Isaac Newton Essays - Isaac Newton, Copernican Revolution

Isaac Newton Isaac Newton was one of the greatest scientists of all time. He is best-known for his discovery of the law of universal gravitation and the laws of motion. Much of modern science is based on the understanding and use of his laws. Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, in the small English town of Woolsthorpe. His father, a farmer, died shortly before Isaac was born. When the boy was three years old, his mother remarried and moved to another town. Isaac stayed on at the farm in Woolsthorpe with his grandmother. After attending small country school, he was sent at the age of twelve to the Kings School in the near by town of Grantham. At first Isaac was a poor student. He cared little for school work, perferring to paint, make kites, write in notebooks, or invent toys. He made no friends. Silent and dreamy, he was at the bottom of his class. Oddly, it was a savage kick by a school bully that caused Newton's great mind to awaken. The mild, dreamy boy flew into a rage and beat the other boy thoroughly. Isaac determined to beat the bully in school work as well. Soon Isaac was at the head of his class. In 1656 Newton's stepfather died. His mother returned to Woolsthorpe to take care of the farm left by Newton's father. But she could not manage the farm by herself. Isaac was taken out of school and brought home to help her. As a farmer, Newton proved to be a dismal failure. He neglected the necessary chores and thought only of books to study and mechanical things to make. There are many stories about him at that time that show how absent minded he was becoming. One day while he was leading a horse, the animal slipped its bridle and ran away. Isaac continued walking home with the empty bridle, unaware that the horse was gone. When an idea got into Newton's head, he could think of nothing else. Once, during a storm, his mother sent him to shut the barn doors to keep them from being torn off. Half an hour later she went to see what was keep the boy so long. He had forgotten all about the barn doors. They were riped off the hinges, and Newton was jumping again and again from an open window to the ground. Each time, he marked the spot where he landed. Newton was trying to measure the force of the wind. when the gusts were strong, hes jumps were longer than when the wind was weaker.Realizing that her son was simply not suited to farm life, Newton's mother sent him back to Kings School. He graduated in 1661. When he was 18 years old, Newton went to Trinity College in Cambridge University. He quickly proved to his teachers that he was no ordinary student. He read all the books he could get, especially those on mathematics and physics. These interested him the most. His professors were amazed to find that Newton knew about certain subjects even before he was taught. the young man has mastered the subjects by himself. In 1665, when Newton was only 25 years old, he worked out a basic formula in Mathematics that has been used ever since. Today it is called the Binomial Theroem. That same year, 1665, Isaac graduated from Trinity College. He wanted to stay on at the university to continue his studies. But the plague, the Black Death, had broken out in England. The university was closed and the students sent home, for the fear that the plague would strike Cambridge. Newton then returned to Woolsthorpe. Fear of the plague keep Newton close to the farm for the next 18 months. Almost always alone, He spent his time thinking out mathematical problems. in those 18 months he laid the foundation for his lifes work. During that time he hit upon a new mathematical tool he called fluxions or flowing quantities. Today it is called calculus. One day in 1665 Newtin was sitting in the garden in Woolsthorpe, thinking about force that kept the moon moving around the earth, he saw an apple fall from a tree. This set him thinking about falling objects. Why did they fall down and not up? It must be because the earth is attracting all objects to itself. The same force that made the apple fall downward must also be attracting the moon and helping to keep it in orbit. From