celebrating newton

8/6/2019 Celebrating Newton

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Celebrating NewtonAuthor(s): Stefi WeisburdSource: Science News, Vol. 132, No. 1 (Jul. 4, 1987), pp. 11-13Published by: Society for Science & the PublicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3972128 .

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eclipsed that of any scientist of his era."In its depth, scope and approach, hePrincipiacontains an understandingoftheworkingsof the universethatgoes farbeyondthat of previousworks.Moreover,Newton howed that manyofthe existingideas wereincorrect Descarteshad thenotion, for example, that the planetsmove not in a vacuum but in a sea ofmaterial hat swirls in huge vortices.In addition to Newton's hree laws ofmotion and universal lawof gravitation,the Principia,which he wrote in only 18months, contains workon hydrostatics,the motion of solids in resisting mediaand the propagation of sound waves.Newton's crowning achievement, how-ever,was the applicationof his abstractmathematical aws to the real universe;he explained the orbits of planets, theirregularmotion of the moon, the pathsof comets and the ebb and flow of thetides. He predicted that the earth isflattened at the poles, an idea that wasconfirmed by a French expedition toLaplandn 1736.Based on Newton'swork,Halleymade his famous predictionthatthe comet of 1682 Halley's omet) wouldreturnto view in 1758.

c( ike most classics in science,Newton'sPrincipias more hon-ored than read," ays Cohen,ascience historian at HarvardUniversityBut among those scientists who havestudied the workfirsthand, here is tre-mendousadmirationnotonlyofNewton'sresults, but also of how he arrived atthem. They say that Newton's proofs,which are largely geometric constructspepperedwith concepts of calculus,areextremely clever. Nobel-prize-winningastrophysicist SubrahmanyanChandrasekhar f the Universityof Chi-cago says he comparedhis ownproofs ofNewton's ropositionswiththose of New-ton's and was "astonished at the orig-

inality, he carefularrangement, leganceand astonishing lightness"of Newton'sproofs. "Every time I looked at whatNewton did, I felt like a schoolboy ad-monished by his master," saysChandrasekhar,who along with Cohenand others recentlyattended a Washing-ton-area symposium on Newton spon-soredbythe Universityof Maryland ndthe SmithsonianInstitution.Scientistsand historiansarealso takenwith the intellectual range of Newton'sachievements. He made important con-tributions to pure and applied mathe-matics. He studied chemistry and heatand designed scientific instruments. Inhis book the Opticks, he showed thatwhite light is composed of rays of dif-ferentcolors that pass througha prism atdifferentangles. Althoughhe consideredhis optics experimentsa failure nthat hewas unable to develop a mathematicalbasis for them, says Cohen, the Opticksensured a premier place in science forexperimentationand greatly influencedthe laterstudy of electricity,magnetismandchemistry by BenjaminFranklin ndothers.Likemanyscientists of his day,Newtonwas also fascinated by alchemy Accord-ing to RichardS. Westfall,a historian atIndianaUniversityand authorof Never atRest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (1983,CambridgeUniversityPress), Newton eftbehind about a million words on thesubject. He also had an intense, butprivate, nterest n religiousstudies, saysWestfall,and was among the first scien-tists to grapple with the unavoidableproblems associated with the rise ofmodern science in a society centered inChristianity"It sremarkable owmodernNewton'spoint of view was," says Wilczek. Forexample, Newton struggled with the

question of whether light was a particleor a wave. He had the insightto suspectthat lightand matterwere unified nsomeway, says Wilczek, and because matterwas thought to consist of particles, heultimatelyembraced the particle theory- even though he had evidence for theperiodicityof lightand even though hisown observations of lightwere the basisof the wavetheory that prevailedfor thenext two centuries until the advent ofquantummechanics.Today,says Wilczek, "we know thatmatterhas wave-likepropertiesand lighthas particle-likeproperties,and they arecapableof being described in the samelanguage." fNewton'squestioning aboutthe natureof light had been pursued,headds,"weprobablywould have hadquan-tum mechanics long before we in factdid."

..l\ewton, accordingto Wilczek,an-ticipated or struggled with whatare now three major themes ofcontemporary physics. By showing thatgravitational attractionapplied equallywell to an apple falling owardearth as tothe moon orbiting our planet, Newtonexpressedthe idea ofuniformity,n whichthe same physical laws and buildingblocks occureverywhere n the universe.However, ays Wilczek, Newton did notbelieve in this idea absolutely,as he didnot want to limit the power of God tomake he rules different ndifferent reas.Wilczeksays Newton also anticipatedthe concept of transformations,whichholds that particles can be created anddestroyed. In Newton'stime and yearsafter,scientists believed that observed

changesin matterwere due to rearrange-ments of immutable particles. But be-

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Johannes Kepler had discovered thatplan-ets move in elliptical orbits. Newtonshowed that the forceof attractionbetweena planet P, raveling in an ellipse, and a sunS, located at one focus of the ellipse, variesas the square of the distance between thetwo. In this way he proved that a centralgravitational force from the sun governsthe paths of the planets.

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QS AAFrom the viewpoint of modern scientists,for whom calculus is second nature, New-ton'sproofs are surprising because they arelargely geometrical. In Book I, PropositionI of the Principia, Newton begins a line ofreasoning that shows that a body con-tinually drawn to some center of force (S),will move along a curve and that a linedrawn from the center of the body willsweep through equal areas in equal times.

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cause light could be made to disappear(by being absorbed in a black cloth, forexample), Newton may have suspectedthatthe constituentsof matter oo couldbe createdand destroyed, says Wilczek.A thirdidea of modern physics is thatthe materialcontentof the universe,andnot only the motion and behavior ofmatter,s governedby the physicallaws.Newton's thinking on this point, saysWilczek,was complicatedby his theologyIn the end, while he envisioned a clock-like universe,runningby a set of laws,heseems to have left the initialconditions,such as the material makeupof the uni-verse, up to God.

TiT that makesa manof suchgenius?IAi/Apowerfulcombinationof talentand character, says Wilczek."Newtonhad a fantasticdedication'"hesays; he was the kind of person who"would itwitha problem,missingmealswithouteven noticing."Butwhile his tenacity and strong per-sonalitymayhave helped direct his sci-entific genius, it did not make him apleasant person to deal with. "Newtonwas an intense and solitary man"whoabhorredcriticism, says Theerman.Hehad heated run-ins with Robert Hookeover optics, with John Flamsteed, Eng-land'sAstronomerRoyal,overthe controlof astronomical data, and with the Ger-man mathematicianGottfriedWilhelmLeibniz over which of them inventedcalculus (historians say the two meninvented calculus independentlyof oneanother).His behavior in these disputes wasreportedly driven by an obsessive andirrationalrage. Afteran early entangle-mentwith Hooke and the RoyalSocietyhe retreated rompublic ife and brokeoffall intellectual correspondence. If itweren't or Halley n 1684 oaxingNewtonout ofhisshelland urginghim towrite hissolutions to some problems in orbitaldynamics,the Principiamightneverhavebeen written.Newtonalsosuffereda numberof nerv-ous breakdowns.Duringone episode in1693,he sent his friend John Locke awildly written letter accusing Locke oftrying oentanglehimwith women(New-ton never married). Some psychologi-cally oriented scholars have attributedNewton'sbehaviorto his childhood,par-ticularly o the deathof his fatherbeforehis birth and to the child's long separa-tionfromhis motheraftershe remarried.Othershave suggestedthat he was poi-soned bymercuryandother toxicchemi-cals duringhis extensive alchemicalex-periments.

rn spite of his temperamentNewtonwas revered in his time. The publica-I tion of the Principia brought himinstant ame nternationally, speciallyinLondon society. Westfall notes thatshortly afterthe Principia's publication,

the English government called on New-ton as one of the 10 leading intellectualsof the time to solve the country's eco-nomic crisis. Newton was electedCambridge University's representative inParliament, and later, president of theRoyal Society He was made Warden,andthen Master,of the Mint, where he over-saw the recoining of English currency andbecame the scourge of London counter-feiters. According to Chandrasekhar, peo-ple would stand for hours hoping for aglimpse of the carriage taking Newton tohis work at the mint. In 1705,he becamethe first scientist to be knighted.This adoration continued long after hisdeath in 1727.During the 18th century itwas fashionable for the social elite tofamiliarize themselves with Newton's

ideas and to own fine editions of hisworks. In schools, Latin and Englishversions of the Principiawere standardfare for students through the 19th cen-tury Newton,notes Theerman,"becamea potent symbol of the progress andpopularity of science" and rationalthought, inspiring writers, artists andsocial thinkersof the last two centuries.Today cientists remainunwavering ntheir appreciationof andwonderat New-ton's accomplishments. Chandrasekharsays thatwhilehe can imaginehow otherimportantscientists throughouthistorymighthave thoughtand felt, he "cannotimaginebeing Newton."To try, he says,would be akin "to someone climbingalittlehill and askingwhat tmust be liketobe on the top of Mt.Everest." El

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This stamp commemorates another great work of Newtons, the Opticks (published in1704), which pioneered the study of light and colors and validated the e-xperimentalapproach to science. While in his epitaph on Newton, Ale-xander Pope was apparentlyinspired by the Principia, his words are equally appropriate to the Opticks: "Natureand Natures~ laws lay hid in the night: God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."

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celebrating newton

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