Physics-+Discoveries+of+Sir+Isaac+Newton

=Physics - Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton= //Done By: Keerthana Sundar, Tang Xue Chun, Therese Ho, Sun Xue and Trishala//


 * Timeline of key events**


 * December 25, 1642:** ·Isaac Newton born in Woolsthorpe, England.
 * 1654:** ·Newton enrolled in the Grantham Grammar School.
 * 1661:** ·Newton enrolled in Trinity College, Cambridge.
 * July 1662:** ·Founding of the Royal Society.
 * 1665:** ·Newton received his bachelor of arts from Trinity College.
 * 1666:** ·. Newton conducted prism experiments, discovered spectrum of light, worked out his system of "fluxions," precursor of modern calculus and began to consider the idea of gravity.
 * 1667**: Newton elected a Fellow of Trinity College.
 * 1669:** ·Newton appointed Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Trinity for the next thirty-four years.
 * January 11, 1672:** ·Newton elected to the Royal Society.
 * February 1672:** ·Newton's paper on optics and his prism experiments sent to the Society. Rivalry with Hooke began.
 * 1670s:** ·Newton worked on the mathematics of gravitation in his home in Cambridge.
 * 1674:** ·Hooke wrote book in which he suggested existence of "attractive powers," akin to gravity.
 * January 1684:** ·Hooke discussed principle of inverse squares with Christopher Wren and Halley.
 * August 1684:** ·Halley visited Newton in Cambridge, where they discussed the principle inverse squares and its relationship with planetary orbits.
 * November 1684:** ·Newton completed his calculations on gravity and shared them with Halley, who urges him to publish.
 * February 1685:** ·Newton sent a brief treatise, //Propositiones de Motu,// to the Royal Society, outlining his findings.
 * April 1686:** ·Newton presented the first book of the //Principia// to the Royal Society.
 * September 1687:** ·Publication of the complete //Principia.//
 * 1689:** ·Newton elected as Cambridge's representative to Parliament.
 * 1693:** ·Newton's "Black Year". He was plagued by depression and insomnia, and apparently suffered a nervous breakdown in September.
 * 1695:** ·Newton appointed warden of the Mint, to oversee the implementation of a new currency. He left Cambridge and moved to London.
 * 1699:** ·Newton named master of the Mint.
 * 1703:** ·Death of Hooke; Newton elected President of the Royal Society.
 * 1704:** ·Publication of //Optics//; beginning of feud with Leibniz.
 * 1705:** ·Newton knighted by Queen Anne.
 * 1712:** ·Royal Society commission, under Newton's direction, investigated the competing claims of Leibniz and Newton to having developed calculus, and decided in favor of Newton.
 * 1713:** ·Second edition of the //Principia// published.
 * November 14, 1714:** ·Death of Leibniz.
 * 1726:** ·Third edition of the //Principia// published; all reference to Leibniz removed.
 * March 20, 1727:** ·Death of Sir Isaac Newton, in London.


 * Brief Biological Write-up about the people involved.**

** __Isaac Newton__ **

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), is both a mathematician and physicist. He is one of the foremost scientific intellects of all time. He entered Cambridge University in 1661; was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1667 and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. He remained at the university, lecturing in most years, until 1696. During two to three years of intense mental effort he prepared //Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy//, commonly known as the //Principia,// although this was not published until 1687. As a firm opponent of the attempt by King James II to make the universities into Catholic institutions, Newton was elected Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge to the Convention Parliament of 1689, and sat again in 1701-1702. Meanwhile, in 1696 he had moved to London as Warden of the Royal Mint. He became Master of the Mint in 1699, an office he retained to his death. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1671, and in 1703 he became President, being annually re-elected for the rest of his life. His major work, //Optics,// appeared the next year; he was knighted in Cambridge in 1705. As Newtonian science became increasingly accepted on the Continent, especially after a general peace was restored in 1714 and following the War of the Spanish Succession, Newton became the most highly esteemed natural philosopher in Europe. His last decades were passed in revising his major works, as well as carrying out his official duties. Newton was modest, diffident, and a man of simple tastes. He was angered by criticism, and harboured resentment. In government, and at the Royal Society, he proved an able administrator. He never married and lived modestly, but was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. Newton has been regarded for almost 300 years as the founding exemplar of modern physical science, his achievements in experimental investigation being as innovative as those in mathematical research. With equal energy and originality he also plunged into chemistry, the early history of Western civilization, and theology; among his special studies was an investigation of the form and dimensions, as described in the Bible, of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.


 * __Issac Newton and Robert Hooke__**

Hooke corresponded with Newton regularly, but was not enough of a mathematician to formulate gravitation in the Newtonian sense. When Newton published his work on gravity in Principia, Hooke felt that he had not been given enough credit for his earlier work, a view that Newton never forgave. Newton wrote to Halley in strong terms over the argument. The relationship became more and more acrimonious, such that Hooke became secretive in his work and Newton is said to have delayed the publication of Optics until after Hooke's death. When Newton presented his results from his work on Optics to the Royal Society in 1672, the results made his name immediately and also provoked the first in a series of arguments with Robert Hooke. Several arguments were quite bitter as each man believed he was the brightest natural philosopher of his generation and was determined to prove himself right. Hooke was a pre-eminent mechanist and criticized Newton on those grounds. Newton revealed the nature of light, but had nothing to say about deeper mechanical causes. Hooke challenged Newton’s theories of orbital motion on the same grounds but they only described and did not explain. The heated conflicts between them had even been related to the reason for the absence of an authenticated portrait of Robert Hooke.


 * Major discoveries and achievements**

The laws of motion that define the concepts of inertia and force were conceptualized by Sir Isaac Newton. The three laws are as follows. Together, these three laws defined the framework of mechanics and explained the dynamics and effects of forces, and provided a way for them to be analysed.
 * Mechanics**
 * Newton's Law of Inertia: Every object stays in its state of rest or uniform motion, unless disturbed by an external force.
 * Newton's Force Law: The force acting on a body is defined as the rate of change of its linear momentum, with time.
 * Newton's Action-Reaction Law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Apart from forces, Sir Newton spent a great deal of time on optics as well and made many breakthroughs, although eventually some of them were proved wrong.
 * Optics**
 * He discovered that white light consists of component colour wavelengths using a prism. In this way he discovered a lot with relation to light and colours.
 * He predicted the dispersion and aberration of light in telescopes and suggested remedies to correct the same. In the process, he invented a new kind of telescope. He also promoted the concept of a universal atmosphere through which the light propagates. This was later proved wrong by the theory of relativity.
 * He also put forward the idea that light was made up of corpuscles. However, this was also later disproved Huygens' wave theory of light.

The Newton's law of universal gravitation states that: "//Every particle of matter attracts every other particle with a force along the straight line joining them and is directly proportional to their masses, while inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.//"
 * Law Of Gravitation**

This law helped explain how the planets and satellites moved and gave it a rational explanation. It explained why the planets moved around the Sun and did not float off into space.

Isaac Newton’s inventions helped scientists to discover many ideas following his line of discovery. It also helped to explain the simple things that happen around us each day, such as the motion of objects etc. His main concept of simplicity in the things around him helped him come up with better inventions and laws that explain daily happenings.
 * // Importance/Significance of major discoveries //**

This idea of simplicity helped Isaac Newton to generate the **reflecting telescope** which was an alternative and a less complicated design to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration. A reflecting telescope is an optical telescope which uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. It allows for very large diameter objectives. Almost all of the major telescopes used in astronomy research are reflectors. The main difference between a refractor and a reflector telescope is that instead of having light passing through lenses, light is reflected to an eyepiece mounted on the side of the telescope. The reflector telescope managed to correct the main flaw of the refractor telescope called chromatic aberration as they were able to pack a lot of light gathering power into a more compact body. It was also ideal for viewing faint, deep-sky objects such as nebulae as opposed to the refractor telescope which is less suited for viewing faint and small deep-sky objects. Other differences include the reflecting telescope being more compact and portable, and brighter images can be delivered with few optical aberrations. It helped the astronomers to discover new galaxies and star clusters such as the Whirlpool galaxy and the Pleiades Star Cluster. Newton's invention of the three **laws of motion** forms the foundation of the branch of physics known as classical mechanics. His laws of motion were used to compute accurate trajectories of planets about the sun and the motion of stars, i.e., primarily very large objects. Newton's laws can be also applied, to a very good approximation, to study the motion of aggregates of molecules. The implication of this is that most atoms are heavy enough that their motion can be treated accurately within a classical framework. **Classical mechanics** is one of the two major sub-fields of study in the science of mechanics, which is concerned with the set of physical laws governing and mathematically describing the motions of bodies and aggregates of bodies geometrically distributed within a certain boundary under the action of a system of forces. Classical mechanics is pertinent in the use for describing the motion of macroscopic objects, from projectiles to parts of machinery, as well as astronomical objects, such as spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. It produces very accurate results within these domains. Classical mechanics is enhanced by special relativity for objects moving with high velocity, and helped in the calculation of the speed of light.

Gravity is a natural phenomenon by which objects with mass attract one another. The implications of Newton’s universal law of gravitation were enormous. He had demonstrated that one universal law, mathematically proved, could explain all motion in the universe. It is responsible in the explanation the most simplest observations, of how the Earth and the other planets can keep in their orbits around the Sun; how the Moon  can keep   in its orbit around the Earth; the formation of tides; for convection, fluid flow occurs under the influence of a density gradient and gravity and for various other phenomena observed on Earth. This view dominated the Western worldview until the twentieth century, when Einstein built on Newton’s idea based on his own concept of relativity. Newton used prisms to show that sunlight was made up of all the colours of the rainbow. This proved that the ancient Greeks’ ideas about light were wrong. In Newton’s time, astronomy was severely hampered because lenses in telescopes broke some of the light into unwanted colours, causing a somewhat unclear view. Although not the first to consider using a curved mirror instead of a lens, Newton was the first to successfully construct a telescope using this principle—a principle still used today in many telescopes. A so-called crucial experiment confirmed the theory. Newton selected out of the spectrum a narrow band of light of one color. He sent it through a second prism and observed that no further elongation occurred. All the selected rays of one color were refracted at the same angle. These discoveries led Newton to the logical, but erroneous, conclusion that telescopes using refracting lenses could never overcome the distortions of chromatic dispersion. He therefore proposed and constructed a reflecting telescope, the first of its kind, and the prototype of the largest modern optical telescopes. In 1671 he donated an improved version to the Royal Society of London, the foremost scientific society of the day. As a consequence, he was elected a fellow of the society in 1672. Later that year Newton published his first scientific paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the society. It dealt with the new theory of light and color and is one of the earliest examples of the short research paper. Newton's paper was well received, but two leading natural philosophers, Robert Hooke and Christian Huygens, rejected Newton's naive claim that his theory was simply derived with certainty from experiments. In particular they objected to what they took to be Newton's attempt to prove by experiment alone that light consists in the motion of small particles, or corpuscles, rather than in the transmission of waves or pulses, as they both believed. Although Newton's subsequent denial of the use of hypotheses was not convincing, his ideas about scientific method won universal assent, along with his corpuscular theory, which reigned until the wave theory was revived in the early 19th century. The debate soured Newton's relations with Hooke. Newton withdrew from public scientific discussion for about a decade after 1675, devoting himself to chemical and alchemical researches. He delayed the publication of a full account of his optical researches until after the death of Hooke in 1703. Newton's Opticks appeared the following year. It dealt with the theory of light and color and with Newton's investigations of the colors of thin sheets, of "Newton's rings," and of the phenomenon of diffraction of light. To explain some of his observations he had to graft elements of a wave theory of light onto his basically corpuscular theory.
 * OPTICS**

Newton invented a scientific method which was truly universal in its scope. Newton presented his methodology as a set of four rules for scientific reasoning. These rules were stated in the //Principia// and proposed that (1) we are to admit no more causes of natural things such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances, (2) the same natural effects must be assigned to the same causes, (3) qualities of bodies are to be esteemed as universal, and (4) propositions deduced from observation of phenomena should be viewed as accurate until other phenomena contradict them.
 * SCIENTIFIC METHOD**

By their application, Newton formulated the universal laws of nature with which he was able to unravel virtually all the unsolved problems of his day. Newton went much further than outlining his rules for reasoning, however, actually describing how they might be applied to the solution of a given problem. This scientific method that Newton invented was a great improvement from the more philosophical methods of Aristotle and Aquinas. Newton refined [|Galileo's] experimental method, creating the compositional method of experimentation still practiced today.

Newton contributed in many aspects of human thought. His work were especially significant to the Scientific Revolution as it contributed greatly to other areas of scientific work such as the prediction of tides and waves in unchartered waters, which caused a great leap in exploration and the maritime industry, as well as the nature of map making as gravitation showed that the earth was not a perfect sphere. His more significant contributions were in theoretical physics, mechanics, optics and formulating the law of gravitation. He wound all the different observations to create a whole and coherent explanation for many things, and has been one of very few to do so. His theories and laws lead to greater discoveries and inventions by others. Instead of allowing himself to be limited by the lack of technology like scientists before him, he simply invented his own laws to explain the daily things around him. This encouraged the development of new technologies that can benefited Science greatly.

  [1] LaPierre, S. (2006). //Shane lapierre's atm pages! telescope faq //. Retrieved from http://ct-astronomer.com/telescope_faq.htm  Hayneedle,. (2007). Telescopes 101. Retrieved from http://www.telescopes.com/articles.cfm doi: 7887760 [2] Laborde, A.M. (2006). The Impact of the invention and development of the telescope on astronomy. Retrieved from http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~bclarke/AST199M/Telescopes.htm doi: L0111 [3] Wikipedia,. (2007). Whirlpool Galaxy. //Wikipedia //. Retrieved (2010, February 22) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy [4] Barnbaum, Cecilia. "Hubble Space Telescope." World Book Online Reference Center. 2004. World Book, Inc. []. [5] Tuckerman, M. (2002, September 14). //Newton ////'s laws of motion //. Retrieved from http://www.nyu.edu/classes/tuckerman/mol.dyn/lectures/lecture_1/node2.html [6] Wikipedia,. (2007). Classical mechanics. //Wikipedia //<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.5pt; letter-spacing: .75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">. Retrieved (2010, February 22) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics [7] <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.5pt; letter-spacing: .75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Lamont, Ann. (1990, June). //<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.5pt; letter-spacing: .75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Sir isaac newton (1642/3–1727): a scientific genius //<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.5pt; letter-spacing: .75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">. Retrieved from http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v12/i3/newton.as p [8] <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.5pt; letter-spacing: .75pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Paar, D. (1996, March 9). //Newton////, sir isaac//. Retrieved from http://www.phy.hr/~dpaar/fizicari/xnewton.html
 * __References (Online)__**

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">[1] Bell, E. T. "On the Seashore: Newton." Ch. 6 in [|Men of Mathematics: The Lives and Achievements of the Great Mathematicians from Zeno to Poincaré.] <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">New York: Simon and Schuster, pp. 90-116, 1986.
 * __References (Print)__**