Professor Robert Iliffe described him thus: "He was intellectually daring… His achievements were so momentous that that term ‘scientific genius’ was invented to describe him" The physicist Albert Einstein was impressed to say: "In order to put his system into mathematical form at all, Newton had to devise the concept of differential quotients and propound the laws of motion in the form of total differential equations-perhaps the greatest advance in thought that a single individual was ever privileged to make" From the finest minds comes the finest thoughts so this is my list of 15 of the best Sir Isaac Newton quotes. His legacy of scientific research was his gift to the world and he will always be remembered as one the greatest scientific minds this planet has ever known. In his personal life he remained a lifelong bachelor and sired no children. It also fueled speculation surrounding his eccentric behaviour in later life. Turning lead or mercury into gold proved elusive and it gives a plausible explanation why traces of mercury were found in his hair after they were tested before his funeral. His quest for the alchemical substance, better known as the philosopher's stone, was fruitless. This raised many eminent but jealous eyebrows who questioned whether he was a scientist or a sorcerer. Some 200 years later Albert Einstein faced similar problems promoting his Theory Of Relativity as only the finest scientific minds could grasp the complex enormity of what was being proposed.įor all the scientific and mathematical firsts that Isaac Newton discovered he also spent half his life experimenting with alchemy. The few that did understand promoted it without hesitation. The standard joke that did the rounds of academia exposed their ignorance as they said mockingly: "There goes a man who has written a book that neither he nor anybody else understands". This book Principia, as it is commonly known, was so advanced that many leading lights of his day struggled to understand it. It became the bedrock of modern science as it outlined the three laws of motion, his theory of calculus and a robust recording of his theory of universal gravitation. Newton's most famous publication was his ground breaking: "The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" which took two years to write but was the result of 20 years of research and critical thinking. There were inventions, books, papers, dissertations and a transfer of knowledge never witnessed before. He then reversed this by using another prism to absorb the spectral colours resulting in a beam of white light emanating on the other side. He formalized how white light is made up of spectral colours by using a prism to split a beam of light into its rainbow colours. His inquisitive mind led Newton to quite literally see the light with his experimentation with prisms. Today it is widely believed that both these eminent mathematicians made their discoveries independently, with each man inspired by their requirement to solve their very own individual scientific issues. Indeed, in an academic spat both parties claimed to have discovered calculus in a dispute that rumbled on for many years. Isaac Newtons fingerprints were all over the formulation of calculus long before Gottfried Leibniz claimed its discovery. It would become better known as calculus. This was the birth of the mathematics of change.
He saw quantities with a value at a certain point in time and its value changing through a defined period of time. But the maths he needed had not been invented. Comparing an apple with the moon, he proved that the gravitational pull on the moon to keep it in the earths orbit was the same force that causes the humble apple to fall from its tree.Īt the heart of Newtons greatest discoveries were mathematics. His curiosity was piqued which led him to quantifying the laws of gravitational attraction. When Isaac Newton formulated the three laws of motion he was laying the foundations for the science of movement. Right up to this day he is still inspiring each new generation of physicists and mathematicians to stretch their thinking beyond the boundaries of what is already known.
His influence spawned a scientific revolution. Sir Isaac Newton's contributions to science and mathematics is immensurate. His name was Isaac Newton and he was the fuel that lit the enlightenment era fire for science. Many had tried but few succeeded until a 17th century scientific theorist used applied mathematics to put numbers to his newly founded laws of motion and universal gravitation. Understanding and defining them is a different matter. The physical laws of the cosmos have been omnipresent since the dawn of universe.
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