Who Was Isaac Newton?
Isaac Newton was born in England on 4th January 1643 and died at the age of 84 in 1727. He was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian.
Isaac published a book in 1687 tiled Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. It described the universal gravitation and the three laws of motion.
Newton stated the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. (Newton's laws of motion). He invented the reflective telescope and developed a theory of colour. He worked on the development of the calculus.
Isaac Newton aged 46.
Young Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was born three months after his father's death. When Isaac Newton reached the age of three his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband. He was looked after by his grandmother.
He started his schooling in small village schools but later went to the King's School Grantham where he became the top student. At the age of 19 he was to be married to an apothecary's stepdaughter, but moved to Cambridge University where his studies consumed him. Newton never married.
In June 1661 he entered Trinity College of Cambridge. At the time they taught the work of the ancient philosophers like Aristotle, but Newton enjoyed reading the work of more modern philosophers like Descartes and astronomers such as Galileo.
Newton worked on mathematical theories that would later become calculus. Newton graduated in April 1665 the same year that the university shut down due to the Great Plague. For the next two years he worked at his home in Woolsthorpe on calculus, optics and the law of gravitation.
Trinity College
Isaac Newton's Discoveries
Mathematics
Newton had a dispute over the discovery of calculus with another mathematician called Leibniz. They both discovered the calculus independently using their own different notations.
Newton believed he had worked out his method years before Leibniz, but he published nothing until 1693 and did not publish a full account until 1704. Leibniz on the other hand had published a full account in 1684 20 years before Isaac. Isaac claimed that the reason for not publishing a full account is because he feared being mocked.
Optics
From 1670 to 1672 Newton lectured on optics, at this time his was also investigating the reflection of light. He showed that a prism could turn a white light into a range of colors and that with a lens and a second prism could make a multicolored range into a white light. Shortly after he invented his reflecting telescope.
Mechanics and Gravitation
In 1687 he published his most famous book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. In this book he stated the three universal laws of motion, they were not improved on for 200 years. He used Latin words such as gravitas for the effect that it would be known as gravity. He defined the law of universal gravitation.
Isaac Newton's Late Life
Newton science suffered from his worsening mental health as he got older. He became obsessed with alchemy. Newton moved two London in 1696 as warden of the royal mint, he remained in this position until his death in 1727. In this job he was knighted in 1705, ironically he earned this for his job at the mint and not for his sciences.
Newton died in London in 1727 at the age of 84. He was buried in Westminster Abby.
After his death Newton's body was discovered to have a huge amount of mercury in it. Probably resulting from his alchemical pursuits. Mercury poisoning could explain Newton's odd behavior in late life.
Newton at the Royal Mint
Newton's Apple
We all know the story of the apple hitting Newton's head and knocking into him a moment of enlightened inspiration. That story is just a myth. Newton wrote that he was sitting inside and saw an apple fall to the ground. This made him think why doesn't the apple move up or across why must it go down to the centre of the earth. The apple falling prompted him to study gravitation.
I think that Sir Isaac Newton was a great man. He was extremely talented in his studies. You could say he changed the world incredibly.
