When people think of Isaac Newton and the contributions he made to science they usually think of his law of gravitation, but there is so much more. He came up with the three laws of motion, theory of light, and the universal law of gravitation. Newton transformed the history of science. In the first three years when Newton was at Cambridge, he, like everybody else, was taught the standard curriculum, but he was more interested in the advanced science. (Isaac Newton, 1) One of his very first purchases at Cambridge was a notebook. Within that notebook he kept all the thoughts that flew through his mind. Newton left about 100 pages empty in the center. He used his free time to read on modern philosophers. Surprisingly enough, not all of Newton’s researches were entirely scientific. A good chunk of his time was given to theology and alchemy. On the subject of alchemy, Newton had written over a million words. He conducted many endless experiments in his lab, mixing certain potions, tasting his results and occasionally poisoning himself. All the work he had done led nowhere, therefore wasting his time. His alchemy research wasn’t a dead end for him. Even though his work didn’t get him anywhere with alchemy, it lit up a thought in Newton that he could take the same principles and utilize them in mathematical physics. In the notebook Newton had written all of his thoughts in, and the 100 pages he left empty, he put in the title, “Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae”. There is no way to specifically mark the date at the beginning of the “Quaestiones”. Most say it wasn’t too late in 1664. He would write down notes from books he read. He read Thomas Hobbes, Robert Boyle, Joseph Glanville, Kenelm Digby, Henry More, and many others. (Berlinski, 27) These notes eventually revealed the skeleton for the Scientific Revolution. Newton went to work on the laws of motion. First, an object at rest will stay at rest; an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless it’s changed by another force. Second, the change in motion is
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What he found and observed was how white light had the ability to be separated by a prism. In which led to a spectrum of different colors, and each had their own unique refractivity (see figure 2). He had taught optics at the University of Cambridge from 1670 to 1672. He came up with what he called, Newton’s theory of color. This theory was the realization that color happens when it collides with already-colored light, rather than light making up itself. Newton also gathered that a refracting telescope has a reaction of the dispersion of light into colors. In 1668, to prove this, he took a telescope and used a mirror, and this lends a hand in proving Newton’s theory. This telescope was the first operational one in its time. This design is known as the Newtonian telescope. (Isaac Newton 1,)
Isaac Barrow was the name of Newton’s mentor, and he played a big role in presenting Newton’s telescope to the scientific community. (Silverman, 1) In 1671, The Royal Society wanted a demonstration of Newton’s telescope. However, they were not as enthused as Newton was about his findings in optics. A man by the name of Robert Hooke, a previous member, attacked Newton’s methods and gatherings. Many other people questioned Newton’s conclusions in optics, while others still considered him to be a genius (see figure 3). (Isaac Newton,
What he found and observed was how white light had the ability to be separated by a prism. In which led to a spectrum of different colors, and each had their own unique refractivity (see figure 2). He had taught optics at the University of Cambridge from 1670 to 1672. He came up with what he called, Newton’s theory of color. This theory was the realization that color happens when it collides with already-colored light, rather than light making up itself. Newton also gathered that a refracting telescope has a reaction of the dispersion of light into colors. In 1668, to prove this, he took a telescope and used a mirror, and this lends a hand in proving Newton’s theory. This telescope was the first operational one in its time. This design is known as the Newtonian telescope. (Isaac Newton 1,)
Isaac Barrow was the name of Newton’s mentor, and he played a big role in presenting Newton’s telescope to the scientific community. (Silverman, 1) In 1671, The Royal Society wanted a demonstration of Newton’s telescope. However, they were not as enthused as Newton was about his findings in optics. A man by the name of Robert Hooke, a previous member, attacked Newton’s methods and gatherings. Many other people questioned Newton’s conclusions in optics, while others still considered him to be a genius (see figure 3). (Isaac Newton,