Isaac Newton is one of the most important scientific figures in history, as he described the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, postulations on which modern physics is based.
A man can imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true.
Today, we are more than 7.6 billion people in the world. Each and every one of us plays an essential role in our environment: from the smallest work to the most bombastic discovery, each of the acts carried out are necessary for society to stay afloat, in all its strata and geographical locations.`
As an initial curious fact, we highlight that the Population Reference Office (PRB) estimates that 108,000 million anatomically modern Homo sapiens have set foot on Earth in the last 50,000 years. Although each and every one of them has been necessary to reach the point where we are today, it is impossible to deny that, throughout history, true eminences have emerged that have paved the propulsive knowledge of modern society.
If we think of the world of discoveries in the field of physics and nature, we will surely think of figures such as Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger and other figures of the contemporary age. Anyway, in order for them to run at the level of knowledge, others had to pave the ground before. Stay with us, because todaywe tell you everything about one of the most relevant geniuses in history: Isaac Newton.
- We recommend you read: “The 20 best and most illustrious scientists in history”
Biography of Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, England. As the son of a farmer who had died three months before his conception, Newton spent most of his childhood with his grandmother on his mother’s side, after his mother remarried. From 12 to 17 years of age, little Isaac was educated at The King’s School, which taught Greek, Latin and, surely, the mathematical foundations that helped this genius to leave his mark in his later years.
Curiously, his mother became a widow again andtried to get young Isaac to leave school to devote his life to the profession of farmer, just as his late father did. Henry Stokes, the college’s master’s degree, implored the woman for Newton to continue his student career. Thanks to this small but vital act, he was able to enroll in Trinity College (Cambridge), after passing his studies as the most outstanding student in the class.
When Newton arrived in Cambridge in 1661, the movement we know today as the “scientific revolution” was well underway. At this time, studies in physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry transformed medieval visions of what surrounded us into the primordia of what we know today as science. Thus, Newton was able to drink from the writings of the best philosophers and thinkers in history to train himself: Aristotle, Descartes, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, among others.
When the great plague of London (1665-1666, the last outbreak of bubonic plague) gripped Cambridge, Newton returned to his secluded home, where he began to formulate his first theories of calculus, lights, and colors. When he returned to the university after the epidemiological peak, he was baptized as a minor fellow, to be appointed as a full Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1672. It is here that we can begin to dissect their most important discoveries.
Scientific works and contributions
Exploring all the contributions made by this figure in his years as a member of the Royal Society is impossible, since he stood out on very different fronts, from physics to theology, through astronomy, mathematics and other natural disciplines. Anyway, we list some of his most important discoveries and postulations in the following lines.
1. Studies on light
Between 1670 and 1672, Newton worked intensively on problems related to light and optics. During this period, he studied the refraction of light and showed that the multicolor spectrum produced by a prism could be recomposed into white light by using a lens and a second prism. He also showed that colored light does not change its properties by separating a beam of color and reflecting it on different objects.
This last discovery may be obvious to us, but it goes to show that the color of objects is the result of interaction with a previously colored beam of light, or what is the same, that they do not “emit” the coloration by themselves. This postulation is known as “Newton’s theory of color.”
We can cite many more contributions in this area, such as that Newton created his own telescope, the Newtonian, using a concave primary mirror and a secondary mirror of diagonal plane. This type of device does not suffer chromatic aberration, is cheaper to manufacture than others and allows to obtain a small focal ratio easily, which gives the researcher a greater field of vision. These types of gadgets continue to leave their mark today.
In 1704, this scientist publishedOpticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light, where he postulated his corpuscular theory of light. In it, he stressed that light was composed of small corpuscles, as well as the description of phenomena such as refraction, reflection and scattering of light.
2.Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Perhaps, the work for which this thinker is most famous. This work, composed of three different books, was first published on July 5, 1687. In it, he collects his knowledge of mechanics and mathematical calculation, highlighting above all other postulations the three laws of Newton and the law of universal gravitation. This set of works represented a true scientific revolution and, for many, it is the most important set of writings in history.
Divided into six parts, Newton covers in his magnum opus from definitions of basic physics and the famous axioms (the laws of motion) to a myriad of mathematical lemmas and complex terms. We present these three laws that receive their name in a summarized way, because without a doubt, they are the greatest gift that Newton could leave to humanity:
- First law of inertia: if no other acts on one body, it will remain indefinitely moving in a straight line with constant speed. This includes the resting state, where the total body velocity is 0.
- Fundamental principle of dynamics: for a body to alter its movement, it is necessary that there is something that causes that change. This physical engine is the forces, result of the action of some bodies on others (Force = mass x acceleration).
- Principle of action-reaction: forces are the result of the action of some bodies on others. If a physical element A exerts an action on another B, it performs on A another equal action and in the opposite direction.
In addition to these principles, basic but essential to establish the foundations of modern physics, we cannot forget the law of universal gravitation. In it, Isaac Newton postulates that the force with which two bodies attract each other has to be proportional to the product of their masses, in turn divided by the distance between them squared.
Of this theory, the following formula stands out, very famous among students and experts in the field of physics:
Where F is the modulus of force exerted by both bodies, G is the universal gravitation constant, m1 and m2 the masses of the bodies and r the distance between them, squared. The law of universal gravitation allowed us to understand as a species, for the first time, how the movement of planet Earth around the Sun, or of an artificial satellite relatively close to the Earth with respect to it, was possible. Undoubtedly, one of the most important milestones in modern history.
Summary
As you can see, highlighting Newton’s contributions in a few lines is an impossible task, becausethis genius shines for his multidisciplinarity and desire for continuous knowledge. From mathematics to physics, the mind of one man laid the foundation for so many physical processes that we take for granted today, so Newton will live with all of us until the end of human civilization.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.