Newton made notes on Wallis 's treatment of series but also devised his own proofs of the theorems writing:- Thus Wallis doth it, but it may be done thus It would be easy to think that Newton's talent began to emerge on the arrival of Barrow to the Lucasian chair at Cambridge in when he became a Fellow at Trinity College. Certainly the date matches the beginnings of Newton's deep mathematical studies.
However, it would appear that the date is merely a coincidence and that it was only some years later that Barrow recognised the mathematical genius among his students. Despite some evidence that his progress had not been particularly good, Newton was elected a scholar on 28 April and received his bachelor's degree in April It would appear that his scientific genius had still not emerged, but it did so suddenly when the plague closed the University in the summer of and he had to return to Lincolnshire.
There, in a period of less than two years, while Newton was still under 25 years old, he began revolutionary advances in mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy. While Newton remained at home he laid the foundations for differential and integral calculus, several years before its independent discovery by Leibniz. The 'method of fluxions', as he termed it, was based on his crucial insight that the integration of a function is merely the inverse procedure to differentiating it.
Taking differentiation as the basic operation, Newton produced simple analytical methods that unified many separate techniques previously developed to solve apparently unrelated problems such as finding areas, tangents , the lengths of curves and the maxima and minima of functions. When the University of Cambridge reopened after the plague in , Newton put himself forward as a candidate for a fellowship.
In October he was elected to a minor fellowship at Trinity College but, after being awarded his Master's Degree, he was elected to a major fellowship in July which allowed him to dine at the Fellows' Table.
In July Barrow tried to ensure that Newton's mathematical achievements became known to the world. He sent Newton's text De Analysi to Collins in London writing:- [ Newton ] brought me the other day some papers, wherein he set down methods of calculating the dimensions of magnitudes like that of Mr Mercator concerning the hyperbola, but very general; as also of resolving equations; which I suppose will please you; and I shall send you them by the next.
Collins corresponded with all the leading mathematicians of the day so Barrow 's action should have led to quick recognition. Collins showed Brouncker , the President of the Royal Society , Newton's results with the author's permission but after this Newton requested that his manuscript be returned.
Collins could not give a detailed account but de Sluze and Gregory learnt something of Newton's work through Collins. Barrow resigned the Lucasian chair in to devote himself to divinity, recommending that Newton still only 27 years old be appointed in his place.
Shortly after this Newton visited London and twice met with Collins but, as he wrote to Gregory Newton's first work as Lucasian Professor was on optics and this was the topic of his first lecture course begun in January He had reached the conclusion during the two plague years that white light is not a simple entity. Every scientist since Aristotle had believed that white light was a basic single entity, but the chromatic aberration in a telescope lens convinced Newton otherwise.
When he passed a thin beam of sunlight through a glass prism Newton noted the spectrum of colours that was formed. He argued that white light is really a mixture of many different types of rays which are refracted at slightly different angles, and that each different type of ray produces a different spectral colour.
Newton was led by this reasoning to the erroneous conclusion that telescopes using refracting lenses would always suffer chromatic aberration. He therefore proposed and constructed a reflecting telescope. In Newton was elected a fellow of the Royal Society after donating a reflecting telescope. Also in Newton published his first scientific paper on light and colour in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
The paper was generally well received but Hooke and Huygens objected to Newton's attempt to prove, by experiment alone, that light consists of the motion of small particles rather than waves. The reception that his publication received did nothing to improve Newton's attitude to making his results known to the world. He was always pulled in two directions, there was something in his nature which wanted fame and recognition yet another side of him feared criticism and the easiest way to avoid being criticised was to publish nothing.
Certainly one could say that his reaction to criticism was irrational, and certainly his aim to humiliate Hooke in public because of his opinions was abnormal. However, perhaps because of Newton's already high reputation, his corpuscular theory reigned until the wave theory was revived in the 19 th century. Newton's relations with Hooke deteriorated further when, in , Hooke claimed that Newton had stolen some of his optical results.
Although the two men made their peace with an exchange of polite letters, Newton turned in on himself and away from the Royal Society which he associated with Hooke as one of its leaders. He delayed the publication of a full account of his optical researches until after the death of Hooke in Newton's Opticks appeared in It dealt with the theory of light and colour and with investigations of the colours of thin sheets 'Newton's rings' and diffraction of light.
To explain some of his observations he had to use a wave theory of light in conjunction with his corpuscular theory. His mother died in the following year and he withdrew further into his shell, mixing as little as possible with people for a number of years.
Newton's greatest achievement was his work in physics and celestial mechanics, which culminated in the theory of universal gravitation. By Newton had early versions of his three laws of motion. He had also discovered the law giving the centrifugal force on a body moving uniformly in a circular path. However he did not have a correct understanding of the mechanics of circular motion. Newton's novel idea of was to imagine that the Earth's gravity influenced the Moon, counter- balancing its centrifugal force.
From his law of centrifugal force and Kepler 's third law of planetary motion, Newton deduced the inverse-square law. In Newton corresponded with Hooke who had written to Newton claiming M Nauenberg writes an account of the next events:- After his correspondence with Hooke , Newton, by his own account, found a proof that Kepler's areal law was a consequence of centripetal forces, and he also showed that if the orbital curve is an ellipse under the action of central forces then the radial dependence of the force is inverse square with the distance from the centre.
This discovery showed the physical significance of Kepler 's second law. In Halley , tired of Hooke 's boasting [ M Nauenberg ] However in 'De Motu.. The proof that inverse square forces imply conic section orbits is sketched in Cor.
Halley persuaded Newton to write a full treatment of his new physics and its application to astronomy. The Principia is recognised as the greatest scientific book ever written. Newton analysed the motion of bodies in resisting and non-resisting media under the action of centripetal forces. The results were applied to orbiting bodies, projectiles, pendulums, and free-fall near the Earth.
He further demonstrated that the planets were attracted toward the Sun by a force varying as the inverse square of the distance and generalised that all heavenly bodies mutually attract one another.
Further generalisation led Newton to the law of universal gravitation Newton explained a wide range of previously unrelated phenomena: the eccentric orbits of comets, the tides and their variations, the precession of the Earth's axis, and motion of the Moon as perturbed by the gravity of the Sun. This work made Newton an international leader in scientific research. The Continental scientists certainly did not accept the idea of action at a distance and continued to believe in Descartes ' vortex theory where forces work through contact.
However this did not stop the universal admiration for Newton's technical expertise. He had become a convert to the Roman Catholic church in but when he came to the throne he had strong support from Anglicans as well as Catholics. However rebellions arose, which James put down but he began to distrust Protestants and began to appoint Roman Catholic officers to the army.
He then went further, appointing only Catholics as judges and officers of state. Whenever a position at Oxford or Cambridge became vacant, the king appointed a Roman Catholic to fill it. Newton was a staunch Protestant and strongly opposed to what he saw as an attack on the University of Cambridge. When the King tried to insist that a Benedictine monk be given a degree without taking any examinations or swearing the required oaths, Newton wrote to the Vice-Chancellor:- Be courageous and steady to the Laws and you cannot fail.
The Vice-Chancellor took Newton's advice and was dismissed from his post. However Newton continued to argue the case strongly preparing documents to be used by the University in its defence.
However William of Orange had been invited by many leaders to bring an army to England to defeat James. William landed in November and James, finding that Protestants had left his army, fled to France. The University of Cambridge elected Newton, now famous for his strong defence of the university, as one of their two members to the Convention Parliament on 15 January This Parliament declared that James had abdicated and in February offered the crown to William and Mary.
Newton was at the height of his standing - seen as a leader of the university and one of the most eminent mathematicians in the world. As he later recalled, 'All this was in the two plague years of and , for in those days I was in my prime of age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since.
I n April , Newton returned to Cambridge and, against stiff odds, was elected a minor fellow at Trinity. Success followed good fortune. In the next year he became a senior fellow upon taking his master of arts degree, and in , before he had reached his 27th birthday, he succeeded Isaac Barrow as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.
The duties of this appointment offered Newton the opportunity to organize the results of his earlier optical researches, and in , shortly after his election to the Royal Society, he communicated his first public paper, a brilliant but no less controversial study on the nature of color.
I n the first of a series of bitter disputes, Newton locked horns with the society's celebrated curator of experiments, the bright but brittle Robert Hooke.
The ensuing controversy, which continued until , established a pattern in Newton's behavior. After an initial skirmish, he quietly retreated. Nonetheless, in Newton ventured another yet another paper, which again drew lightning, this time charged with claims that he had plagiarized from Hooke.
The charges were entirely ungrounded. Twice burned, Newton withdrew. I n , Newton suffered a serious emotional breakdown, and in the following year his mother died. Newton's response was to cut off contact with others and engross himself in alchemical research. These studies, once an embarrassment to Newton scholars, were not misguided musings but rigorous investigations into the hidden forces of nature.
Newton's alchemical studies opened theoretical avenues not found in the mechanical philosophy, the world view that sustained his early work. While the mechanical philosophy reduced all phenomena to the impact of matter in motion, the alchemical tradition upheld the possibility of attraction and repulsion at the particulate level.
Newton's later insights in celestial mechanics can be traced in part to his alchemical interests. By combining action-at-a-distance and mathematics, Newton transformed the mechanical philosophy by adding a mysterious but no less measurable quantity, gravitational force.
I n , as tradition has it, Newton observed the fall of an apple in his garden at Woolsthorpe, later recalling, 'In the same year I began to think of gravity extending to the orb of the Moon. In fact, all evidence suggests that the concept of universal gravitation did not spring full-blown from Newton's head in but was nearly 20 years in gestation. Ironically, Robert Hooke helped give it life.
In November , Hooke initiated an exchange of letters that bore on the question of planetary motion. Although Newton hastily broke off the correspondence, Hooke's letters provided a conceptual link between central attraction and a force falling off with the square of distance.
Sometime in early , Newton appears to have quietly drawn his own conclusions. M eanwhile, in the coffeehouses of London, Hooke, Edmund Halley, and Christopher Wren struggled unsuccessfully with the problem of planetary motion. Finally, in August , Halley paid a legendary visit to Newton in Cambridge, hoping for an answer to his riddle: What type of curve does a planet describe in its orbit around the sun, assuming an inverse square law of attraction? When Halley posed the question, Newton's ready response was 'an ellipse.
Although Newton had privately answered one of the riddles of the universe--and he alone possessed the mathematical ability to do so--he had characteristically misplaced the calculation. After further discussion he promised to send Halley a fresh calculation forthwith. In partial fulfillment of his promise Newton produced his De Motu of From that seed, after nearly two years of intense labor, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica appeared.
Arguably, it is the most important book published in the history of science. But if the Principia was Newton's brainchild, Hooke and Halley were nothing less than midwives. A lthough the Principia was well received, its future was cast in doubt before it appeared. Here again Hooke was center stage, this time claiming not without justification that his letters of earned him a role in Newton's discovery. But to no effect. Newton was so furious with Hooke that he threatened to suppress Book III of the Principia altogether, finally denouncing science as 'an impertinently litigious lady.
But instead of acknowledging Hooke's contribution Newton systematically deleted every possible mention of Hooke's name.
Newton's hatred for Hooke was consumptive. Indeed, Newton later withheld publication of his Opticks and virtually withdrew from the Royal Society until Hooke's death in A fter publishing the Principia , Newton became more involved in public affairs.
In he was elected to represent Cambridge in Parliament, and during his stay in London he became acquainted with John Locke, the famous philosopher, and Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, a brilliant young mathematician who became an intimate friend.
In , however, Newton suffered a severe nervous disorder, not unlike his breakdown of The cause is open to interpretation: overwork; the stress of controversy; the unexplained loss of friendship with Fatio; or perhaps chronic mercury poisoning, the result of nearly three decades of alchemical research.
Each factor may have played a role. We only know Locke and Samuel Pepys received strange and seemingly deranged letters that prompted concern for Newton's 'discomposure in head, or mind, or both. His new position proved 'most proper,' and he left Cambridge for London without regret. D uring his London years Newton enjoyed power and worldly success.
His position at the Mint assured a comfortable social and economic status, and he was an active and able administrator.
After the death of Hooke in , Newton was elected president of the Royal Society and was annually reelected until his death. Newton knew the answer, due to his concentrated work for the past six years, and replied, "An ellipse.
Upon the publication of the first edition of Principia in , Robert Hooke immediately accused Newton of plagiarism, claiming that he had discovered the theory of inverse squares and that Newton had stolen his work.
The charge was unfounded, as most scientists knew, for Hooke had only theorized on the idea and had never brought it to any level of proof. Newton, however, was furious and strongly defended his discoveries. He withdrew all references to Hooke in his notes and threatened to withdraw from publishing the subsequent edition of Principia altogether.
Halley, who had invested much of himself in Newton's work, tried to make peace between the two men. While Newton begrudgingly agreed to insert a joint acknowledgment of Hooke's work shared with Wren and Halley in his discussion of the law of inverse squares, it did nothing to placate Hooke.
As the years went on, Hooke's life began to unravel. His beloved niece and companion died the same year that Principia was published, in As Newton's reputation and fame grew, Hooke's declined, causing him to become even more bitter and loathsome toward his rival. To the very end, Hooke took every opportunity he could to offend Newton.
Knowing that his rival would soon be elected president of the Royal Society, Hooke refused to retire until the year of his death, in Following the publication of Principia , Newton was ready for a new direction in life. He no longer found contentment in his position at Cambridge and was becoming more involved in other issues.
He helped lead the resistance to King James II's attempts to reinstitute Catholic teaching at Cambridge, and in he was elected to represent Cambridge in Parliament. While in London, Newton acquainted himself with a broader group of intellectuals and became acquainted with political philosopher John Locke. Though many of the scientists on the continent continued to teach the mechanical world according to Aristotle , a young generation of British scientists became captivated with Newton's new view of the physical world and recognized him as their leader.
However, within a few years, Newton fell into another nervous breakdown in The cause is open to speculation: his disappointment over not being appointed to a higher position by England's new monarchs, William III and Mary II, or the subsequent loss of his friendship with Duillier; exhaustion from being overworked; or perhaps chronic mercury poisoning after decades of alchemical research.
It's difficult to know the exact cause, but evidence suggests that letters written by Newton to several of his London acquaintances and friends, including Duillier, seemed deranged and paranoiac, and accused them of betrayal and conspiracy.
Oddly enough, Newton recovered quickly, wrote letters of apology to friends, and was back to work within a few months. He emerged with all his intellectual facilities intact, but seemed to have lost interest in scientific problems and now favored pursuing prophecy and scripture and the study of alchemy.
While some might see this as work beneath the man who had revolutionized science, it might be more properly attributed to Newton responding to the issues of the time in turbulent 17th century Britain. Many intellectuals were grappling with the meaning of many different subjects, not least of which were religion, politics and the very purpose of life. Modern science was still so new that no one knew for sure how it measured up against older philosophies.
In , Newton was able to attain the governmental position he had long sought: warden of the Mint; after acquiring this new title, he permanently moved to London and lived with his niece, Catherine Barton.
Barton was the mistress of Lord Halifax, a high-ranking government official who was instrumental in having Newton promoted, in , to master of the Mint—a position that he would hold until his death. Not wanting it to be considered a mere honorary position, Newton approached the job in earnest, reforming the currency and severely punishing counterfeiters. As master of the Mint, Newton moved the British currency, the pound sterling, from the silver to the gold standard.
However, Newton never seemed to understand the notion of science as a cooperative venture, and his ambition and fierce defense of his own discoveries continued to lead him from one conflict to another with other scientists. By most accounts, Newton's tenure at the society was tyrannical and autocratic; he was able to control the lives and careers of younger scientists with absolute power. In , in a controversy that had been brewing for several years, German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz publicly accused Newton of plagiarizing his research, claiming he had discovered infinitesimal calculus several years before the publication of Principia.
In , the Royal Society appointed a committee to investigate the matter. Of course, since Newton was president of the society, he was able to appoint the committee's members and oversee its investigation. Not surprisingly, the committee concluded Newton's priority over the discovery.
That same year, in another of Newton's more flagrant episodes of tyranny, he published without permission the notes of astronomer John Flamsteed.
It seems the astronomer had collected a massive body of data from his years at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England. Newton had requested a large volume of Flamsteed's notes for his revisions to Principia.
Very Interesting! Isaac Newton was born in in Woolsthorpe, England. His father was a wealthy, uneducated farmer who died three months before Newton was born.
Newton's mother remarried and he was left in the care of his grandmother. He attended Free Grammar school.
Though Newton did not excel in school, he did earn the opportunity to attend Trinity College Cambridge where he wanted to study law. His mother refused to pay for his education so while at college he worked as a servant to pay his way.
Newton also kept a journal where he was able to express his ideas on various topics. He became interested in mathematics after buying a book at a fair and not understanding the math concepts it contained. Newton graduated with a bachelors degree in The further pursuit of an education was interrupted by the plague.
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