Sir Isaac Newton - Biography, Achievements and Quotes

Sir Isaac Newton PRS MP (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727) was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics and, as mathematician, he shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the invention of the infinitesimal calculus.

Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. It also demonstrated that the motion of objects on the Earth and that of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles.

By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the cosmos.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours of the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.
 In addition to his work on the calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, and developed Newton's method for approximating the roots of a function.

Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian and, unusually for a member of the Cambridge faculty, he refused to take holy orders in the Church of England, perhaps because he privately rejected the doctrine of trinitarianism. In addition to his work on the mathematical sciences.

 Newton also dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. In his later life, Newton became president of the Royal Society. He also served the British government as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint.

Achievements & Facts about Sir Isaac Newton

• Newton actually studied for a degree in law.
• in 1642, the year that Galileo Galilei died, Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas Day*. Named after his father, who died just three months before he was born, Isaac was a very small baby not expected to survive. His mother even said that Isaac was so small that he could have fit inside a quart mug.
• Newton was born into a farming family. When he was 17, his mother insisted that he returned from school to run the family farm! Thankfully, Newton was a bad farmer and not long afterwards, his uncle successfully persuaded his mother to let him attend Trinity College in Cambridge instead.
• Newton developed the theory of universal gravitation and the fundamental laws of motion which quantified the relationship between force, mass and acceleration. He described the law of conservation of momentum and developed the kinematic equations that calculate trajectory. 
• He also made advances in optics, developing the first practical telescope. Through observations from experiments in spectroscopy, he developed the first theory of color. He contributed to major advances in mathematics, co-developing the calculus and the binomial theorem.
• He owned more books on historical subjects than on science.
• Isaac Newton suffered two nervous breakdowns.
• Newton was notorious for his bad temper and conflicts with other people. In particular Hooke and Leibinz.
• Between 1665 and 1667 the University of Cambridge was dispersed due to The Plague and Newton returned to Woolsthorpe Manor.
• Isaac Newton become known in the scientific community through his refractive telescope - a big improvement on existing telescopes.
• Newton's discovered the theory of gravity after watching an apple fall in the orchard.
• Throughout his life Newton continued research into a wide range of subjects including mathematics, optics, astronomy and alchemy.
• He was elected as Member of Parliament for the University in 1700, but only held this post for a year.
• Newton himself would tell the story of an apple falling from a tree giving him inspiration for his work on gravity. However, there is no evidence he was actually hit by an apple!
• In 1696, Newton was appointed warden of the Royal Mint. He took his duties very seriously, seeking to prevent corruption.
• Newton was fascinated with religion, though didn't hold orthodox views. He wrote an article on textual criticism of the Bible.
• One of Newton's most famous quotes was:
• Newton was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1689 and served for exactly one year. During that time, he said one and only one sentence during the lengthy proceedings: he asked a nearby usher to close an open, drafty window! (Source: Michael White (1998) Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer)
• "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
• English poet Alexander Pope wrote the following epithat for Newton.
• Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
• God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.

Discoveries of Newton

Laws of gravity and motion

In 1687 Newton shook the scientific world with the mathematical principals of Natural Philosophy. The laws included:

• Moving objects continue to move in a staight line. An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon an outside force 
• The amount of acceleration is determined by both size and mass of the object. 
• For every action there is an equal and an opposite reaction to the object. Light and Colour

Isaac Newton was able to explain why bodies have the colour that they have . He discovered that sunlight is a mixture of light with all of the colours of a rainbow. He proved that theory by passing a beam of sunlight through a prism and studied the colours it produced. The study of light led to the construction of a new telescope in which a reflection mirror was used instead of a combination of lenses. The telescope was six inches wide, and through it one could see the satellites of Jupiter.

Superb Quotes by  Sir Isaac Newton

• “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
• “Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.”
• “Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.”
• To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, & leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.
• “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 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.”
• 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 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.
• “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.”
• “What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.”
• “and to every action there is always an equal and opposite or contrary, reaction”
• “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.”
• “A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true.”
• “Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy”