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Sir Isaac Newton was, among many other things, a physicist, mathematician and astronomer. Newton was born was born 3 months after the death of his father, on January 4th of 1643 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Known commonly as the Father of Modern Science, Sir Newton’s discoveries were plenty and spanned over many different concentrations in science that he most certainly deserves the title. He helped develop the field of calculus as well as the laws of light and color and the laws of gravity and planetary motion.
Sir Isaac Newton is responsible for planting the seed for many of the ideas and theories that are being developed still today. After a rudimentary education in local schools, Newton was sent at the age of 12 to the King’s School in Grantham. In 1661, at the age of 19, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge where Newton’s interest in the laws of the environment we live in began, pertaining to mathematics and sciences.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree, Newton began his master’s but the college closed and he returned to Woolsthorpe and performed some basic experiments and developed his system of calculus. He also started his thinking on optics and universal gravity. He then returned to Cambridge in 1667 and quickly completed the requirements for his Master’s degree. Newton became Lucasian professor of mathematics at age 27 and stayed at Trinity in that capacity for 27 years.
My favorite research and accomplishment of Sir Isaac Newton is his work, magnum opus, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, to state the full title. Commonly know as Newton’s Principia, it was published first in Latin in 1687 and only took Newton 18 months to complete. The Principia promptly established Newton as the leading scientist of his time in the Western world. In this work he demonstrated for the first time that celestial bodies follow the laws of dynamics.
He formulated the law of universal gravitation and gave mathematical solutions and support to most of the problems earlier scientists encountered with researching motion. Book 1 of Principia treats the motion of bodies in purely mathematical terms. Book 2 deals with motion in resistant mediums, in other words our physical reality. In Book 3, Newton describes a cosmos based on the laws he has established. He demonstrates the use of these laws in determining the density of the earth, the masses of the sun and of planets having satellites, and the trajectory of a comet.
He also focuses on equinoxes and tides relating to the variation of the moon’s motion. Overall, more than one of my very favorite scientists, Newton changed the scientific world for his time. He is the true father of modern science, sprouting many of the crucial scientific theories today with discoveries and research during his time. As one of his greatest and most well known works, Principia established Newton as the leading scientific and mathematical mind of that era and demonstrated principles and mathematics still used and taught by scientists today.