Sir Isaac Newton Essays (991 words) - Isaac Newton,

Sir Isaac Newton Jan 4 1643 - March 31 1727 On Christmas day by the georgian calender in the manor house of Woolsthorpe, England, Issaac Newton was born prematurely. His father had died 3 months before. Newton had a difficult childhood. His mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton remarried when he was just three, and he was sent to live with his grandparents. After his stepfather's death, the second father who died, when Isaac was 11, Newtons mother brought him back home to Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire where he was educated at Kings School, Grantham. Newton came from a family of farmers and he was expected to continue the farming tradition , well that's what his mother thought anyway, until an uncle recognized how smart he was. Newton's mother removed him from grammar school in Grantham where he had shown little promise in academics. Newtons report cards describe him as 'idle' and 'inattentive'. So his uncle decided that he should be prepared for the university, and he entered his uncle's old College, Trinity College, Cambridge, in June 1661. Newton had to earn his keep waiting on wealthy students because he was poor. Newton's aim at Cambridge was a law degree. At Cambridge, Isaac Barrow who held the Lucasian chair of Mathematics took Isaac under his wing and encouraged him. Newton got his undergraduate degree without accomplishing much and would have gone on to get his masters but the Great Plague broke out in London and the students were sent home. This was a truely productive time for Newton. He conducted experiments on sunlight and prisms. He discovered that sunlight was made up of different colors. This lead to his work on reflecting telescopes. At the same time he was working out his ideas of planetary motion. He returned to Cambridge in 1667 and became the a fellow, earned his MA and the following year became the chair of the math department. he then wrote a book on optics. Newton worked cooperatively wiht other scientists such as Robert Hookeand Edmund Halley on planetary motion. But he was later bitter and resentfull not wanting to give other any credit for their contributions to his work. Newton went on to serve in government positions such as a member of Parliament and later as Warden of the Mint. His only words spoken as a member of parliament were "shut the window." He had a mental breakdown of sorts resulting in thoughts of persecutiojn mania later in life. He never married and was taken care of by his niece. He became the president of the Royal Society and was knighted for his work in 1705. Isaac Newton, knight, scientist, professor, mathematician and politician was the first scientist burried at Westminster Abbey. Contributions Isaac Newton's Many Accomplishments Isaac Newton is famous for proving the laws of gravity. Newton then developed his three laws of motion. His first law of motion is that what is in motion stays in motion, what is at rest stays at rest. Isaac Newton's second law of motion states that acceleration and direction depend in the applied force. Isaac's third law of motion is for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. These laws of motion are what made modern day space travel possible. Newton is also famous for proving that sunlight is really made of all the colors of the rainbow. He used a prism to seperate white light into all the individual colors. Newton decided that lenses would not display things accurately because of this, so he invented the reflecting telescope. This is the same principle that today's modern telescopes use. His observations of circular motion resulted in theories used to observe the planets. Newton built upon the work of other mathematicians and published a book known as Principia. He developed calculus, an entire branch of mathematics. Without Newton, many experiments and inventions might not have happened. We wouldn't be anyware if it wasnt for the man we know as Isaac Newton Newton held the famous Lucasian Chair of Physics at Cambridge which is now held by Stephen Hawking, the famous astrophysicist. Historical people and events The Plague Known for more than 3000 years, plague has ravaged human populations worldwide in several major pandemics. The most famous pandemic swept through Europe in the Middle Ages. The most recent pandemic occurred from 1894 to 1900. The plague is a contagious bacterial disease of and human beings. In humans, plague occurs in three forms: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. Bubonic plague is transmitted by the bite of parasitic insects, especially the rat , and causes swollen nodes. In europe, the months between July and October normally raised