Courtney Leipertz
Sir Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 at Woolsthorpe Manor in
Lincolnshire (England). Newtons father died 3 months before Newtons birth and
Newtons mother remarried when he was 3 years old. Newtons mother tried to make
Isaac into a farmer, but Newton hated farming. Instead, he attended Trinity College with
a scholarship that would pay for his way to a Master of Arts degree. The college taught
theories of Aristotle, which sparked Newtons interest. He began to write about
mechanical philosophy and in 1665, he discovered the binomial theorem. With this
theorem, he developed a mathematical theory that later became known as calculus.
Not long after Newton received his Bachelor of Arts degree, the college
temporarily closed due to The Great Plague. Newton continued his studies at home
and over the span of two years, had developed his calculus, optics, and law of
gravitation theories. In April 1667, Newton returned to Trinity College and only 1 year
after receiving his Masters, he succeeded his own professor.
Isaac Newton got into a disagreement with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the
development of calculus. Apparently, both Leibniz and Newton developed calculus
independently, but with very different notations. People who knew Isaac well, claimed
that Leibniz was a fraud and accused him of plagiarism. Eventually in 1711, the Royal
Society proclaimed that Newton was the true discoverer.
In 1666, Newton discovered the spectrum of colors that exists in a prism and how
to position it. Newton also claims that colored light does not change its properties by
separating out a colored beam and shining it on various objects. In 1704, Newton
published Opticks, which expressed his corpuscular theory of light.
In 1679, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, with his law of universal
gravitation. He worked with Keplers law of planetary motion as a reference for the
gravitation of the planets orbits. Newton published The Principia that stated his three
universal laws of motion.
Newtons first law of motion states, Every object in a state of uniform motion
tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. Newtons
second law is, The relationship between an objects mass (m), its acceleration (a), and
the applied force (F) is F=ma. Newtons third (and last) law of motion states, For every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Isaac Newton died March 20, 1726/27, and is often considered to be the greatest
genius who ever lived. Even after Newtons fate, his theories lived on and inspired
other mathematicians and scientists. Even the great Albert Einstein kept a picture of
Newton on his study wall. Sir Isaac Newton gave many great tributes not only to Math,
but also to mankinds better understanding of how theories and motions fit into our
everyday lives.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
http://www.biography.com/people/isaac-newton-9422656
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newton3laws.html