According to the modern calendar, Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Elsthorpe Manor, a small village in the countryside of Lincolnshire, England. At the time of Newton's birth, England did not adopt the pope's latest calendar, so his birthday is recorded as Christmas Day 1642. Three months before Newton was born, his father, also named Isaac, had died. As a result of his premature birth, the newborn Newton was very small; his mother, Hannah Ayscough, is rumored to have said that Newton was so small when he was born that he could fit into a quart of Mark Isaacs. ·Newton cup. When Newton was 3 years old, his mother remarried and moved into the home of her new husband, the Reverend Barnabus Smith, leaving Newton in the care of his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough. . The young Newton did not like his stepfather and was somewhat hostile to his mother because of her marriage to him. Newton even once "threatened my parents, whose surname was Smith, to burn them down together with the house..."
From about the age of five, Newton was sent to public schools. When he was a boy, Newton was not a child prodigy. He had ordinary qualifications and average grades, but he loved reading and reading books that introduced various methods of making simple mechanical models. He was inspired by them to make some weird gadgets by himself. Such as windmills, wooden clocks, folding lanterns, etc.
It is said that after Newton figured out the mechanical principles of the windmill, he made a model of a mill. He tied a mouse to a wheeled treadmill, and then placed a wheel in front of it. Grains of corn happen to be out of reach of mice. The mouse wanted to eat corn, so it kept running, so the wheel kept turning; once again when he was flying a kite, he hung a small light on the rope. At night, the villagers looked at it and were surprised that it was a comet; he also made a small water clock. . Every morning, the small water clock will automatically drip water on his face to urge him to get up. He also liked painting and sculpture, and especially carving sundials. He placed sundials he carved everywhere in the corners and windowsills of his home to observe the movement of the sun's shadow.
When Newton was 12 years old, he entered Grantham Middle School not far from home. Newton's mother originally wanted him to become a farmer, but Newton himself had no intention of doing this and loved reading instead. As he grew older, Newton became more and more fond of reading, meditating, and doing small scientific experiments. When he was studying at Grantham High School, he stayed at the home of a pharmacist, which exposed him to chemical experiments.
Newton's academic performance was not outstanding in middle school. He just loved reading and was curious about natural phenomena, such as color, the movement of sunlight and shadow in the four seasons, especially geometry, Copernicus' heliocentric theory, etc. He also keeps reading notes by category, and likes to make creative gadgets, tricks, inventions, and experiments.
At that time, new Christian ideas penetrated British society, and Newton's family had two relatives who were both priests, which may have affected Newton's religious life in his later years. From these ordinary environments and activities, it is not obvious that the young Newton was a child with outstanding talents and extraordinary talents.
Later, forced by life, his mother asked Newton to drop out of school and work at home to support the family. But Newton buried himself in his books whenever he had the chance, and often even forgot to work. Every time his mother asked him to go to the market with the servant to familiarize himself with the business, he would beg the servant to go to the street alone while he hid behind the bushes and read a book. Once, Newton's uncle became suspicious and followed Newton to the town. He found his nephew lying on the grass with his legs stretched out and he was concentrating on a mathematical problem. Newton's studious spirit moved his uncle, so his uncle persuaded his mother to let Newton resume school and encouraged Newton to go to college. Newton returned to school again, eagerly absorbing the nutrition from the books.
According to "Men of Mathematics" (E.T. Bell) and "An introduction to the history of mathematics" (H. Eaves) According to two books written by H. Eves: "Newton began his schooling life in a village school, and was later sent to the King's School in Grantham, where he became the most outstanding student.
While at King's School, he boarded with the local pharmacist William Clarke, and before going to Oxford University at the age of 19, he became engaged to the pharmacist's stepdaughter Anne Storer. Later, the romance cooled as Newton concentrated on his research, and Miss Stoller married someone else. It is said that Newton had a fond memory of this love affair, but there were no other romances after that, and Newton never married. ”
However, according to the description in the book "Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life" written by Newton's contemporary friend William Stukeley , Stickley visited Mrs. Vincent after Newton's death, who was Newton's lover Miss Stoller. Mrs. Vincent's name was Catherine, not Anne, and Anne was her sister ( See Arthur Storer), and the lady only stated that Newton was only "affectionate" for her when she was a boarding school.
From about 12 years old to 17 years old, Newton studied at King's High School. His signature can still be seen on the window sill of the school library. He dropped out of school and returned to Elsthorpe Village in October 1659 because his mother, who was widowed again, wanted Newton to be a farmer. Although Newton obeyed his mother's wishes, according to Newton's peers later, Newton was very unhappy with the farming work. Fortunately, Henry Stokes, the principal of King's School, persuaded Newton's mother, and Newton was sent away again. Returned to school to complete his studies. He completed high school at the age of 18 and received a perfect graduation certificate. In June 1661, he entered Trinity University, Cambridge. Academy. At that time, teaching at the Academy was based on the teachings of Aristotle, but Newton preferred to read the more advanced ideas of some modern philosophers such as Descartes and astronomers such as Galileo, Copernicus, and Kepler 1665. In 1665, he discovered the general binomial theorem and began to develop a new mathematical theory that would become known as calculus. In 1665, Newton received his degree while the university was preparing to prevent the Great Plague in London. Closed. In the next two years, Newton continued to study calculus, optics, and the law of gravity at home.
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Middle age
Mathematics.
Most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz independently developed calculus and created their own unique notation for it. According to those around Newton, Newton wanted to. He arrived at his method a few years before Leibniz, but published almost nothing before 1693, and did not give a full account of it until 1704, by which time Leibniz had published it in 1684. Published a full account of his method. Furthermore, Leibniz's notation and "differentiation method" were adopted across the continent and, after about 1820, in England as recorded in Leibniz's notebooks. The development of his ideas from infancy to maturity, and only his final results are found in Newton's known records. Newton claimed that he had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he was afraid of being laughed at. The connection was very close with the Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, who was initially attracted to Newton's law of gravity. In 1691, Dürer planned to write a new version of Newton's Principia Mathematica, but never completed it. Some Newton biographers believe there may have been an element of love in their relationship. However, relations between the two men cooled down in 1694. At that time, Dürer also exchanged several letters with Leibniz.
In early 1699, other members of the Royal Society (of which Newton was a member) accused Leibniz of plagiarizing Newton's work, and the controversy erupted in full force in 1711. The Royal Society, where Newton belonged, announced that an investigation had shown that Newton was the real discoverer, while Leibniz was denounced as a liar. But the survey was later called into question when it was discovered that the conclusion commenting on Leibniz was written by Newton himself.
This led to the intense calculus controversy between Newton and Leibniz, which disrupted the lives of Newton and Leibniz until the latter's death in 1716. The controversy drove a gulf between British and continental European mathematicians and may have hindered the development of British mathematics for at least a century.
One of Newton's widely recognized achievements is the generalized binomial theorem, which applies to any power. He discovered Newton's identities and Newton's method, classified cubic surface curves (cubic polynomials in two variables), made significant contributions to the theory of finite differences, and used fractional exponents and coordinate geometry for the first time to obtain solutions to the Diophantine equation. He used logarithms to approach partial sums of harmonic series (a precursor to Euler's summation formula) and made the first confident use of power series and reverting power series. He also discovered a new formula for π.
He was awarded the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics in 1669. Until that day, all members at Cambridge or Oxford were ordained Anglican ministers. However, the conditions for the Lucasian Professorship require that its holder not be active in the church (presumably so that the holder can devote more time to scientific research). Newton believed that he should be exempted from priesthood, which required the permission of Charles II, who accepted Newton's opinion. This avoided any conflict between Newton's religious views and Anglican beliefs.
Optics
From 1670 to 1672, Newton taught optics. During this time, he studied the refraction of light, showing that a prism could diffuse white light into a spectrum of colors, and that a lens and a second prism could recombine the color spectrum into white light. He also discovered that colored light does not change its own properties through experiments that separated monochromatic light beams and illuminated them on different objects. Newton also noticed that colored light remains the same color whether reflected, scattered, or emitted. Therefore, the colors we observe are the result of an object combining with a specific colored light, rather than the object producing the color.
From this work, he concluded that any refracting telescope would suffer from the scattering of light into different colors, and invented the reflecting telescope (now called a Newtonian telescope) to circumvent this problem. This question. He polished the lenses himself, used Newton's rings to test the optical quality of the lenses, and created an instrument that was superior to refracting telescopes, mainly due to its large diameter lenses. In 1671, he demonstrated his reflecting telescope before the Royal Society. The Royal Society's interest encouraged Newton to publish his Notes on Color, which was later expanded into Opticks. But when Robert Hooke criticized some of Newton's views, Newton became dissatisfied and withdrew from the debate. The two became enemies from then on, a relationship that lasted until Hooker's death.
Newton believed that light was composed of particles or particles and refracted by accelerating through optically dense media, but he also had to relate them to waves to explain the phenomenon of diffraction of light. Later generations of physicists preferred to use pure light waves to explain diffraction phenomena. Modern ideas about quantum mechanics, photons, and wave-particle duality have only a small similarity with Newton's understanding of light.
In his 1675 work "Hypothesis Explaining the Properties of Light" (Hypothesis Explaining the Properties of Light), Newton postulated the existence of ether and believed that the transmission of force between particles was through the ether. However, Newton rekindled his interest in alchemy after coming into contact with the theosophist Henry More, and switched to the mysterious power derived from the idea of ??particles attracting and repelling each other in Hermeticism. explanation, replacing the previous assumption of the existence of ether. John Maynard Keynes, the master of economics who has many works on Newton's alchemy, once said: "Newton was not the first man in the Age of Reason, he was the last alchemist." But Newton's interest in alchemy was not related to his Contributions to science were closely related, and at that time there was no clear distinction between alchemy and science. He might not have developed his theory of gravity if he had not relied on occult ideas to explain action at a distance through the vacuum. (See Isaac Newton's Occult Studies)
In 1704, Newton wrote "Optics", in which he detailed the particle theory of light.
He believed that light is composed of very tiny particles, while ordinary matter is composed of coarser particles, and speculated that if through some kind of alchemical transformation, "Can't matter and light transform into each other? It is impossible for matter to be formed by entering into its structure." Do light particles get the main motive force (Activity)? Newton also used glass balls to create a primitive form of frictional electrostatic generator
Mechanics and gravity
In 1679, Newton returned. In the study of mechanics: gravity and its effect on planetary orbits, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and discussions on mechanics with Hooke and Flamsteed, he attributed his results to "Objects in Orbits." "Motion" (1684), which contains the preliminary laws of motion that were later formulated in "Principia" (now often referred to as "Principia Mathematica"). "Principia") was published on July 5, 1687 with the encouragement and support of Edmund Halley. In this book, Newton stated the three laws of motion that were regarded as true for the next two hundred years. Newton used the Latin word ". gravitas" (heavy) to name today's gravity and define the law of universal gravitation. In this book, he also proposed the first analytical method to determine the speed of sound in air based on Boyle's law.
Due to the achievements of "Principia", Newton received international recognition and won him a large group of supporters: Newton established a very close relationship with the Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio Dürer. The relationship lasted until their friendship broke down in 1693. The end of this friendship caused Newton to suffer from neurasthenia in his later years. Due to the limitations of the times, Newton was basically a metaphysical mechanical materialist. He believed that motion was only a mechanical movement, a change in position in space; the universe, like the sun, did not develop and change; relying on the action of gravity, stars would always be there. A fixed position.
As his scientific reputation improved, Newton's political status also improved. In 1689, he was elected as a university representative in Parliament. He began to alienate the science that had brought him great achievements. At the same time, he spent a lot of time working with famous scientists of his generation such as Hooke and Leibniz. Debate over scientific priorities.
In his later years, Newton lived a grand life in London. In 1705, he was made a noble by Queen Anne. At this time, Newton was very wealthy and was generally considered to be alive. The greatest of all scientists. He served as President of the Royal Society, which he ruled with an iron fist during his twenty-four years.
In his later years, Newton began to devote himself to the study of theology. He denied the guiding role of philosophy, believed in God devoutly, and devoted himself to writing books on theology. When he encountered the inexplicable movement of celestial bodies, he proposed the "first theory of God". "One driving force" theory. He said, “God rules over all things, and we are His servants who fear and worship Him.”
On March 31, 1727, the great Isaac Newton passed away. Like many other distinguished Englishmen, he is buried in Westminster Abbey. His tombstone is engraved with:
Let people hail such a great one
Human glory once existed in the world.