S I R
I S A A C N E W T O N
Dr Robert A. Hatch - University of Florida
Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727), English natural
philosopher, generally regarded as the most original and influential
theorist in the history of science. In addition to his invention of the
infinitesimal calculus and a new theory of light and color, Newton
transformed the structure of physical science with his three laws of
motion and the law of universal gravitation. As the keystone of the
scientific revolution of the 17th century, Newton's work combined the
contributions of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and others
into a new and powerful synthesis.
Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas day 1642 (4
January 1643, New Style) in Woolsthorpe, a hamlet near Grantham in
Lincolnshire. Newton's childhood was anything but happy, and
throughout his life he verged on emotional collapse, occasionally
falling into violent and vindictive attacks against friend and foe alike.
In 1665 Newton took his bachelor's degree at Cambridge without
honors or distinction.
In 1666, as tradition has it, Newton observed the fall of an apple in
his garden at Woolsthorpe, later recalling, 'In the same year I began to
think of gravity extending to the orb of the Moon.' Newton's memory
was not accurate. In fact, all evidence suggests that the concept of
universal gravitation did not spring full-blown from Newton's head in
1666 but was nearly 20 years in gestation. Ironically, Robert Hooke
helped give it life. In November 1679, Hooke initiated an exchange of
letters that bore on the question of planetary motion. Although
Newton hastily broke off the correspondence, Hooke's letters provided
a conceptual link between central attraction and a force falling off
with the square of distance. Sometime in early 1680, Newton appears
to have quietly drawn his own conclusions.
Meanwhile, in the coffeehouses of London, Hooke, Edmund Halley,
and Christopher Wren struggled unsuccessfully with the problem of
planetary motion. Finally, in August 1684, Halley paid a legendary
visit to Newton in Cambridge, hoping for an answer to his riddle:
What type of curve does a planet describe in its orbit around the sun,
assuming an inverse square law of attraction? When Halley posed the
question, Newton's ready response was 'an ellipse.' When asked how
he knew it was an ellipse Newton replied that he had already
calculated it.
Scientific Achievements
Mathematics - The origin of Newton's interest in mathematics can
be traced to his undergraduate days at Cambridge. Newton made
fundamental contributions to analytic geometry, algebra, and calculus.
Specifically, he discovered the binomial theorem, new methods for
expansion of infinite series, and his 'direct and inverse method of
fluxions.' As the term implies, fluxional calculus is a method for
treating changing or flowing quantities. Hence, a 'fluxion' represents
the rate of change of a 'fluent'--a continuously changing or flowing
quantity, such as distance, area, or length. In essence, fluxions were
the first words in a new language of physics.
Optics. Newton's optical research, like his mathematical
investigations, began during his undergraduate years at Cambridge.
But unlike his mathematical work, Newton's studies in optics quickly
The Crucial Experiment. Newton's most famous experiment,
the experimentum crucis, demonstrated his theory of the composition
of light. Briefly, in a dark room Newton allowed a narrow beam of
sunlight to pass from a small hole in a window shutter through a
prism, thus breaking the white light into an oblong spectrum on a
board. Then, through a small aperture in the board, Newton selected a
given color (for example, red) to pass through yet another aperture to
a second prism, through which it was refracted onto a second board.
What began as ordinary white light was thus dispersed through two
prisms.
Newton's 'crucial experiment' demonstrated that a selected color
leaving the first prism could not be separated further by the second
prism. The selected beam remained the same color, and its angle of
refraction was constant throughout. Newton concluded that white light
is a 'Heterogeneous mixture of differently refrangible Rays' and that
colors of the spectrum cannot themselves be individually modified,
but are 'Original and connate properties.'
While the myth of Newton and the apple maybe true, the traditional
account of Newton and gravity is not. To be sure, Newton's early
thoughts on gravity began in Woolsthorpe, but at the time of his
famous 'moon test' Newton had yet to arrive at the concept of
gravitational attraction. Early manuscripts suggest that in the mid-
1660's, Newton did not think in terms of the moon's central attraction
toward the earth but rather of the moon's centrifugal tendency to
recede. Under the influence of the mechanical philosophy, Newton
had yet to consider the possibility of action- at-a-distance; nor was he
aware of Kepler's first two planetary hypotheses. For historical,
philosophical, and mathematical reasons, Newton assumed the moon's
centrifugal 'endeavour' to be equal and opposite to some unknown
mechanical constraint. For the same reasons, he also assumed a
circular orbit and an inverse square relation. The latter was derived
from Kepler's third hypothesis (the square of a planet's orbital period
is proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun), the
formula for centrifugal force (the centrifugal force on a revolving
body is proportional to the square of its velocity and inversely
proportional to the radius of its orbit), and the assumption of circular
orbits.
The Principia. Newton's masterpiece is divided into three books.
Book I of the Principia begins with eight definitions and three
axioms, the latter now known as Newton's laws of motion. No
discussion of Newton would be complete without them: (1) Every
body continues in its state of rest, or uniform motion in a straight line,
unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it
(inertia). (2) The change in motion is proportional to the motive force
impressed and is made in the direction of the straight line in which
that force is impressed (F = ma). (3) To every action there is always
an opposed and equal reaction. Following these axioms, Newton
proceeds step by step with propositions, theorems, and problems.
Robert A. Hatch
University of Florida
