According to the modern calendar,1643 65438+1October 4th, Isaac? 6? 1 Newton was born in Elshop Manor, a small village in Lincolnshire, England. When Newton was born, Britain did not adopt the Pope's latest calendar, so his birthday was recorded as 1642 Christmas. Three months before Newton was born, his father, Isaac, had just died. Newborn Newton was thin because of premature birth; Rumor has it that his mother Hannah. 6? 1 Ayscough once said that Newton was small enough to put him in a quart mug when he was born. When Newton was 3 years old, his mother remarried and lived with her new husband, barnabas? 6? 1 Pastor barnabas Smith's home and entrusted Newton to his grandmother marjorie? 6? 1 Ayscough. Young Newton didn't like his stepfather, and he was hostile to his mother because she married him. Newton even "threatened my parents named Smith to burn them down together with the house ..."
From the age of 12 to the age of 17, Newton studied in King's Middle School, and his signature can be seen on the window sill of the school library. He dropped out of school and returned to El Shorpu village in June of 1659+00 because his widowed mother wanted Newton to be a farmer. Although Newton obeyed his mother's wishes, according to Newton's peers, farming made Newton quite unhappy. Fortunately, Henry, the headmaster of King's Middle School? 6? Henry Stokes persuaded Newton's mother and Newton was sent back to school to finish his studies. He finished middle school at the age of 18 and got a perfect graduation report.
In June, he entered Trinity College of Cambridge University. At that time, the teaching of the college was based on Aristotle's theory, but Newton preferred to read some more advanced ideas of modern philosophers such as Descartes and astronomers such as Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler. 1665, he discovered the generalized binomial theorem and began to develop a new set of mathematical theories, which is the world-famous calculus. 1665, Newton got his degree, and the university was closed to prevent the great plague in London. In the next two years, Newton continued to study calculus, optics and the law of gravity at home.
mathematics
Most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz independently developed calculus and created their own unique symbols for it. According to people around Newton, Newton came up with his method several years earlier than Leibniz, but he hardly published anything before 1693, and didn't give his complete explanation until 1704. At the same time, Leibniz published a complete description of his method in 1684. In addition, Leibniz's symbol and "differential method" were completely adopted in continental Europe, and this method was also adopted in Britain about 1820 years later. Leibniz's notebook records the development process of his thoughts from the early stage to the mature stage, but only Newton's final result is found in the known records. Newton claimed that he had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he was afraid of being laughed at. Newton and Swiss mathematician Nicholas? 6? 1 Fatio？ 6? Diu Lei (1) is closely related, and the latter was attracted by Newton's law of universal gravitation from the beginning. 169 1 year, Diu Lei intended to compile a new edition of Newton's mathematical principles of natural philosophy, but he never finished it. Some biographers who study Newton think there may be love in their relationship. However, the relationship between them cooled down on 1694. At that time, Diu Lei also exchanged several letters with Leibniz.
At the beginning of 1699, other members of the Royal Society (Newton is one of them) accused Leibniz of plagiarizing Newton's achievements, and the debate broke out in 17 1 1. The Royal Newton Society announced that a survey showed that Newton was the real discoverer and Leibniz was denounced as a liar. However, it was later found that Newton wrote the conclusion of the investigation and comment on Leibniz himself, so the investigation was questioned. This led to a heated debate between Newton and Leibniz about calculus and ruined their lives until the latter died in 17 16. This debate has drawn a gap between British and continental European mathematicians, and may have hindered the development of British mathematics for at least a century.
One of Newton's recognized achievements is the generalized binomial theorem applicable to any power. He discovered Newton's identity and Newton's method, classified binary cubic curves, made great contributions to finite difference theory, and obtained the solution of Diophantine equation by using fractional exponent and coordinate geometry for the first time. He used logarithm to approximate the partial sum of harmonic series (this is the pioneer of Euler's summation formula), and used power series and reduced power series with confidence for the first time. He also found a new formula for π.
He was awarded Lucas Professor of Mathematics in 1669. Before that day, all members of Cambridge or Oxford were appointed Anglican priests. However, Professor Lucas' post conditions require that the holder should not engage in church activities (presumably to give the holder more time to engage in scientific research). Newton thought that he should be exempted from the conditions of paperwork, which required charles ii's permission, and the latter accepted Newton's opinion. This avoids the conflict between Newton's religious views and Anglican beliefs.
optics
From 1670 to 1672, Newton was responsible for teaching optics. During this period, he studied the refraction of light and found that the prism can disperse white light into a color spectrum, and the lens and the second prism can recombine the color spectrum into white light.
He also found that colored light would not change its properties through the experiment of separating monochromatic light beams from different objects. Newton also noticed that colored light would keep the same color whether it was reflected, scattered or emitted. So the color we observe is the result of the combination of an object and a specific color light, not the result of the color produced by the object.
From this work, he came to the conclusion that any refracting telescope would be affected by light scattering into different colors, so he invented reflecting telescope (now called Newton telescope) to avoid this problem. He polished the lens himself, tested the optical quality of the lens with Newton's ring, and made an instrument superior to the refractive telescope, which was mainly due to its large diameter lens. 167 1 year, he showed his reflecting telescope at the royal society. The interest of the Royal Society encouraged Newton to publish his Color Notes, which was later expanded into a book called Optics. But when Robert. 6? After Hooke criticized some of Newton's ideas, Newton was very dissatisfied with it and withdrew from the debate. From then on, the two became enemies until Hooke's death.
Newton thought that light is composed of particles or particles, which will be refracted when it is accelerated through an optically dense medium, but he must also relate them to waves to explain the diffraction phenomenon of light. However, later physicists prefer to use pure light waves to explain the diffraction phenomenon. The modern views of quantum mechanics, photon and wave-particle duality have little in common with Newton's understanding of light.
In 1675' s Hypothesis for Explaining the Nature of Light, Newton assumed the existence of ether and thought that the force transfer between particles was carried out through ether. But Newton worked with theologian Henry? 6? After the contact with 1 mol, he rekindled his interest in alchemy and explained it with the mysterious force from the idea of particles attracting and repelling in sealing, replacing the previous assumption that ether existed. John, an economist who has written a lot about Newton's alchemy? 6? 1 Maynard? 6? 1 Keynes once said: "Newton was not the first man in the rational age, he was the last alchemist." But Newton's interest in alchemy was closely related to his contribution to science. At that time, there was no obvious difference between alchemy and science. If he didn't rely on mysticism to explain the function of distance in vacuum, he might not develop his theory of gravity. (See Isaac? 6? 1 Newton's mysterious research)
1704, Newton wrote Optics, in which he expounded the particle theory of light. He thinks that light is composed of very tiny particles, while ordinary matter is composed of coarse particles, and speculates that if through some kind of alchemical transformation, "can't matter and light be transformed into each other?" Can't matter get its main activity from light particles entering its structure? Newton also made the prototype of the triboelectric generator with glass balls.
Mechanics and gravity
From 65438 to 0679, Newton returned to the study of mechanics: gravity and its influence on planetary orbits, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and discussions with Hooke and Flamsteed on mechanics. He attributed his achievement to the book Motion of Objects in Orbit (1684), which contains a preliminary law of motion formed in principle later.
Edmund's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (now often referred to as "Principles")? 6? With the encouragement and support of 1 Harley, it was published on1July 5, 687. In this book, Newton expounded three laws of motion, which were regarded as truth in the next two hundred years. Newton named the present gravity with Latin "gravity" and defined the law of gravity. In this book, he also proposed the first method to analyze and measure the speed of sound in the air based on Boyle's law.