Isaac Newton: New Region of Discovery

Background

Famous mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton born in 1962 during Christmas day (according to Julian calendar. FYI, we now using Gregorian calendar) to a family of farmers in the east central portion of England in Linconshire. During his childhood, he enjoyed much spending his time by creating new things such as windmill for grind grain, a clock which powered by water and other various inventions, which caused him did very poorly in school. In the age of fourteen, Newton was forced to leave school to help his mother with farming.

Study life and career

Isaac like to reading and gathering new knowledge. While he working in the farm, he spent most of his time to read and make him ended up by returning to school. Newton started his first degree in 1661, when he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He set out to get degree in law and this limited his field of study during first few years of college. Then, after third year of study, he was allowed more freedom to pursue other interests. This time, Newton was able to learn new mathematical concept and scientific methods from famous scientist such as Galileo, and Wallis. He then graduated from Cambridge in 1665, without any particular honors.

In the summer of 1665, Newton who had not been an exceptional student and appeared at times very average, seemed to under go a change. During an eighteen month period, in which the school he was at was shut down because of the plague, Newton came up with his theories of motion and gravitation, the components of white light, and calculus. The often told story of how Newton discovered gravity goes as follows: Newton was drinking tea as the British often do, and he observed an apple falling from a tree. He deduced that the same force which caused the apple to fall to the ground causes the moon to orbit the earth (Cohen, 1985). As stated earlier, Newton helped developed what he called fluxions, which is now called calculus ( Burton, 1997). This branch of mathematics Newton discovered, could be used find the answers to such problems as finding the speed of a ball that has been thrown in the air at any moment in the balls flight. During the same time period a German mathematician named Gottfried Leibniz also discovered calculus. With Newtons's and Leibniz's new discoveries mathematicians and scientists were able to enter into new regions of discovery.

Isaac Newton Invention

Newton was a thinker, but more with ideas than physical invention. One of his greatest contribution in the world of physics is his work on gravity. Instead, he did invent reflecting lenses for telescopes, which produced clearer images in a smaller telescope compared with the refracting models of the time. Then Newton developed anti-counterfeiting measures for coins, including the ridges you see on quarters today.

Another great contribution from Newton was calculus. Mere math and algebra was not enough to explain the ideas in his head, thus make him to helped in inventing calculus.

It is said that Newton invented a cat door so hit cats would stop scratching to get in, but the truth of that one is a but sketchy.

He also created an "orbital cannon" that would poke out of a huge mountain, up in space, and with just the right amount of gunpowder could put a cannonball into orbit. This was not something that Newton actually imagined, but rather a way to think about his theories.

Isaac Newton Quotes

Here are some popular quotes by Newton during his time:

1. " I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."

2. " To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me."

3. " A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding."

4. " To every action there is always opposed and equal reaction."

5. " It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded."

6. " If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought."

Watch the video below which is the documentary about Sir Isaac Newton.

This great intellect, was not just a man of science, but a man of God. Get inspire....