Physics concepts and applications for college-level study

Newton

Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (Bio, N.d.)

Sir Isaac Newton is one of the most recognizable names in all of science. He was a mathematician, a natural philosopher, an inventor, an English physicist, and pretty much an all around genius. His work included the study of how light reacts to reflection, formulating laws of universal gravitation and motion, and building the first ever reflecting telescope. Newton arguably contributed more to the science than any single person in the entire history of science. Newton's book, Principia, is considered to be among the most influential science books in the history of science, possibly of mankind. In this book he provided the foundation for classical mechanics. Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which have been the background of classical physics for over three centuries. Since Sir Isaac Newton was such an influential mind, I thought it would be fun to read about his life and his education. This report consists of some of the interesting tidbits I found about Newton.

Newton's Life

Isaac Newton was born in 1642 after his father passed away. Although his father was fairly prosperous, his family mostly consisted of a poor farming family in Woolsthorpe, England. Not only was Newton born without his father, he was born three-month early and most people didn't think he would make it. After Isaac survived his own birth, his grandma took him and worked to raise him. Not only did he not have a father, his mother remarried another man and left Isaac. However, when he was 12 he reunited with his mother and got the chance to attend school.

Newton had been enrolled at the King's School in Grantham, a town in Lincolnshire, where he lodged with a local apothecary and was introduced to the fascinating world of chemistry (Bio, N.d.). His mother eventually pulled him out of school, because she needed (or thought she need him) to be farmer. His mother had Isaac take care of the family farm yet he failed miserably at and found farming horribly boring.

Newton got his big break when his uncle, a graduate of the University of Cambridge's Trinity College, persuaded Newton's mother to have him go back to school. Newton enrolled in a program similar to the modern idea of work study in 1661, which let him study in exchange for servicing wealthier students' rooms and doing other odd jobs to help pay for his education.

When Newton was 23 he had already received his bachelor's degree. However, simultaneously the Bubonic Plague emerged in Europe and Newton was forced to leave Cambridge. He had returned back to his home town of Woolsthorpe. During his time there he continued to study physics and philosophy independently. During this time made great progress in what we call "method of fluxions" (calculus) and this was also the time when Newton observed the apple falling from the tree; the child-like story told about Newton's discovery of the laws of gravity.

One of the lessor known facts about Isaac Newton is that he actually suffered from a nervous breakdown. Newton was feuding with another physicist, Robert Hooke, who was a member of the Royal Academy and denounced Newton's work on optics. After many heated exchanges, the pressure obviously got to Newton and he suffered a complete nervous breakdown. He withdrew from public society. Shortly after his event, his mother also died, thus complicating the situation.