Isaac Newton
(1642-1737)
Biography and inventions of Isaak Newton
The year was 1664. The South-east of
England, including London, suffered an
epidemic of plague, which was by far the most
devastating of all. The Great plague, as it has
come to be known, lasted almost two years
and killed over 70,000 people. The number of
deaths must surely have been more since there
was no accurate system of recording deaths at
that time. Those who could move went to the
countryside to escape the infection. Among
them was a young student from Cambridge
named Isaac Newton. The university had been
closed down and he had moved to
Woolsthrope with his mother. He stayed there
for over two years and these two years were to
prove invaluable for science. Isaac Newton
was born in a farmer's family in 1642. His
father, also called Isaac Newton, died a few months before his birth and his mother
remarried. The young lad was left with his
grandmother and was treated like an orphan.
He did not have a happy childhood and
attended the local school there he never
showed promise. His teachers reported him as
idle and attentive! An uncle persuaded his
mother, and Isaac entered the university.
There are various stories about Newton's
inventiveness in making models of machines.
These stories are probably false, just like the
story about the apple falling on his head! In
1661, Newton entered Trinity College in
Cambridge to study law. Here, apart from the
classics, he also studied the philosophy of
Aristotle and the works of Galileo and Kepler.
Reading Euclid's book on geometry and other
books on algebra kindled his interest in
mathematics. In 1665, he got a bachelor's
degree from Cambridge University and thenthe university closed due to the Great Plague.
The two years that he spent in his mother's
house were among the most productive in his
life. One of his outstanding contributions was
establishing the foundations of differential
and integral calculus. In 1667, he returned to
Cambridge and was made a Fellow, and in
1669, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.
Newton had thought about the nature of white
light during his forced stay in the countryside.
He concluded that while light is composed of
many different colors, a view that was in
contradiction to the Aristotelian view that
while light was a basic entity. He made the
reflecting telescope-one that used a mirror as
opposed to Galileo's telescope, which used
lenses. At this time, he had a major quarrel
with another physicist, Hooke, who was
opposed to his theories about light. The two
fought for many years and in 1675, Hooke claimed that that Newton had stolen some of
his result! In fact, Newton waited for Hooke's
death in 1703 before publishing his major
work on light, called Optiks. In 1678, his
mother died and he suffered a bout of mental
depression. He withdrew into his shell for a
number of years. In 1687, Newton published
what has been called the greatest scientific
book ever written: the Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematiaca (Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy) or Principia
as it is commonly known. Newton had worked
on understanding motion and gravitation
during the Plague years but had not worked
out the complete theory of motion and
gravitation. In Principia he gave his three laws
of motion and also the theory of gravitation.
He not only explained the falling of apples to
the ground but also the motion of the moon,
the earth and other planets, tides and many other phenomena. By this time, Newton was
recognized as one of the greatest living
scientists. In 1699, he was appointed the
Master of the Mint, responsible for issuing of
money. He took his job seriously and apart
from becoming wealthy, also contributed
several ideas to prevent counterfeiting. The
last few years of Newton's life were not very
happy. He had an uncontrollable rage and
when the German mathematician Leibniz
independently discovered calculus and
claimed credit for it, Newton attacked Leibniz
personally and an unhealthy controversy
broke out. Newton also dabbled in alchemy:
In fact, his mental illness has been attributed
to slow mercury poisoning because of his
alchemic experiments. He suffered several
bouts of depression and mental breakdown,
and led a troubled lonely life since he never married. Newton died in 1727 and was buried
in the Westminster Abbey.
Few people have had a more profound
influence on modern science than Newton.
The Latin inscription on Newton's tomb
proclaims: (Mortals rejoice at so great an
ornament to the human race!).
Facts at a Glance:
. Sir Isaac Newton was by far the most
influential scientist of his time and in fact is
regarded as one of the founders of modern
science. He worked in many areas of science,
including options (the study of light),
mathematics, mechanics (the study of the
motion of objects) and even alchemy!
. He studied the refraction of sunlight and
classified it into seven colors by using a
prism. He also investigated the colors that one sees in thin films of oil on water. His work on
light was collected in the book Optiks.
. Newton worked in all fields of mathematics
but is famous for his work on the branch of
mathematics known as analytical geometry.
He discovered the method of drawing tangents
to curves and finding areas under curves.
These methods were what we now know as
calculus.
. Newton is most well-known for his work on
gravitations and motion. The famous story
about an apple falling on his head may or may
not be true; but what is certainly true is that he
was the first person to understand that the
same force causes an apple to fall and the
Moon to orbit the Earth. His laws of
gravitation and motion are considered to be
among the most important contributions to
science by any one human being.
. His work on gravity and mechanics is
collected in his book Principia which is
regarded as the most influential book in the
last thousand years.
. Apart from these fields, Newton, in his later
years, also worked on chemistry and alchemy.
He experimented in chemistry to try and
understand the work of alchemists who
wanted to convert cheaper metals like lead
into gold.
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Instructor: Samiullah Zewak