Newton Essay, Research Paper

Isaac Newton Isaac Newton was born on January fourth, 1643 (Christmas Day on the Julian calendar). He was born in the small village of Woolsthrope, Lincolnshire. He was born prematurely and was not expected to live more than a couple of days. Robert Newton, Isaac’s father, died three months before Isaac was born not giving him a chance to see his unborn son. At the age of three, in 1645, Isaac’s mother, Hannah, remarried to a wealthy clergyman, Reverend Barnabas Smith. She left Isaac with his grandmother so he could stay with the farm and the Woolsthrope Manor. Hanna moved to North Witham to live with her new husband. While staying with his grandmother, Isaac went to the village school where he learned how to read and write. Newton wasn’t your ordinary kid; he didn’t make friends and was not interested in physical activity. He was great at building models, drawing, and making diagrams of certain things that he made. At the age of twelve Isaac went to King’s School until Mrs. Smith widowed again because of Reverend Smith’s death. Mrs. Smith then moved back to the farm to continue to carry out the family duties. In this process she took Isaac out of school so that he would help on the farm. Isaac wasn’t much of a farmer. He was more concentrated on mathematics and mechanics. He made many drawings and paintings. He also made model clocks and many other things that interested him. This was brought to Isaac’s mother’s attention when Isaac’s grandfather told Hannah that Isaac was a “gifted child” and that his talent shouldn’t be wasted on farming. He was then enrolled back in King’s School to continue with his studies. Isaac’s mother asked her brother, Reverend William Ayscough, to see if Isaac had the potential to enroll in Trinity College a part of Cambridge University. From Reverend Ayscoughs observations he found that Isaac had the skill to go to the College. In 1661 he started in Trinity College. He had just enough money to get in Trinity but not all the expenses were paid like books and food. He had to pay his way by doing chores and waiting on people at the dinning table. He kept journals of all of his experiences. He wrote about how he was inspired by famous people like Aristotle, Galileo, and Rene Descartes. It was all kept in his notebooks. During this time, the Bubonic Plague was in full affect. Isaac had to go back to the farm in Woolsthrope and wait till to The Plague was over. He got occasional visits to go to Trinity, but only two visits were made during this time period, which ended in 1667; about two years out of school. During The Plague Isaac did his finest works and made tremendous discoveries. Since he studied famous scientists, he continued to pursue their work. He made experiments to test his thoughts with other scientist’s thoughts. One of his inventions was fluxion method. It was a mathematics technique that branched off into what is now known as calculus. He made it easier to calculate lines and curve in more inverse operations. This technique is still used today. The only thing that wasn’t done was publicizing his methods; which could hurt him in the future. Next he experimented with light, prisms, and lenses. He wanted to find a way to make a better telescope. In this process he wrote this quote: ” Light consists of Rays differently refrangible, which were accordingly to their degrees of refrangibility, transmitted towards divers parts of the wall. What is more, I have often with Admiration beheld that all the Colors of the Prism being made to converge, and thereby to be again mixed, reproduced light, intirely and perfectly white.” This was said when he discovered that Violet light bends (refracts) more than indigo, which refracted more than blue, and so on. Later he returned to Trinity College in 1667. While in College he worked with light for a while longer never making public of his discoveries. He wanted to make the perfect telescope but failed because of the shape of the lenses. Then he used a mirror in place of the lens. This was the reflecting telescope (picture on following pages). This telescope gave a clearer picture and is more focused than that of a refracting telescope. Since light bends, Newton uses a mirror to make the bended light and reflects it to the eyepiece making the light more clearly. After his discovery, Newton was accepted into the Royal Society after sending one of his telescopes to them in 1671. He wrote to one of the members stating that he made discoveries that led him to the building of the telescope. Newton sent a paper with experiments and facts that white light was actually a mixture of colors. The Society didn’t accept this theory and he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He got into many arguments and had to prove his theory. Newton continued with his work even though he was ridiculed. He kept his work confidential until he published his book Opticks in 1704 on his theory of light. He talked about sunlight when passed through a prism; different blends of light rays separate from the sunlight. This led him to the building of his reflecting telescope. Newton’s best work was in the fields of Gravity, Astronomy, and Motion. Everyone has probably heard of the story of New and the apple. Newton was sitting in a forest in Woolsthrope and he saw an apple fall to the ground. This led him to believe that there is some kind of pull or force on the earth. He soon found out that the same pull that dropped the apple is the same that pull keeps the moon in orbit. He showed this theory by tying an object to a string and spinning it around. It proved why the moon and the other planets are in space. With this and a visit from Edmund Halley it possible for Newton to publish another book, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, or Principia. This book was talked about everywhere. It was a sensation, the talk of the town. The book showed how forces acted upon his basic laws of motion. Newton’s three laws of motion are: 1) The body will stay at rest (if it is not already moving) or will continue to move at the same speed and in straight line (if it is already moving) unless an outside force acts upon it (Inertia). 2) A moving body moves faster, or accelerates, when a force acts on it. It accelerates in the direction of the force, and the amount of acceleration depends on the size of the force and the mass of the object. (An empty shopping cart will be easier than a full one) 3) Forces always act in pairs. If you push or pull an object, it will push or pull you in return and with equal force (Action and Reaction). “The force that body A exerts on body B is always equal and opposites to the force that body B exerts on body A.” All of these things and explanations to them are in the book, Principia. This book started the principles of modern science. Newton’s next step in life was teaching in Trinity College. He was then elected to the Parliament for Cambridge. This happened when Newton made an attempt to stop James II in 1689. During his time he didn’t do much in the Parliament. In 1695, Newton became a Warden of the Mint in London. Even though he was a Warden he still did his duties at Cambridge. Then in 1703 Newton became President of the Royal Society and for the rest of his life. Isaac Newton died on the morning of March 20, 1727, a life span of about eighty-five years. He made many contributions like inventing modern science and calculus. I think he was a brilliant man of his time and deserves a bit more credit for his work. This concludes my report on Sir Isaac Newton.