Sir Issac Newton (1642-1727)

MathematicianPhysicist

AstrologerAlchemist

Knight

The year is 1642;What can we describe?

Free fall and Projectile Motion

Planetary Orbits

Inclined Planes, Levers, Simple Machines

The Tides

A Few Others (Buoyancy, Optics, etc.)

What can we fully explain?

Essentially, NOTHING!!

Well, maybe it’s not quite that bad . . .

Two properties: Inertia and acceleration

First attempt: Rene Descartes; had lots of good math, mostly lousy physics

Newton: the early years

Born on Christmas Eve, father died before birth, Mother moved away, raised by grandparents

Newton tries to run the family farm – inept

Enters Trinity college (Cambridge) in 1661“Work study student” in the mess hall.

Making his bones: the binomial theorem

Some calculations very hard to do, in particular, division and roots.

Approximation procedure: (1 + x)N ≈ 1 + xN for small N

√(1.02) = (1 + 0.02)0.5 ≈ 1 + .5(.02) = 1.01 calculator says 1.00995

Made him relatively famous

A great year

1665 Plague hits London; Newton moves to farm for a year and a half. Is bored; invents:

DynamicsCalculusOpticsDiscovers Gravity