Biography of Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English physicist, astronomer and
mathematician. His work on the formulation of the three laws of
motion led to the law of universal gravitation. The composition of
white light led to modern optical physics. In mathematics he laid the
foundations of infinitesimal calculus. Childhood and education Isaac
Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, a small village in England, on
January 4, 1643. He was born prematurely and soon became an
orphan. At the age of two, when his mother remarried, Isaac went to
live with his grandmother.
From an early age, Newton showed an interest in manual activities. As
a child, he made a working windmill and a stone sundial, which is now
in the Royal Society of London. At the age of 14, he was taken back to
his mother's house, whose husband had just died, to help with the
work on the farm. Instead of devoting himself to his chores, he spent
his time immersed in reading. At the age of 18, he was accepted into
Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he found an environment
of effervescence in the scientific field, based on the works of Nicolaus
Copernicus, Kepler and Descartes. He spent four years at Cambridge
and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1665. He became friends
with Professor Isaac Barrow, who encouraged him to develop his
mathematical skills and made him his assistant. Between 1665 and
1667, during the time when the university was closed as a result of an
epidemic of bubonic plague that ravaged England and killed a tenth of
the population, Isaac Newton had to return to his mother's house.
Discoveries of Isaac Newton During the long period of enforced
idleness, Newton made the most important discoveries for science: he
discovered the fundamental law of gravitation, devised the basic laws
of mechanics and applied them to celestial bodies, invented the
methods of differential and integral calculus, and laid the foundations
for his great optical discoveries.
Although they only became known years later, the discoveries of this
phase inaugurated a new era, that of modern science. By formulating
the principle of universal gravitation, Newton eliminated dependence
on divine action and decisively influenced all philosophical thought of
the 18th century, in addition to laying the foundations for classical
mechanics. Law of Universal Gravitation – Newton’s greatest
discovery In 1666, Newton was the only one to perceive the law that
would be fundamental to understanding several previously
inexplicable phenomena that occurred in the universe. When the most
famous apple in the history of science fell from the tree, Newton came
up with the idea of universal gravitation. “Why did the apple fall?”
Based on this question, he discovered one of the most important
scientific laws. Isaac Newton then developed one of the most
fundamental of all laws, the “law of universal gravitation”. In it, he
argued and proved that each particle of matter attracts another
particle. It is not only the Earth that pulls the apple of the tree
towards its center, but also the apple pulls the Earth, this law applies
to all planets. The Sun attracts the Earth, the Earth attracts the Moon
and the Moon attracts the Earth.
Newton showed that the force between bodies depends on their
mass, as well as on their proximity to each other. And he taught how
to calculate these forces. Newton's Three Laws Isaac Newton
established three “laws of motion,” or “Newton's Laws”:
Newton's First Law “Every body continues in a state of rest, or of
uniform motion in a straight line, unless compelled to change that
state by forces acted upon it.”
Newton's Second Law “The change in motion is proportional to the
motive force impressed, and is produced in the direction of the
straight line in which that force is acted.”
Newton's Third Law “To every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction: the mutual actions of two bodies on each other are always
equal, and directed in opposite directions.”
