Sir
Isaac Newton (Courtesy of Wiki)
Sir
Isaac Newton PRS (25 December
1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian,
and author (described
in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised
as one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of all time and among the
most influential scientists. He was a key figure in the philosophical
revolution known as the Enlightenment. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy),
first published in 1687, established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal
contributions to optics, and shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for
developing infinitesimal calculus.
In
the Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that
formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until it was superseded by the theory of relativity. Newton used his
mathematical description of gravity to derive Kepler's laws of planetary motion,
account for tides,
the trajectories of comets, the precession of
the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about
the Solar System's heliocentricity.
He demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be accounted for by
the same principles. Newton's inference that the Earth is an oblate
spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements
of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, convincing most
European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier
systems.
Newton
built the first practical reflecting telescope and
developed a sophisticated theory of
colour based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colours of
the visible spectrum. His work on light was
collected in his highly influential book Opticks,
published in 1704. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, made the first
theoretical calculation of the speed of
sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian
fluid. In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician
Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial
theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for
approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of
the cubic plane curves.
As
Warden and afterwards; as Master of the Royal Mint,
Disguised as a habitué of
bars and taverns, he gathered much of that evidence himself. For all the
barriers placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of
government, English law still had ancient and formidable customs of
authority.
