Sir Isaac Newton (1642- 1727)

Sir Isaac Newton (1642- 1727)

Newton is a renowned English natural philosopher as well as a physicist and mathematician considered to be ‘the greatest scientists of all time’ (Anderson, 2008). He was born in Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, England by his mother Hannah Ayscough and his father Isaac Newton as a posthumous son (Kramer, 2005). He was born from able family of industrious farmers, prolific in the region. Newton was born three months following his father’s death and was born as a premature baby, small weak with little chance of survival. Little did anyone know that the shaky baby would become one of the greatest thinkers of all time, a genius who would revolutionize the scientific world. Even before he finished college, he had come up with calculus, reflecting telescope, initiated the gravitational law and most importantly had proven the splitting of light by the use of glass prism into various components such as the colors of a rainbow (Hall, 1996).

The genius in Newton is beyond words since he was born of common farmers and never knew how to sign his name unlike his mother who knew how to write. Neither could one point out that hos genius came about as a result of his upbringing since he led a lonely childhood in a farmhouse at the countryside (Moore & Cullen, 2003). Besides, his mother remarried Barnabas Smith, a clergyman at the time Newton was three years of age. Isaac disliked him since his mother deserted him under the guardianship of her maternal parents where he was taken to a village school to learn how to read and write. Newton could draw, curve and paint on the walls at nine years of age. His mother was widowed for a second time and she went back to her maternal home in Woolsthorpe with her three children (Anderson, 2008).

After two years Newton went to a grammar school in Grantham about seven miles from Woolsthorpe and he was getting tired of walking each and every day. Therefore, he moved in with the Clark family who managed a drugstore where Newton learnt some chemistry through observing medicine preparation by Clark. He proved his intellect while playing and making a lantern kite. He got along with his schoolmaster, Mr. Stokes although he was not performing well in class and was among the poorest performers since he had no interest for they were only being taught basic arithmetic (Anderson, 2008).

He started to study hard to beat his rivals and became a top student, made advanced circular and triangular drawings and could determine long and short days through measuring the shadow sizes hence, could tell the time, equinoxes and eventually made a water clock. Moreover, he made a scale model of a wind-mill he had observed earlier and came up with a ‘mouse miller’ (Anderson, 2008).  Isaac had to quit schooling, which he had no interest with, to manage the farm. Instead, he desired on making inventions and models. Mr. stokes persuaded his mother Newton to go back to school where he joined Cambridge University’s Trinity College as a sizar, irrespective of his wealthy background. This secluded him from the mainstream students and here, he made no friends. Cambridge curriculum concentrated on Aristotelian studies and the works of a Greek mathematician, Euclid, which was done in class. Instead, Newton concentrated on scientists such a Nicholas Copernicus, a polish astronomer, the German astronomer and mathematician, Johannes Kepler, Italian physicist Galileo Galilei, and Rene Descartes, the French mathematician, mastering their skills, thus, he was able to formulate the binomial theorem (Stokes, 2010). He made notes in everything he learnt and was so much into abstract thinking in optics, planetary science and mechanics. He got his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1665 and aimed to acquire masters of the same, but was cut short when the Great Plague attacked Cambridge in 1665, making him to have a vacation where he went back to Woolsthorpe and his genius climaxed.

He applied mathematics to explaining natural occurrences thus coming up with ‘fluxions’ method of solving math’s later recognized as calculus. He also had a great interest in motion as well as natural forces such as gravity, which he argued that it held objects in their place. He proceeded with optics where by using a glass prism to split visible light into various components of color. He went back to Trinity College as a professor of Mathematics and proceeded to experiment and explain various phenomenon scientifically. He was appointed in the membership of Royal Society in 1672 to enhance scientific research. Newton proved efficient in handling mathematical problems and in 1687 he published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which contained his scientific work that would later popularize him. Therein he proved that “simple laws explain complicated things” (Weir, 2009 p.14).  He demonstrated the gravitational law maintaining that celestial bodies have an attraction towards one another. He explained motion in fluids such as water and air as well as planetary motion.  Moreover, he drafted the Newtonian mechanics through mathematical expression of systems to determine their motion, path, and force required.

Today newton’s law of gravity and his laws of motion are the most widely used of all his work. His laws of motion explain movement of objects. His first law is called the law of inertia where he argues that if external push or pull force is not exerted on an object it would remain in the same state of motion (rather than the downward pull). The second law is that of acceleration and explains the occurrence when push or pull is exerted on an object. The more the force applied, the faster they are to move or stop, maintaining that movement of objects is similar to the direction of force. The third law is that of action and reaction where Newton stated that on exerting a force on an object, it forced back in an opposite direction (Weir, 2009). Through his studies Newton proved that the moon was held in place by earth’s gravity in a circular manner since the moon’s motion gives it energy.

Newtonian science has proven the possibility of having an experimental and mathematical perspective to nature and in turn, has altered the perceptions towards the universe through explaining simple laws that dictate the motion of planetary bodies. He has facilitated the mathematical study of differential and integral calculus, in dynamics, mechanics and optics.  His work in physical science was reassessed and in turn, aided to come up with the Einstein theory of relativity and the quantum theory. He has proven monumental in various scientific fields, facilitating scientific revolution and in shaping the modern thoughts.  To crown it all, Newton can be termed as the greatest abstract thinker who ever lived, one who dictated the subsequent thoughts and initiated a Newtonian paradigm yet, laid a low profile. Newton proved that simple laws could solve complex issues in the universe through application of inductive as well as deductive experimental evaluations.

References

Anderson, M. J. (2008). Isaac Newton: The Greatest Scientist of All Time. New York: Enslow     Publishers, Inc.

Hall, A. R. (1996). Isaac Newton, Adventurer in Thought. New York: Cambridge University         Press.

Kramer, A. (2005). Isaac Newton: The World in Motion. New York: Benchmark Education           Company.

Moore, P and Cullen, P. (2003). Isaac Newton. New York:  Kessinger Publishing.

Stokes, M. (2010). Isaac Newton. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.,

Weir, J. (2009). Isaac Newton: Groundbreaking Physicist and Mathematician. New York:             Capstone Press.

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