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| Newton, by William Blake; here, Newton is depicted critically as a "divine geometer". This copy of the work is currently held by the Tate Collection photo: wikipedia |
Sir Isaac Newton 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726 was an English mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (described in his own day as a "natural philosopher") who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution.
His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and he shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus.
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| Isaac Newton. The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy Heritage Auctions |
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| Newton's own copy of his Principia, with hand-written corrections for the second edition photo: wikipedia |
Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries.
By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, and then using the same principles to account for the trajectories of comets, the tides, the precession of the equinoxes, and other phenomena, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the Solar System and demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles.
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Newton's theoretical prediction that Earth is shaped as an oblate spheroid was later vindicated by the geodetic measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, thus convincing most Continental European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over the earlier system of Descartes.
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Newton also built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the colours of the visible spectrum.
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| Illustration of a dispersive prism decomposing white light into the colours of the spectrum, as discovered by Newton photo: wikipedia |
Newton's work on light was collected in his highly influential book Opticks, first published in 1704. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid.
In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of the cubic plane curves.
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| The first, 1704, edition of Opticks: or, a treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light. Author Isaac Newton image wikipedia |
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| John's College, Cambridge Wikimedia Commons |
Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian, who privately rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and who, unusually for a member of the Cambridge faculty of the day, refused to take holy orders in the Church of England.
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Beyond his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death.
You may also like: Top 8: Looking for the elixir of immortality.
Politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–90 and 1701–02. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and he spent the last three decades of his life in London, where he served as Warden (1696–1700) and Master (1700–1727) of the Royal Mint, as well as president of the Royal Society (1703–1727).
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| Queen Anne in 1705 image wikipedia |
Black Death contributed to one of the most important theories in History
In 1665, following an outbreak of bubonic plague in England, Cambridge University was closed, forcing Newton to return home at Woolsthorpe Manor. While there was in is garden, he saw an apple fall from a tree, an event that inspired him to formulate the famous law of universal gravitation. Newton later told him William Stukeley's incident, the author of his memoirs.
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| Original tree that inspired Sir Isaac Newton to consider gravitation photo: UniverseToday.com |
The tree exists today, and some apple that Newton saw him falling that day, in the garden Woolsthorpe Manor was taken into space in 2010 aboard the Atlantis space.
He was interested in alchemy
Isaac Newton was passionate about alchemy. He has devoted a great deal of time trying to create "Philosopher's Stone" which he believed he had the power to turn other metals into gold and to make people immortal.
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4. Newton was a member of parliament
Between 1689 and 1690, Newton was a member of Parliament representing Cambridge University. His contribution was limited. He had spoken only once, when he asked a bailiff to close the window because it was cool. At that time he spent in London, Newton was met with several influential figures of the time, including King William III and philosopher John Locke.
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| William III of Orange, King of England & Scotland 1650 - 1702 Pinterest |
5. He was knighted
In 1705 Newton was knighted by Queen Anne. At the time, he was a wealthy man after his mother inherited properties and published two papers bedside. Newton was buried in Westminster Abbey, the burial place of British monarchs, and other notable individuals who do not belong to the royal family (Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens or explorer David Livingstone).
Invenit Mundo presents the main historical significance of the day January 4:
1809 - He was born Louis Braille, inventor of the writing system for the blind (Braille, 1829) (d. January 6, 1852)
1841 - was born chemist Petru Poni, leading representative of the Romanian school of chemistry. (D. April 2, 1925)
1877 - was born in Brasov, Sextil Puşcariu writer, famous philologist and literary historian, member of the Romanian Academy (d. 1948).
1914 - In Romania formed a government headed by liberal I C I Brătianu, which lasted until January 29, 1918.
1926 - Romania's Parliament voted to accept giving up the throne Prince Charles ( "Act of January 4") and the recognition of his son, Prince Michael, as crown prince of Romania.
1954 - He died poet Elena Farago (Elena Paximade) ( "Puss punished", "Gândacelul" "lame puppy") (n. 29 martie1878)
1960 - A French writer Albert Camus died.
1970 - The actor died Mişu Fotino (father), founder of the State Theatre in Brasov. (N. 1886)
1990 - It was announced the abolition of the State Security Department.
1990 - Held the first press conference of the Group for Social Dialogue (GDS), consisting of personalities from the cultural, artistic and scientific.
1994 - At a meeting of Liberal leaders Horia Rusu and Dinu Patriciu, the PL-93 Steering Committee adopted an "open letter to all the liberal parties" document proposing a "unification through competition liberals".
1996 - Mircea Geoana received the approval of the US administration to take over the post of ambassador to Washington.
1998 - died composer Basil Veselovsky ( "Hope Street," "The sea would know it," "I deserve")
1999 - The miners in the Jiu Valley have joined the general strike, demanding urgent settlement of 30 claims regarding the state of the mining industry.
2004 - The Great Gathering traditional Afghan Loya Jirga adopted the new Constitution "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan".
2006 - He died in Montreal with Alzheimer's, Romanian-born Canadian poet Irving Layton Peter (Israel Pincu Lazarovitch). Since the 40s was recognized as one of the most prolific, versatile, revolutionary and controversial poets of school "modern" Canadian. S reputation was consolidated in the 50s and 60s, especially after the publication of "A Red Carpet for the Sun" in 1959. One of his students was famous Leonard Cohen, musician, writer, promoter of Canadian postmodernism. (B. March 12, 1912, Targu Neamt, Romania).
2008 - The biggest Roma camp in France, located on the outskirts of Paris (Saint-Ouen), was disbanded
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