Newton’s Laws, Theories and Books
Sir Isaac Newton
If Einstein is the personification of scientific genius, he inherited that exalted
role from none other than Isaac Newton, of whom it was said that he was ‘the greatest
and luckiest of mortals’. In the tribute, credited to the 18th-century, Newton (1642-1727)
was deemed the greatest because he discovered the law of universal gravitation and
the luckiest because there was only one universe. His brilliance extended not only
to the motions of world and falling apples, but to an early system of the calculus
and a radical new theory of light and colour.
Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 in Woolsthorpe,
near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. He was not interested in the family farm,
so he was sent to Cambridge University to study. Newton was born just after the
death of Galileo, one of the greatest scientists of all time. Newton was interested
in the discoveries of Galileo and others. He thought that the universe worked like
a machine and that a few simple laws governed it. Like Galileo, he realized that
mathematics was the way to explain and prove those laws. Isaac Newton was one of
the world’s great scientists because he took his ideas and the ideas of earlier
scientists and combined them into a unified picture of how the universe works.
Newton explained the working of the universe through mathematics. He formulated
laws of motion and gravitation. These laws are maths formulas that explain how objects
move when a force acts on them. One of the greatest books of Newton is ‘Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)’.
Newton’s book was written in Latin and released in 1687 when he was a professor
of mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. The book was translated in English
in 1729. The book's first part contains the famous Laws of Motion. He explained
three laws of motion. First law deals with the concept of inertia, second law deals
with acceleration and the third law is about action – reaction. The second part
of the book speaks about the Cartesianism Principle. The third part describes about
the "Laws of force".
The other illustrious book written by Newton is ‘Opticks’ and it was released in
1704. The book explains the basic characteristics of light that white light could
be separated by a prism into a spectrum of different colours, each characterized
by a unique refractivity. He proposed the corpuscular theory of light. He was the
first person to understand the rainbow and to use a curved mirror in a telescope
to prevent light form being broken up into unwanted colours. Using his discoveries
in optics Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope in 1668.
As a mathematician, Newton invented integral calculus and jointly with Leibnitz,
differential calculus. He also calculated a formula for finding the velocity of
sound in a gas which was later corrected by Laplace. Newton found science a mixture
of isolated facts and laws, capable of describing some phenomena, but predicting
only a few. He left it with a unified system of laws that can be applied to an enormous
range of physical phenomena and that can be used to make exact predications.
Isaac Newton’s contributions to science are many and varied. They cover revolutionary
ideas and practical inventions. His work in physics, mathematics and astronomy is
of importance even today. His contributions in any one of these fields would have
made him famous. Collectively, they make him truly outstanding.
Newton died in London on March 20, 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the
first scientist to be accorded this honour. A review of an encyclopaedia of science
will reveal references to Newton at least two to three times more than any other
scientist. An 18th century poem written by Alexander Pope about Sir Isaac Newton
states it best –
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night,
God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
