For a constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration. Newton's Law of Acceleration: Force is equal to the change in momentum (mV) per change in time.Newton's Law of Inertia: Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.To this day, reflecting telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, are mainstays of astronomy ( picture of an Isaac Newton-designed reflecting telescope).įollowing his apple insight, Newton developed the three laws of motion, which are, in his own words: To solve the problem, Newton designed a telescope that used mirrors rather than just glass lenses, which allowed the new apparatus to focus all the colors on a single point-resulting in a crisper, more accurate image. (Related: "Galileo's Telescope at 400: From Spyglasses to Hubble.") This, in turn, made plain the cause of chromatic aberration-inaccurate color reproduction-in the telescopes of the day. Meanwhile, his interest in optics led him to propose, correctly, that white light is actually the combination of light of all the colors of the rainbow. His other major mathematical pre-occupation was calculus, and along with German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, Newton developed differentiation and integration-techniques that remain fundamental to mathematicians and scientists. Isaac Newton: More Than Master of Gravityĭecoding gravity was only part of Newton's contribution to mathematics and science. It was then that the apple-falling brainstorm occurred, and he described his years on hiatus as "the prime of my age for invention."ĭespite his apparent affinity for private study, Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 and served as a mathematics professor and in other capacities until 1696. In 1665 the school temporarily closed because of a bubonic plague epidemic and Newton returned home to Lincolnshire for two years. A practical child, he enjoyed constructing models, including a tiny mill that actually ground flour-powered by a mouse running in a wheel.Īdmitted to the University of Cambridge on 1661, Newton at first failed to shine as a student. "But it was enough to develop space travel."īorn two to three months prematurely on January 4, 1643, in a hamlet in Lincolnshire, England, Isaac Newton was a tiny baby who, according to his mother, could have fit inside a quart mug. "His theory of gravity wouldn't have got us global positioning satellites," said Jeremy Gray, a mathematical historian at the Milton Keynes, U.K-based Open University. "He showed that the force that makes the apple fall and that holds us on the ground is the same as the force that keeps the moon and planets in their orbits," said Martin Rees, President of Britain's Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of science, which was once headed by Newton himself. Legend has it that Isaac Newton formulated gravitational theory in 1665 or 1666 after watching an apple fall and asking why the apple fell straight down, rather than sideways or even upward. The English scientist was born especially tiny but grew into a massive intellect and still looms large, thanks to his findings on gravity, light, motion, mathematics, and more.
Today on the Google home page, an animated apple is falling, over and over, with a satisfying plunk-a 367th birthday tribute to Sir Isaac Newton.
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