What is the impact of Newton?

Answer 1

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Newton developed the theory of universal gravitation and the fundamental laws of motion which quantified the relationship between force, mass and acceleration. He described the law of conservation of momentum and developed the kinematic equations that calculate trajectory. He also made advances in optics, developing the first practical telescope. Through observations from experiments in spectroscopy, he developed the first theory of color. He contributed to major advances in mathematics, co-developing the calculus and the binomial theorem.

Sir Isaac newton (knighted by queen in 1705, although purely electical for parliament reasons, Newton's knighthood had little or nothing to do with his science or service of the royal mint) made many extrordinarily and ground breaking discoveries and inventions in both physics and mathematics and in what is today called astronomy (really a part of physics), to say the least. It is very difficult to even try to describe the true enormous scope and crucial importance of his work in both theory and experiments, to modern science. Suffice it to say, if Einstein's achievements is worth 50 lines of text, Newton is worth 200 or more. Isaac Newton is generally regarded in scientific community to be the single most important and influential mathematician and theoretical as well as experimental physicist of all time, a view shared by Einstein himself. What scienticst or mathematician ever after Newton would even be close to such an honour, as the ways of modern mathematics and physics draw apart and becomes superbly specialized? Isaac Newton was a deeply religious christian man, but with a personal secret belief considered heretic at his time (as Martin Luther was, no further comparison being made as Newton's Christian belief was very different from both Luther and the Pope and the Church of England). Newton's life, his achievements, his successes, his failures, his controversies, his shortcomings must all be considered in view of that single most important fact of him being a secret religious heretic. Isaac Newton was very interested in Gnosticism, and he did not believe in the trinity, he considered it a blasphemy. Some claims have even emerged he earned his scientific results from his studies of ancient lore from gnostic sources. (Even if that was the case, he should be honoured very much for rediscovering knowledge lost to the conscious and living world). These claims are to date totally unsubstantiated, and are not to be considered serious at all, as the level of Newton's scientific work and results far surpasses anything found in these kind of ancient scripts. Newton's own developed mathematics is rivaled by none in our known past or his present. Rather, it is believed Newton's interest for Gnosticism is connected to his deep interest for alchemy. It should be remembered religion was a completely different matter in Newton's time of history than what is the case in modern western society of today and at Newton's time it could easily mean personal ruin and disaster. One fact that makes Newton stand out from both his contemporaries and phycisists of today, is his outstanding abilities and outright genious in mathematics: He was able to invent and develop the unknown mathematical tools necessary to tie the concepts of "force" and "acceleration", an achievement honoured today as the SI-unit of force is called "newton". In fact Newton did clarify and partially also invent the concepts of force and acceleration in aftermath of Galileo, which is a further tribute to Newton's scientifc mind. Newton did calculate the effects of gravitational force and develop a "near correct" (up to relativity) mathematical theory for gravitation. Though Newton leant heavily on the works, efforts and astronomical observations from Johannes Kepler, Newton's achivement on his universal theory of gravity is a feat not compared by any other scientist of history, though recent historical research seems to indicate Archimedes was familiar with some of the ideas of calculus 2000 years earlier, but this has not been proven beyond dispute yet. Anyway, calculus remained unknown to the public until the mathematical framework developed by Newton and Leibniz in the late 1600 hundreds, though it should be said they built their ideas on advances made by earlier mathematicians and philosophers. In todays view of science, what makes Newton stand out from all other scientists apart from his ground breaking scientific discoveries, is his mastery of both mathematics and physics, him inventing the mathematical language of calculus when he needed it to develop his theory of gravity, a theory which survived and withstood all experimental and empirical tests and remained unchallenged until Einsteins theory of relativity 250 years later. The same can be said about Newtons's theory of force, motion, acceleration and momentum, which all together provide the foundation for his theory of gravity, his theory of gravity only needing the additional concept of "force acting at a distance" to proceed from his theories of force and momentum. The concept of "force acting at a distance" was a giant leap in the history of physics and Newton did it himself. The concept of the medium of the ether through which the force could act through, followed, a concept that survived unchallenged for as long as Newton's theories remained uncorrected until Einstein proved the ether superfluent and unnecessary 250 years later, yielding only space and emptiness as the alternative. Still, Maxwells equations for the electromagnetic fields as well as Newton's theories remained, though they must be corrected for relativity according to Einstein, though there are deeper aspects of Einstein's theories of time and space not compatible with Newton's laws of motion, and gravity. This is as should be, since Einstein's theory is 250 years later, and Maxwells theory 150 years after Newton. It should be emphasized that Isaac Newton, "despite" his unchallenged genious in both mathematics as well as theoretical science, was also a genious experimentalist definitely belonging in the ranks of the utmost greatest experimentalists of all time of science: His design and implementation of the mirror telescope (his invention being honored even today by astronomers both professional and amateur as the "Newtonian telescope") and his ingeniously designed experiments with light are highlights of his career as experimental physicist. Isaac Newton was a many-sided person: He was a mystic, an alchemist (and in that respect he was also a chemist, albeit a very immature and naive one in view of modern chemistry) and occultist, he was a secret religious heretic of his time and a loner, preferring to keep his mathematical discoveries to himself, as he was never able to handle criticism well, and this caused the bitter fight between him and Leibniz as to whom should be credited with the invention of calculus. Historical research suggests that they both developed calculus independently of each other, though Newton was some years earlier, but he did not publish his results in full until far later. This lead to many personal difficulties in his scientific career but he was able (by help of influential friends) to survive his times and not have to bring his innermost religious beliefs into public, even rising to the post of master of the royal mint, a position very much not compatible at that time of history with his personal religious beliefs. His most important discoveries in physics are his theory of light, colors and refraction, his theory of force, momentum and motion and his gravitational theory, all of which are still taught at highschools and universities today for undergraduates in physics. In mathematics his inventions are too many to report shortly, but apart from his invention of calculus, he contributed greatly to the theory of series and partial sums, Diophantine equations and numerical analysis, all of which today are basic material which any undergraduate mathematician has to learn. Isaac Newton was on occasions challenged by mathematicians on the continent on difficult mathematical problems, correspondence by letter. Newton always answered correctly, as is illustrated by the famous problem of the "sliding bean" proposed by Poisson to Isaac Newton: Poisson very satisfied with himself having found the solution to the extremely difficult problem of fastest path of travel between two fixed points in a gravity field, challenged Newton anonymously in a letter to a mathematical journal by presenting the problem, knowing Newton would read it. This is a famous story on Isaac Newton's superb mathematical abilities, after not working in mathematics for decades, Newton being at the time mostly occupied by his own research in alchemy, he solved it during 24 hours (as reported by his servant he did not eat or sleep until he completed his answer), and presented his (correct) solution equally anonymously by letter to the journal, upon which Poisson is reported to have said: "I guess I know the lion by its claws"...Isaac Newton is generally and undisputedly regarded as the greatest and most influential mathematician of all time and also the greatest and most influential physicist of all time, possibly in the field of physics only challenged for originality by Einstein, and influence by Aristotle. In the field of mathematics, Newton is rivaled by none and challenged by none in current known history of science. A note on the controversy between modern students of science on "Who was the the greatest of Newton and Einstein", it should be said Einstein did not have to invent any new mathematical formal apparatus to formulate his groundbreaking theories, whereas Newton himself had to invent the mathematical language of calculus to formulate, develop and support his theory of gravity, a theory which was in itself in any sense as ground breaking as any of Einstein's work and theories, and likely even much more so because in Isaac Newton's time of history, it was still not commonly accepted that the same laws guide the heavens as on the earth, not to mention the concept of force "acting at a distance with no seemingly physical contact", an idea Newton came up with, which broke with all of Aristotelian physics and 2000 years of tradition. Newton did this, according to Thomas Kuhn, total shift in scientific paradigm, and he should be credited for it at least as much as all of Einstein's works and ground breaking theories. Even more so, because Isaac Newton's shift of scientific paradigm was supported in (his own) new groundbreaking developed mathematics, whereas Einsteins theories were not groundbreaking in any mathematical sense. Newtons theories and experimentally verified laws of nature were not only groundbreaking, they were completely mind-shattering to the scientific society of his time, which was still partly influenced by 2000 year old Aristotelian physics. The language and power and all-embracing importance and influence of Isaac Newton's calculus to modern science should be well known to any undergraduate student of science today, be it physics, chemistry or biology...Calculus may indeed by itself be considered one of the greatest and most crucial leaps of human mind in all history and Newton did it. A look into his mathematical texts of proofs for his calculus, shows a mind which very few if any human of today, are able to follow, but they have been verified to be correct....In short: Newton was both a genious mathematician and physicist in both theory and experiment, whereas Einstein being a genious theoretical physicist, did not make any worthwhile discoveries in mathematics, apart from some convenient notational conventions, and he was not an experimentalist at all, whereas Isaac Newton marvels in the field of experimental physics and is undisputedly one of the greatest experimentalists of history of physics and he was able to backup his own claims, he did verify his theory of gravity by data on the moons orbit, whereas Einstein had other people back up his theories with experimental tests, like Eddingtons famous experiment on relativity. Many people make the mistake of comparing Newton and Einstein "out of their times", confusing the time of Einstein's modern and abstract mathematics and physics with all its impressive and well-developed notation through centuries of development of mathematicians and physicists after Newton with what is the true core of the mind-leap of Newton's calculus and the true rigidness and clearness of Newtonian laws of physics compared to the Aristotle ideas (which Galileo proved wrong well before Newton). Suffice it to say, place Newton the genious mathematician and theoreticial physicist and genious experimentalist against Einstein the genious theoretician at a table at "scratch" where nothing is known about universe, and see who would proceed the faster...In view of both mens careers and their proven abilities there cannot be any doubt as to whom would win this kind of race, a fact also Einstein was happy to recognize many times in his life. Anyway, it remains the fact that Newton's theories remained unchallenged for 250 years, whereas Einstein's theory of relativity has remained unchallenged for less than a 100 years at time of this writing...If not the above listed facts on the achievements of Newton versus Einstein do impress, this single fact of time should, because history is the closest thing to truth we will ever have. It should be said historical research continues to discover and reveal facts about Iscaac Newton's life and thoughts even today. Finally, it may seem ironical in view of modern science of today, that most of Isaac Newton's time, efforts and thought and money were dedicated to his research in alchemy, a field of his time which did not make it into science, but nevertheless may be said to be part of the very early and naive probings into the laws of nature of what later turned into the science of chemistry (a field Einstein never touched with his own hands, where as Newton probably died from his long and personal experimental experience with it) ...Isaac Newton's long and utmost serious efforts into alchemy does not reduce Isaac Newton's genious in science at all, rather it adds to it, as it is additional proof that his mind was being bent on ever seeking to uncover the unknowns of Nature (although driven very much by his own religious motives and ideas as most deeply and clearly manifest in his interest for alchemy). Upon his death, his body was found to contain large amounts of Mercury, the key element of the lore of alchemy. It is probable his active experimental work into alchemy through several decades lead to his weakened health and ultimately death. Science still waits for a person of his true mathematical genious combined with his deep interest for physics and chemistry, his sound intuition, his patient endurance, his originality, his inventiveness and his outstanding experimental abilities, to appear again.