
- Legend has it that Newton got his inspiration for gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree on his farm.
- He wrote his thoughts down in the Principia at the urging of his friend (and famous astronomer) Edmond Halley. Halley even paid for the book's publication.
- He once said of his own work "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants."
- Listen to a recorded reading of this page:
COMMENTS
Isaac Newton (born December 25, 1642 [January 4, 1643, New Style], Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England—died March 20 [March 31], 1727, London) 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 laid the ...
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 ...
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 ...
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English mathematician and physicist who developed influential theories on light, calculus and celestial mechanics. Years of research culminated with the 1687 ...
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) ... Third is the contrast between the enormous range of subjects to which Newton devoted his full concentration at one time or another during the 60 years of his intellectual career — mathematics, optics, mechanics, astronomy, experimental chemistry, alchemy, and theology — and the remarkably little information we ...
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.
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.
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 ...
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was one of the world's most famous and influential thinkers. He founded the fields of classical mechanics, optics and calculus, among other contributions to algebra and thermodynamics. His concept of a universal law--one that applies everywhere and to all things--set the bar of ambition for physicists since. Newton held the position of Lucasian Professor of ...
But his biography is full of interesting inventions and other facts, plus quotes oft-recited today. ... Sir Isaac Newton was born, premature and tiny, in 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England. His father ...
Biography Isaac Newton's life can be divided into three quite distinct periods.The first is his boyhood days from 1643 up to his appointment to a chair in 1669.The second period from 1669 to 1687 was the highly productive period in which he was Lucasian professor at Cambridge. The third period (nearly as long as the other two combined) saw Newton as a highly paid government official in London ...
Isaac Newton quotes. "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 ...
Isaac Newton - Biography, Facts and Pictures. Isaac Newton. Lived 1643 to 1727. Isaac Newton is perhaps the greatest physicist who has ever lived. He and Albert Einstein are almost equally matched contenders for this title. Each of these great scientists produced dramatic and startling transformations in the physical laws we believe our ...
Newton died aged 84, and was buried with full honours in Westminster Abbey. As a celebrated natural philosopher, he was a new kind of national hero. Newton laid the foundations for our scientific age.
Newton worked out that if the force of gravity pulled the apple from the tree, then it was also possible for gravity to exert its pull on objects much, much further away. Newton's theory helped ...
Sir Isaac Newton at 46 in Godfrey Kneller's 1689 portrait.. The following article is part of a biography of Sir Isaac Newton, the English mathematician and scientist, author of the Principia.It portrays the years after Newton's birth in 1642, his education, as well as his early scientific contributions, before the writing of his main work, the Principia Mathematica, in 1685.
Isaac Newton - Scientist, Physics, Mathematics: Newton was elected to a fellowship in Trinity College in 1667, after the university reopened. Two years later, Isaac Barrow, Lucasian professor of mathematics, who had transmitted Newton's De Analysi to John Collins in London, resigned the chair to devote himself to divinity and recommended Newton to succeed him.
Sir Isaac Newton ran for a seat in Parliament in 1689. He won the election and became a Member of Parliament for Cambridge University. He was also appointed as a Warden of the Mint in 1969. Due to his exemplary work and dedication to the mint, he was chosen Master of the Mint in 1700. After being knighted in 1705, he was known as "Sir Isaac ...
He never knew his father Isaac, who had died months before he was born. Newton's own chances of survival seemed slim at the beginning. He was a premature and sickly infant that some thought ...
Born: January 4, 1643 in Woolsthorpe, England. Died: March 31, 1727 in London, England. Best known for: Defining the three laws of motion and universal gravitation. Isaac Newton by Godfrey Kneller. Biography: Isaac Newton is considered one of the most important scientists in history. Even Albert Einstein said that Isaac Newton was the smartest ...
Isaac Newton, Biography, Information, Sources -Dr Robert A. Hatch S I R I S A A C N E W T O N ... suggests that the concept of universal gravitation did not spring full-blown from Newton's head in 1666 but was nearly 20 years in gestation. Ironically, Robert Hooke helped give it life. In November 1679, Hooke initiated an exchange of letters