Sir Isaac Newton: His Accomplishments

Sir Isaac Newton, born in 1642 in Grantham, England, was a mathematician and physicist. He is known to many as the most important figure in the development of modern science. Isaac Newton, as well as Albert Einstein, are credited with being the most original thinkers in that development. Newton had many amazing, well-known accomplishments throughout his life. He is probably most famous for developing the three laws of motion. (Volume Library 2: 2035).

Perhaps one of the most well-known stories about Isaac Newton is the story of the apple falling in his orchard, which is said to have occurred in 1665 or 1666. When Newton observed an apple falling from a tree, he began to think about what force was pulling the apple towards earth. He theorized that the apple is accelerated as it gets closer towards the ground. This force is called "gravity." Then, he thought about the apple tree being twice as high, and being accelerated in the same way towards the ground. This suggested to him that the force called gravity reaches beyond the tallest tree and beyond. Newton reached the conclusion that the force reached all the way to the Moon, and that the orbit of the Moon around the earth could be the consequence of gravitational force. He theorized that the same force governed the motion of the Moon and the apple. Newton calculated the force needed to hold the Moon in its orbit, and compared it with the force pulling an object to the ground. ("Isaac Newton.").

Before Sir Isaac Newton, an earlier scientist, Johannes Kepler, had proposed three laws of planetary motion based on systematics. These laws were supposed to apply only to the motion of planets. They said nothing about any other motion in the universe. Isaac Newton changed all this. First, he demonstrated that the motion of objects on earth could be described by three new laws of motion. Newton then showed that Kepler's laws of planetary motion were only approximately correct. ("Sir Isaac Newton.").

Newton's first law of motion is that every object in a state of motion tends to remain in that state unless an external force is applied to it. His second law states that the relationship between an object's mass, its acceleration, and the force is F = ma. In other words, the mass times the acceleration equals the force. Finally, his third law of motion is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. ("Sir Isaac Newton.").

Isaac Newton wrote Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, more commonly known as the Principia, which was published in 1687. This was a series of three books, which explain the laws of gravitation. Book I of the series states the foundations of the science of mechanics, developing the mathematics of orbital motion around centers of force. Sir Isaac Newton identified gravitation as the fundamental force controlling the motion of the earth, sun, and moon. In the second book, he studied the theory of fluids. He solved problems of fluids in movement, and of motion through fluids. From the density of air he calculated the speed of sound waves. In the third book, he showed the laws of gravitation at work in the universe and demonstrated it from the revolution of the six known planets. He also explained tidal ebb and flow. He did all of this with exact computation. ("Isaac Newton.").

Besides the Principia, Isaac Newton wrote and published many other books. Newton always spoke of himself as being self-taught, but he read extensively. He made major contributions in physics and astronomy, and invented the mathematical discipline of calculus.

("Sir Isaac Newton."). He died in 1727, having left a legacy as one of the most original, and most famous, thinkers in the history of modern science.

Bio of Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born the same year Galileo died. Galileo was the greatest minds in the history of physics. Newton hardly survived childhood they say that Newton could have fit into a paint jar. Newton was born in the little town of Woolsthorpe. Newton's mother brought Newton into the world with out a father.  Newton's farther died months before he was born.

Newton's mom was re-married and Newton was placed into his grandmothers care when he was two. Newton suffered his early years at school, no one knows what happened to him, but he made a complete turn around in his later years. Newton had many accomplishments in his life.

Newton had three laws. The first law was, Inertia Formalized, Second is when Forces are Unbalanced. Third is Action and Reaction. With out these three laws people would wonder way to much about things.

 Newton's first law is basically a restatement of Galileo's notion of inertia.  Newton's law means that any object in any state of motion even if its at rest will stay at the same speed unless acted upon by some other force. For example say two people push on a desk, one on one side the other on the other side, the force will be the same.

Newton's second law is known as the most famous in physics. Newton's law means that it takes more force to move something with more mass than one with less. An example of this would be if you through a baseball fifty feet and you through a bowling ball ten feet the object with more mass will go less then the object with less mass do to gravity.

Newton's third law causes a lot of confusion amongst people do to the fact that people think that eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is what it means but in physics it is a clear meaning to almost all people. An example of action- reaction is the balls on the strings if one is dropped than one will rise and that is the same with no mater how man you drop. That is action and reaction.

 With out Newton life would be much harder than it already is. People would always be asking how things worked and why if you drop two things in different masses at the same height why they hit the ground at the same time.  Isaac Newton was a great scientist and with out him we would be nowhere and we need to study more about him.