Isaac Newton - Research Paper Example

Although Newton was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome by his school psychologist, he constantly achieved the title of top student in the school. Newton was interested in the works of great philosophers and mathematicians, and he discovered the generalized binomial theorem when he was studying in the Trinity College. Between the period 1665 and 1667, Newton made some of his prominent achievements such as the development of calculus, the law of gravitation, and theories on optics. Newton died on 20th March 1727.

Although Newton developed a range of theories in mathematics and science, his greatest four achievements include the study of light, discovery of the binomial theorem, discovery of calculus, and the development of the theory of universal gravitation. As Levin says, when Newton discovered that white light is made up of a spectrum of colors from his crystal prism experiments, it brought an end to the debate that whether or not color was an intrinsic property of light (39)i. In addition, Newton’s great works on refraction led to the development of first practical reflecting telescopes, which is known as Newtonian Telescope today.

When scientists of Newton’s time supported the idea of ‘light as a wave’, Newton suggested light was made up of particles but not waves. Today, it is clear that light exists as both waves and particles. Binomial theorem was one of the greatest contributions of Isaac Newton to the field of mathematics. The binomial theorem has a range of applications such as multiple-angle identities, series for e, derivative of the power function, and nth derivative of a product. The discovery of calculus was another significant achievement of Newton in mathematics.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, calculus is defined as “the branch of mathematics that deals with the finding and properties of derivatives and integrals of functions, by methods originally based on the