Today is Isaac Newtons birthday, he was a physicist, mathematician, Astronomer, alchemist, natural philosopher, and a theologian. He is considered one of the greatest scientist of all time. In 1687 he published his first work (It was actually three books.) called Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica which is Latin for Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. It is considered one of the most influential books ever written. It layed the ground work for classical mechanics. In this work Newton explains Universal Gravitation and the three Laws of Motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical Universe for the next three centuries.Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling.
Newton died on March 31rst 1727.
Newton remains influential to scientists, as demonstrated by a 2005 survey of members of Britain's Royal Society (formerly headed by Newton) asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton or Albert Einstein. Royal Society scientists decided Newton to have made the greater overall contribution to science.
3 comments:
I always thought Newton and Christmas were on the same day. I found the following on wikipedia: During Newton's lifetime, two calendars were in use in Europe: the Julian or 'Old Style' in Britain and parts of northern Europe (Protestant) and eastern Europe, and the Gregorian or 'New Style', in use in Roman Catholic Europe and elsewhere. At Newton's birth, Gregorian dates were ten days ahead of Julian dates: thus Newton was born on Christmas Day, 25 December 1642 by the Julian calendar, but on 4 January 1643 by the Gregorian.
Well... Thanks for the info. I didn't know that. We use the Gregorian calendar so I wonder which date is real? I'm guessing its the Gregorian because that's the one we use today.
Your History Geek,
John
Its amazing how people in the olden days tried to be different in their own ways....a good example is the Calender issue...
I like the way you summarized your blog if only people new about it..You must see Wikipedia the free encyclopedia the info is so long and that you would not be interested to read.
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