Newton A quick biography

1
Newton A quick biography
Nature, and Natures laws lay hid in Night. God
said, Let Newton be! and All was Light. Alexander
Pope

Born 4 Jan 1643 in Woolsthorpe,
Lincolnshire Died 31 March 1727 in London
Dates from corrected Gregorian calendar (1752)
Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge at a time
when all studies were ecclesiastical. But much
of his great work was done back home in
Lincolnshire during the Plague of 1666.
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The World before Newton

• Little progress in western world since Aristotle
  and the ancient Greeks
• Force required to maintain motion.
• Natural case is at rest
• A world of alchemy,magic and lack of precision
  e.g.
• Cubit ?distance elbow to finger
• Maths was basically only geometry
• Postal address on a letter from Newton
• "To Mr Henry Oldenburge at his house about the
• middle of the old Palmail in St Jamses Fields in
  Westminster".

Newton by William Blake
Newton made the revolution to modern science
based on experimental results, rigorous
mathematics.
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Newton- Interests Achievements

• Devised Calculus
• Independently by Leibnitz
• Newton first - but didnt publish
• Principia Mathematica
• Most influential physics book
• Newtons laws, and theory of gravity
• Also published Opticks
• Alchemy
• Scientific study in un-scientific discipline
• Poisoned himself with mercury
• Religion
• Disbelieved in trinity
• Master of the Royal Mint

Newtons death mask in Hunterian
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A complication what do we mean by mass ?

• Newtons 2nd law F mI a
• Law of Gravity

mI is inertial mass
mG, MG is gravitational mass - like electric
charge for gravity
Are these the same ?

• Yes, but that took another 250 years till
• Einsteins theory of relativity to explain!