Newton – A quick biography•

Born: 4 Jan 1643 in Woolsthorpe, LincolnshireDied: 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.

Nature, and Nature’s laws lay hid in Night. God said, Let Newton be! and All was Light. Alexander

Pope

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 made the revolution to modern science based on experimental results, rigorous mathematics.

Newton byWilliam Blake

Newton- Interests & Achievements• Devised Calculus

– Independently by Leibnitz– Newton first - but didn’t publish

• Principia Mathematica– Most influential physics book– Newton’s 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

Newton’s death mask

in Hunterian

A complication: what do we mean by mass ?

• Newton’s 2nd law F = mI a

• Law of Gravity rr

MmGF GG ˆ

2

mI is inertial mass

mG, MG is gravitational mass

- like electric charge for gravityAre these the same ?

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