Isaac Newton
Resting place
Westminster Abbey
Fields
Physics ，Natural philosophy
Mathematics，Astronomy
Alchemy，Christian theology
Economics
Known for
Newtonian mechanics，Universal gravitation、Calculus，Optics，Binomial series
Principia，Newton's method
SirIsaac NewtonPRS MP (/?nju?t?n/;[8] 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/7[1])was an English physicist and mathematician(described in his own day as a "natural philosopher")who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all timeand as a key figure in the scientific revolution.His book Philosophi?Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("MathematicalPrinciples of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid thefoundations for classical mechanics. Newton made seminalcontributions to optics, and he shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of calculus.
Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universalgravitation, which dominated scientists' view of the physicaluniverse for the next three centuries. By deriving Kepler's laws ofplanetary motion from his mathematical description ofgravity, and then using the same principles to account for the trajectories of comets,the tides, the precession of the equinoxes, and other phenomena, Newtonremoved the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the Solar System. This workalso demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies could bedescribed by the same principles. His prediction that Earth should be shaped asanoblate spheroid was later vindicated by themeasurements ofMaupertuis, La Condamine,and others, which helped convince mostContinental European scientists ofthe superiority of Newtonian mechanics over the earlier system of Descartes.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed atheory of colour based on the observation that aprism decomposes white light into the many colours of the visible spectrum. He formulated an empirical law ofcooling, studied thespeed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid. In addition to his work on calculus, as amathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised thebinomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developeda method forapproximating the roots of a function, andclassified most of thecubic plane curves.
Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor ofMathematics at the University of Cambridge.He was a devout but unorthodox Christian and, unusually for a member of theCambridge faculty of the day, he refused to take holy ordersin the Church of England, perhaps because he privately rejected thedoctrine of the Trinity. Beyond his work on themathematical sciences, Newtondedicated much of his time to the study ofbiblical chronology and alchemy, but most of his work in those areas remainedunpublished until long after his death. In his later life, Newton became president of the Royal Society. Newtonserved the British government as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint.
§Religious views
Although born into an Anglican family, by his thirties Newton helda Christian faith that, had it been made public, would not have been consideredorthodox by mainstream Christianity;[113] in recent times he has beendescribed as a heretic.[6]
In Newton's eyes, worshipping Christ as God was idolatry, to him the fundamental sin.
most scholars identify Newton as an Antitrinitarian monotheist.[6][120]
Along with his scientific fame, Newton's studies of theBible and of the early Church Fathers were alsonoteworthy. Newtonwrote works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. He placed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at 3 April, AD 33, which agrees withone traditionally accepted date.[122]
He believed in a rationally immanent world, but he rejected the hylozoism implicit in Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza.
§Effect on religiousthought
Newton and Robert Boyle's approach to the mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternativeto the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachersas well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians.[127] The clarity and simplicity ofscience was seen as a way to combat the emotional and metaphysical superlatives of both superstitiousenthusiasm and the threat of atheism,[128] and at the same time, the secondwave of English deists used Newton'sdiscoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion".
The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment "magicalthinking", and themystical elements of Christianity,were given their foundation with Boyle's mechanical conception of the Universe.
Newton saw God as the master creator whoseexistence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.
§End of the world
In a manuscript he wrote in 1704 in which hedescribes his attempts to extract scientific information from the Bible, he estimatedthat the world would end no earlier than 2060.
§Alchemy
Newton wrote about alchemy. All of Newton's knownwritings on alchemy are currently being put online in a project undertaken by Indiana University: "The Chymistry ofIsaac Newton". Here is a quote from the project web site.
Newton's fundamental contributions toscience include the quantification of gravitational attraction, the discoverythat white light is actually a mixture of immutable spectral colors, and theformulation of the calculus. Yet there is another, more mysterious side to Newton that isimperfectly known, a realm of activity that spanned some thirty years of hislife, although he kept it largely hidden from his contemporaries andcolleagues. We refer to Newton's involvement inthe discipline of alchemy, or as it was often called in seventeenth-century England,"chymistry." Newtonwrote and transcribed about a million words on the subject of alchemy.
§Enlightenment philosophers
Enlightenment philosopherschose a short history of scientific predecessors – Galileo, Boyle, and Newton principally –as the guides and guarantors of their applications of the singular concept of Nature andNatural Law to every physical and social fieldof the day. In this respect, the lessons of history and the social structuresbuilt upon it could be discarded.[141]
It was Newton's conception of the Universe basedupon Natural and rationally understandable laws that became one of the seedsfor Enlightenment ideology.[142] Locke and Voltaire applied concepts of Natural Law topolitical systems advocating intrinsic rights; the physiocrats and Adam Smith applied Natural conceptions of psychology and self-interest to economicsystems; and sociologists criticised thecurrentsocial order for trying to fit history intoNatural models of progress. Monboddo and Samuel Clarkeresisted elements of Newton's work, but eventually rationalised itto conform with their strong religious views of nature.
§Works
See also: Writing of PrincipiaMathematica
· De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas (1669, published1711)
· Method of Fluxions (1671)
· OfNatures Obvious Laws & Processes in Vegetation (unpublished, c.1671–75)[152]
· De motu corporum ingyrum (1684)
· Philosophi?Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
· Opticks (1704)
· Reports as Master of the Mint (1701–25)
· Arithmetica Universalis (1707)
· TheSystem of the World, Optical Lectures, The Chronologyof Ancient Kingdoms, (Amended) and De mundisystemate (published posthumously in 1728)
· Observationson Daniel and The Apocalypse of St. John (1733)
· Newton, Isaac (1991). Robinson, Arthur B., ed. Observations upon theProphecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. Cave Junction, Oregon: Oregon Institute ofScience and Medicine. ISBN 0-942487-02-8. (A facsimile edition of the 1733work.)
· An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1754)