Isaac Newton is a Great Man - Research Paper Example

Isaac Newton Is a Great Man When considering that something or someone is the greatest, it is amazing to think about what goes on in somebody’s mind so as to arrive to such a conclusion. Whether we are considering a great athlete, scientist, cook or religious person, there is no greater honor perhaps than to be judged the greatest. Sir Isaac Newton was one of the people who earned such an honor during his lifetime. He was known to many people as “the greatest scientist and genius who ever lived “(Smith 345), and is attributed to coming up with much of the knowledge which is available to modern scientists and mathematicians today. There are, however, many facets to this man’s life, other than being a scientist that are worthy to know. Perhaps that is what truly causes mankind to label an individual the “greatest.” Possessing not only scientific prowess, but also religious and philosophical ponderings, Newton is still a focus of conversation in academic and theological circles nearly 300 years after his death. While people will certainly argue that Sir Isaac Newton should not be regarded as the “greatest,” this paper will argue that he is certainly worthy of that title based on the magnitude of his scientific discoveries and the depth of his wisdom and thinking. Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England in 1642 and grew up to be an authority in Mathematics, dynamics, celestial mechanics, astronomy, optics and philosophy (Newton). His life seems to have been influenced by the death of his father who died few months prior to Newton’s birth (English-Online). He took charge of his life early in his life, waiting on tables and doing menial jobs for wealthy students to pay for his school fees, which shows his great love for education. His mother had remarried and left him under the care of aged grandparents who could barely support him, but this did not deter his quest for learning. During his youth, he is known to have been interested in mechanical devices, doing many experiments and building many devices (Newton). He is known to have built a mill model, clocks and kites among other devices, which he experimented in his neighborhood, with some of the experiments greatly frightening his neighbors. He drew many drawings and architectural diagrams on the window edges and walls of his Woolsthorpe home which included drawings of men, animals, birds and also plants. During this time, he is known to have been influenced by the book; ‘mysteries of nature’ by John Bates (Newton). He had his early education at Skillington and Stoke which is thought to have begun when he was five years old. He the proceeded to King’s school in Grantham during which time his step father died and his mother returned to their Woolsthorpe home (Newton). The mother removed him from school and intended to make him a farmer, but Newton was not interested in farming but had a great thirst for learning. John Stokes, master of the Grantham School and William Ayscough, Newton’s uncle intervened, leading to the decision to prepare Newton for University, which was done in 1661, with entry to Trinity College, Cambridge (Newton). It is at this college where he is thought to have made his mathematical discoveries where he had easy access to the college and university libraries where he spent lengthy hours of study. It is also assumed that it was in the rooms of the Trinity College where he did the experiments of the dispersion and refraction of light, and probably done the one on the pendulum to explain about the earths pull of gravity. The experiment about the falling apple, which Newton said explained about the idea of gravitation, was done either at Boothbay or at the Woolsthorpe house (Newton). Isaac Newton was a very ambitious scientist who did his researches very conclusively and had a firm belief that everything in nature had an explanation in mathematics, but not all scientists during his time concurred with him. He was so engrossed in his work and researches that he did not have many friends and did not also marry. When for example he was writing the principia, which is the mathematical principles of natural philosophy in the Latin language, he rarely left his room and ate little food or even none at all, had unkempt hair and worn out shoes, and also very rarely went to the chapel. Isaac Newton contributed much through his research and discoveries in many of the fields in which he was involved. In the field of mathematics, his most notable work was in calculus, and other fields of analysis. He contributed much in the field of algebra and number theory, geometry curves classification, computation and approximation and probability (Morrison 140). All these worked a great deal in improving mathematical knowledge, and use in society and many aspects are in use to the present time. Some of Newton’s mathematical discoveries lay buried for many years but have been discovered and published and become useful even at this time and age. He was also instrumental in the fields of dynamics and Astronomy. In his very important book by the title in Latin, "the Principia,” he came up with three laws, which states that all objects keep moving till something stops them, an object on the ground stays immobile until a force is applied to put it into motion, and for movement to take place, a force must act on a mass. The greater the mass , the more force will be needed to move it, just as in the fact that one needs more force in setting a car in motion than a bicycle (Koffi 139). He stated in the third principle that in every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. This is very evident in rocket launching where the rockets engines push down on the ground whereby the opposite action created pushes the rocket into the air (Ligthman 153). These laws of motion were definitely a milestone as they explained why things move, what causes them to move, and the impact their mass has on the mobility. They laid the ground for aspects that today we refer to as inertia, action, reaction and acceleration, aspects that are so important in engineering and other fields where mobility is concerned (Von Hofe 66). He also demonstrated by his findings that the people could predict changes in the motion of objects through these laws about motion. His studies also came up with the law of gravity, which he arrived at from the experiment with an apple, which he recorded is pulled back to the earth as it is thrown up. In the principia, he explains about the workings of the solar system, explaining in simple equations about the pull or gravity between heavenly bodies and how and why they orbit around one another (Koffi 145). This has led discoveries later that gravitational pull is instrumental in the formation of galaxies, stars, black holes and other activities in space. He explained that the moon goes round the earth because the earth is a greater mass than the moon. He also was the first to discover that there must be a force that made the planets to orbit around the sun. This was because the planets, which were smaller masses, were attracted by the gravity of the sun, which is a bigger mass. These and other findings changed the perception of people about the solar system and are instrumental to the present day in the study of space. Although these principles were not understood by the people during the time Newton made them, they have later proved to be very important today in the field of mathematics and have aided very much in the important fields of engineering and statistics (Morrison 144). Isaac Newton also changed the aspect of telescopes which were poorly manufactured during his day. He discovered that mirrors were better than lenses in the making of the same and thus made one with mirrors whose capability was greater than a lens one 12 times its size (Ligthman 150). These brought a great revolution to astronomy since the earlier telescopes had been fuzzy and thus not very useful in the study of space. Newton also laid the groundwork for differential and integral calculus before it was discovered in a bigger way by Leibniz (Koffi 140). He based his “method of fluxions” on the fact that the totaling of a function is the opposite procedure to differentiating it. Using this method, he was able to come up with simple methods of solving mathematical problems like looking for areas, tangents, curve lengths and other functions. He was also the first person to find out that white light is composed of all rainbow colors (Koffi 141). Newton achieved this using a prism in an experiment which he performed at Cambridge, proving that white light was made up of all colors and could be separated by using the prism. This even led to a better understanding of what caused the formation of the rainbow. This also led to further study of light which have led to its great use in medicine and communication where the X-Ray and light based electronic media like television have revolutionized the world (Von Hofe 68). As noted earlier some of the scientists during his time did not believe in the findings of Isaac Newton, but his concentration and in depth research until he had solved a problem enabled him to make amazing discoveries, many of which are still in use. It is reported that for example during the great plague, he spent long periods in his room at Cambridge studying complex mathematical methods (Newton). He seems never to have been distracted by the reaction of the people around him. Some of his findings have even been published many years after his death and found to be of great substance. In theology, he has been reported to have rejected the aspect of the Trinity and wrote his historical and Biblical reasons for doing that, which he did not publish during his lifetime. His life was religious though and believed that religion and science were intertwined, and just as he insisted on in-depth research in science, he had the same approach to religion where he was insistent on historical and natural facts. He tried to establish the correct date of Christ’s death, for example to have been 34 A.D (Newton). He was also known to be very insistent on the embracing of prophecy, calling it the mark of the true Church. He has been referred to as the scientist who believed in God. Isaac Newton’s findings have surely made such a great impact on the world that to label him the greatest scientist who ever lived would be quite befitting to him. His discoveries of the principles of gravity, calculus and the three laws of motion have revolutionized and continue to revolutionize the world (Morrison 146). His discoveries continue to give inspiration to mathematicians and scientists all over the world, so many years after the death of this great genius. His great commitment to do his research in depth led to the change in perception of the way that people had looked at the world. It would be hard to find another person whose name is so connected to physics than Isaac Newton. Works Cited English-Online. Isaac Newton - A Great Scientist. English-Online. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. http://www.english-online.at/people/newton/isaac-newton.htm Koffi, Maglo. “The Reception of Newton’s Gravitational Theory: How Normal Science May Be Revolutionary.” Perspectives on Science, 11.2 (2003): 135-169. Ligthman, Bernard. “Does the History of Science and Religion Change Depending on the Narrator.”Science and Christian Belief, 24.2 (2012): 149-168. Newton, Isaac. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. . Morrison, Tessa. “Isaac Newton, Architect.” Seventeenth Century, 26.1 (2011): 130-148. Smith, Pamela. “Science on the Move: Recent Trends in the History of Early Modern Science.” Renaissance Quarterly, 62.2 (2009): 345-375. Von Hofe, Hal. “Towards a Genealogy of Grey Literature via Newton’s Journals.” Publishing Research Quarterly, 22.1 (2006): 63-68. Wigelsworth, Jeffrey. “The Newtonian Soul.”Journal of the History of Ideas, 70.1 (2009): 45-68. Read More