Isaac+Newton

=** Isaac Newton **= = Physicist. Mathematician. Astronomer. Natural philosopher. Alchemist. Theologian. =
 * Done by Clara Poa, Tay Wei Lin, Lye Han Jun, Amelia Lau and Siti Aisyah**

= Fortunate Newton, happy child of science. Nature to him was an open book, whose letters he could read without effort. – Albert Einstein =



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 prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. – Newton

**__ Foundation Years __**
=== Isaac Newton was prematurely born to Hannah Newton and Issac Newton Sr. on Christmas morning, 1642. For a long time he remained smaller than most children his age. At the age of 12 he entered King’s School at Grantham, where students received little instruction in arithmetic, implying that much of his mathematical knowledge was self-taught. In his youth he was observed to be a quiet child who was noted for his fascination with many things such as time, kites and the force of moving air and his dexterity in making wood models and strange inventions. In 1661 Newton departed for Cambridge’s Trinity College where he found his true calling in celestial phenomena. ===

**__ Calculus and the idea of gravity __**
=== Soon after his graduation from Trinity College bubonic plague hit the country and he was forced to return home until the university opened its doors again. This, however, did not distract him from his scientific studies. By this time, at age 23, he had already become the most advanced mathematician the world had yet known. In this period he completed many papers on fluxions – similar to modern-day calculus. With fluxions Newton could calculate the precise arc of a revolving planet or measure the exact rate in the slowing of a ball as it rolls to a stop across the ground. It was also during this period that he experienced the insight that would become the subject of legend. He was having a discussion with a friend while drinking tea under some apple trees when he chanced to witness an apple fall. With this observation, he developed the idea of how gravity works. ===

**__ The visible spectrum and the nature of light __**
=== Newton returned to Trinity when it opened, successfully attaining his Bachelor’s degree and becoming a Fellow of the college, which granted him permanent citizenship in the academic community. He was, however, against sharing his papers and refused to let them be circulated until he shot to fame through his discovery on the true nature of light. At that time the leading line of thought was a belief perpetuated by Aristotle, that all colours were a mixture of black and white. Newton experimented with two prisms in a darkened room at Woolsthorpe and came to the conclusion that white light is made up of all the colours of the spectrum. He then divided this spectrum into the seven colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. He also hypothesized that a light beam was made up of particles of different colours. These particles moved at difffering rates according to their colour and through this he attempted to explain the differing angles of refraction that resulted for each colour after the beam of white light had passed through the prism. ===

**__ Ether __**
=== Newton was also a very successful alchemist. He postulated on the existence of ether - a medium through which many forces acting on matter throughout the universe are generated. He attempted to explain reflection and diffusion through this medium, leaving thousands of handwritten pages on alchemy and a document titled the Chemical Index. His interest in alchemy was not about getting rich or prolonging his life – rather, he wanted to find out more about the behaviour of matter. Through this study of the smaller worlds of invisible matter he believed he could discover the true nature of and forces like gravity and magnetism. It was around this time that Isaac’s mother died and he inherited most of her property. He became a very reclusive professor because Cambridge students were not interested in natural philosophy. His lectures were often empty and he finally stopped giving them altogether. He forgot meals and when reminded about his dinner he would eat a bite or two standing up, in the true fashion of scientists absorbed in their work. He forewent sleep and seldom combed or cut his hair. He rarely left his room and lost track of time, to the extent where the dates on many papers recording his experiments do not match those of the calendar. He was made foreign associate of the French Academy of Science. He became master of the mint on Christmas at age of 57. He became what would be equivalent to a millionaire today. In December 1701 he gave up his professorship. He spent a brief period in politics as a member of Parliament under William III. He was elected to govern the Royal Society and under his effective leadership he was able to restore its tarnished reputation almost single-handedly. He even managed to turn the Society into an international enterprise. Foreign membership more than doubled during the period of his presidency. In 1705, he became the first scientist ever to be knighted. ===

**__ Science and religion __**
=== Isaac Newton was a strong puritan and saw Scripture as a moral guide and a means of determining the future. He saw no conflict between science and religion and believed that the world could not operate without God being present. Indeed, he believed that without the Creator’s periodic intervention the universe would eventually run down, only to collapse and explode as the planets, comets, and stars rush together as part of the apocolypse foretold in prophecy. However, there is an irony in this as generations later his discovery of mechanical laws established the framework of a universe in which God was no longer a necessary part. However, the concept of the Trinity was heresy to Newton. The Trinitarian doctrine held that three divine figures were united in one. Newton rejected this idea on the grounds that the worship of three figures in one violated the First Commandment, which states that there shall be only one God, the Creator of the universe. ===

**__ The End __**
=== Newton was taken seriously ill at 79 with kidney stones. Even in extreme pain he never complained or showed the least signs of peevishness. He refused the final rites of the church, the last act of a man who for more than half a century, had secretly viewed the concept of the Trinity with horror. Eventually he slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness, finally passing away in the early morning of March 20, 1727. He was 84. ===

= =

**__ Significance of Contributions __**
=== Newton’s major discoveries are the universal law of gravitation, his three laws of motion, development of calculus and his work on optics. Newton developed his law of universal gravitation in 1666. He introduced gravitation as the force that kept the Earth and planets moving through the heavens, as well as keeping the air from flying away. __This allowed scientists to promptly construct a plausible heliocentric model for the solar system.__ The law of universal gravitation states that gravity is strongest between two very massive objects, and gets much weaker as these objects get further apart. Newton formulated his three laws of motion. The first law, also known as law of inertia, states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. __This aided Albert Einstein in the formulation of his Theory of Relativity later on.__ The second law states that velocity of an object changes when it is subjected to external force, otherwise known as “Force equals mass times acceleration”. The third law, the law of reciprocal action, states that every force applied in nature would have an opposite reaction of an equal magnitude. The third law suggests that all forces are interactions; there is no such thing as a unidirectional force. In his work on optics, Newton discovered that visible or white light is heterogeneous. This means that white light is composed of primary colours. Newton also built the first practical reflecting telescope He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound. He also established the generalised binomial theorem, developed a method (fondly known as “Newton’s Method”) for approximating the zeroes of a function, and contributed to the study of power series. === ** 1642-43 ** ** 1646 ** ** 1653 ** ** 1654 ** ** 1661 ** ** 1665-67 ** ** 1667 ** ** 1668 ** ** 1668-69 ** ** 1669 ** --- ** 1671 ** ** 1672 ** ** 1673 ** ** 1675 ** ** 1679-80 ** ** 1681 ** ** 1686 ** > > ** 1687 ** ** 1689 ** --- > > > >
 * __ Timeline __**
 * 25 Dec./4 Jan.: Birth of Isaac Newton in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire
 * Hannah Newton marries Barnabas Smith, rector of North Witham (about a mile and a half from Woolsthorpe), and leaves young Isaac in the care of her mother
 * Following the death of her second husband, Hannah returns to Woolsthorpe with her three children by her second marriage
 * Newton is enrolled at King's School, Grantham (about 7 miles from Woolsthorpe)
 * Boards with the town apothecary, who provides the first stimulus to his interest in chemistry
 * Enters Trinity College, Cambridge
 * Returns to Woolsthorpe for the summer of 1665 with a BA
 * Is detained there by the outbreak of plague in Cambridge and remains in Woolsthorpe until March 1667, apart from a short stay in Cambridge in spring 1666
 * During this period he establishes the fundamentals of calculus (Newton calls it 'the method of series and fluxions'), setting down the basic rules of differentiation and integration in a paper of October 1666
 * Demonstrates the heterogeneity of white light through its separation by refraction
 * The sight of a falling apple in a Woolsthorpe orchard focuses his attention on the subject of gravity
 * Realizes that the force required to keep the moon in orbit round the earth (as stated by Kepler in his Third Law) is of the same kind as that operating in terrestrial gravity
 * Made Fellow of Trinity College. This requires him to subscribe to the beliefs of the Church of England (including the doctrine of the Trinity), to take a vow of celibacy, and to promise to take holy orders within seven years of receiving his MA
 * Awarded an MA
 * Constructs the first functioning reflecting telescope (from a design by David Gregory)
 * Writes 'De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas' ('On Analysis by Infinite Series'), another milestone on the road to calculus
 * Barrow retires as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and recommends Newton to succeed him. Newton becomes Lucasian Professor in October. Barrow and the mathematician and publisher John Collins urge Newton to publish his work on calculus, but he is reluctant
 * Newton prepares Barrow's // Lectiones opticae // (Optical Lectures) for publication, despite being well aware that his own unpublished optical discoveries are far in advance of Barrow's and contradict many of his conclusions
 * Barrow persuades Newton to allow him to demonstrate the telescope to the Royal Society, where it causes a sensation
 * Newton writes De methodis serierum et fluxionum (On the Method of Series and Fluxions), expounding the principles of calculus, though this is not published until 1736
 * January: elected Fellow of the Royal Society
 * Newton's 'Theory about Light and Colors' published in the Royal Society's journal, // Philosophical Transactions // (30 Jan./9 Feb.)
 * Critical reactions from various quarters, and especially from Robert Hooke, infuriate Newton making him reluctant to publish further work
 * The quarrel with Hooke continues until the latter's death in 1703
 * Concentrates on his alchemical studies
 * Sends a 'Hypothesis' concerning the causes of light and colours to the Royal Society
 * Correspondence with Hooke about the path of falling bodies provides Newton with the key dynamic concepts of inertia and centripetal attraction
 * Correspondence with Flamsteed about the comets of November and December 1680
 * Newton comes to agree with Flamsteed that they are the same, further developing his gravitational theory
 * Fully formulates his theory of universal gravitation: every object in the universe attracts and is attracted to every other object
 * Largely at Halley's urging and at Halley's expense, publishes // Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) //, his masterwork on mechanics, fluids and gravity
 * Though many are unconvinced by Newton's theory of gravity, the book establishes his reputation as one of the greatest mathematicians of his day
 * Elected as Member of Parliament for Cambridge University
 * 1696 **
 * Appointed Warden of the Royal Mint. Leaves Cambridge to settle in London, taking his new duties very seriously
 * 1700 **
 * Newton transfers from being Warden to Master of the Mint (a more influential and lucrative position)
 * 1701 **
 * Again elected MP for Cambridge University
 * Officially resigns as Lucasian Professor (Dec.), having held the post // in absentia // for over five years, and is succeeded by his protégé William Whiston
 * 1703 **
 * Elected President of the Royal Society, a post he holds (by annual re-election) until his death
 * 1704 **
 * Publishes // Opticks //, his second masterpiece, written in English, setting out the principles of refraction and arguing for the corpuscular nature of light
 * 1705 **
 * Newton is knighted by Queen Anne
 * 1706 **
 * Publication of // Optice //, a Latin translation of the // Opticks //
 * 1727 **
 * Dies, having refused the last rites, on 20/31 March