Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe close to Grantham on 25 December 1642. His father died before he was born and in 1645 his mother marred a clergyman from North Welham in Leicestershire. She went to live with him while Isaac Newton lived with his grandmother. When her second husband died in 1656 Isaac’s mother returned to Woolsthorpe and Isaac Newton went to live with her again.
From the age of 12 to 14 Isaac Newton went to Grantham Grammar School. During this time he wedged with an apothecary and his family. Then in 1659 Isaac had to leave to help his mother on the family farm. Isaac Newton was not in the smallest amount bit concerned in running a farm and in 1660 he went to the grammar school again. In 1661 he went to Trinity College Cambridge.
Having obtained his degree, the university was closed for two years (1665 and 1666) as a result of the plague, and Newton was forced to return home to continue his studies on his own. These two years turned out to be the most productive and inventive for Newton, and he laid the foundations of his later scientific breakthroughs, such as his theories on planetary motion (leading to the publication of his Principia in 1687), light and color, and certain aspects of calculus. Physical scientists also during this time that his famous yet anecdotal experience with the falling apple occurred, and his thinking turned towards gravity as a force previously neglected it.
In 1667 Isaac Newton was nominated a fellow of Trinity College. The same year he was designated a member of the Royal Society. In February 1672 a paper he wrote about light and colors was read to the society. In 1669 Isaac Newton became Lucasian professor of mathematics. In the meantime, in 1668, he invented a reflecting telescope.
In 1689-1690 Isaac Newton was MP for Cambridge University (in those days Cambridge University had its own MPs). He became an MP again in 1701-1702 but he did not take an active part in politics.
Isaac Newton published his masterwork Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematics in 1687. It set out his theory of significance and his laws of motion.
In 1695 Isaac Newton was made Ward of the mint and in 1699 Master of the mint. He resigned his fellowship and professorship at Cambridge in 1701.
In 1703 Isaac Newton became president of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1705.
Meanwhile in 1704 Isaac Newton published another great work about light.
Isaac Newton died at the age of 84 on 20 March 1727.
In terms of mechanics, Newton's Principia is a cornerstone of modern physics. The first book in the series illustrates and explains Newton's three laws of motion, namely:
1) Without the influence of forces, a body at rest will remain so, and a body moving in a straight line at constant velocity will continue to do so at that constant velocity, indefinitely (the law of inertia).
2) A body will accelerate if a force is applied to it, according to F = ma.
3) Forces occur in pairs, with both forces having equal magnitudes but opposite directions. This law is usually simplified to read: "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction".

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