2.+The+Discoveries+of+Isaac+Newton

Joan, Cui Qin, Yi Jun __**People Involved:**__  Sir Isaac Newton was born on 4 January 1643 and died on 31 March 1727 at the age of 84. He was an English physicist, Mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian. Isaac Newton was known as a rather occult man because of his practice of alchemy. However, Newton's discoveries could not have been such without the help of ancient authorities such as Galileo, Kepler of Francis Bacon. These men had provided the canvas in which Newton could develop his work and discoveries on.

  __**Kepler**__ **·** **Kepler was had discovered the laws of planetary motion in the field of astronomy. Kepler’s laws gave an estimated description of the motion of planets around the sun. Some of his laws were originally built upon those of Nicolaus Copernicus’. The discovery of the laws of planetary motion had been a stepping stone before Newton’s discoveries of the theory of universal gravitation.**  //**Definitions:**// **-** //**Kepler’s laws of planetary motion:**// //**1.** **The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at the focus.**// //**2.** **A line joining a planet and its star, sweeps out equal areas during intervals of time.**// //**3.** **The square of the sidereal period, of an orbiting planet, is directly proportional to the cube of the orbit’s semimajor axis.**// **-** //**Newton’s theory of universal gravitation:**// //**Every massive particle in the universe attracts every other massive particle with a force which is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.**// **·** **Newton was able to demonstrate that Kepler’s laws were a natural result and consequence of the “inverse square laws” and today all calculations of the orbits of planets and satellites follow in his footsteps. Without Kepler’s initial laws, Newton probably would not have been able to derive at proper calculations with relation to his theory of universal gravitation.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**·** **In fact, Newton had modified Kepler’s third law, in that due to the fact that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, Newton found that in the planet-Sun system the planet does not revolve around a stationary, unmoving sun. Instead, Newton proposed that both the planet and the Sun orbited around the common centre of mass for the Planet-Sun system. This is another evidence demonstrating the connection between Kepler’s findings on the theory of planetary movement and Newton’s discoveries of the laws of motion.**
 * __Galileo__**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Galileo had discovered the pendulum. He found that a pendulum gradually slows down as it swings; and the distance covered in each swing grows shorter, but it still takes the same amount of time for each swing. He suggested that medical students use it to measure heartbeat, to identify some kinds of illnesses. In the process of discovering this law, he had experimented with the bronze chandelier in the Cathedral of Pisa, watching it sway as he used his pulse as a timer. This could have been a possible derivation for his suggestion to the medical students.**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Galileo also discovered the Law of Acceleration. He had gone through several methods of experimentation in order to derive at this law, mainly that of using a water clock, which worked by dripping water into a bucket at a regular rate, to measure how falling objects sped up of accelerated. He experimented using balls of the same materials but with various masses, rolling them down a wooden inclined plane at half length, and full length etc. (This contradicted to what he thought and** //**taught**// **that objects with lighter masses would fall slower than that of objects with heavier masses in direct proportion to their masses.) However, another fabled experiment is that of Galileo dropping balls of varied masses with the same material from atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa, upon the clock tower to show and prove that their time of falling was independent of their mass. Thus he proved that indeed, the mass of a given object is independent and** //**NOT**// **related to the speed of the descent of the object. He also discovered that distance increased as time passed. He further did the cannonball experiment and published a book called "Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations on Two New Sciences" which summarized lifelong research on falling bodies, motion & the pendulum. In this book, he had published and imparted the knowledge that objects with different masses will fall at the same finite speed in a vacuum.**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Galileo was trialled for with regards to his discoveries that the universe was in fact geocentric as opposed to the ancient belief that the universe was heliocentric. People presumed him to be defying the principle of God's world - his handiwork. But after the world was more exposed to this challenging of ancient authority and belief as well as the introduction of new ideas which provoked the mindsets of the simple-minded, heresy-fearing people then, the world became more receptive of new ideas and began to steer away from the bible truth. Even the church was rendered relatively powerless after the introduction of Galileo's thought-provoking ideas, which sparked off a paradigm shift. This then served as Newton's stepping stone to his discoveries. He did not have to fear as much that the church would charge him for heresy and this made his job and his constant discoveries a greater success. Also, the discovery of acceleration had provided a foundation for Newton’s discoveries on the three laws of motion, and had made it possible for Newton to look at objects in a physical situation, note their** __**masses**__**, apply force, and then calculate the resulting motion. This combination of ideas had led to Newton’s discovery of the three laws of motion.**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Timeline (of Galileo’s life, accomplishments and discoveries in Physics)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1564: Galileo is born in Pisa.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1583: Galileo formulates the isochronisms of the pendulum while watching the oscillations of a lamp in the cathedral of Pisa. (isochronisms; the property of having a uniform rate of operation or periodicity)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1589: Galileo shows that objects fall at the same rate independent of mass.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1592: Galileo suggests that physical laws of the heavens are the same as those on Earth.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1600: Galileo conducts a study on sound and vibrating strings.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1604: Galileo finds that distance for falling object increases as the time interval was squared.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1606: Galileo invents the thermoscope (a primitive thermometer).** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1607: Galileo investigates hydrostatics (pressure exerted by fluid at rest).** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1609: Galileo builds a hydrostatic balance.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1613: Galileo comes up with the principle of inertia.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1624: Galileo develops his theory of tides.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1642: Galileo dies in Arcetri.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Timeline (Isaac Newton’s life, accomplishments and discoveries in Physics)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1642: Newton is born in Woolsthorpe.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1661: Newton matriculates in Trinity College, Cambridge.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1665-6: Newton returns to Woolsthorpe due to an epidemic of bubonic plague. He develops a new branch of mathematics called the calculus, studies the spectrum of light and begins work on laws of mechanics and gravitation.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1667: After returning to Cambridge, Newton writes the** //**Enumeratio Curvarum,**// **a treatise on fluxions (differential calculus)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1669: Newton completes his reflecting telescope.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1671: Newton writes** //**De methodis**// **serierum et fluxionum (The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1672: Newton discovers that variation of pendulum is due to equatorial bulge; publishes his letter on Light & Colors in the** //**Philosophical Transactions** **(a scientific journal by the Royal Society)** **,**// **arguably the first 'scientific article'** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1675**: Newton attends his first meeting of Royal Society; delivers his theory of light.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1680: Newton demonstrates that inverse square law implies eliptical orbits** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1684: Newton starts to write** //**Principia;**// **sends** //**De motu corporum in gyrum (**//**"On the motion of bodies in an orbit”) to the Royal Society; discovers square law and mass dependence of gravity** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1686: Newton sends** //**Principia, Book I**// **to the Royal Society, and thereafter it is published** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1687: Newton sends** //**Principia, Book II & III**// **to the Royal Society; publishes laws of motion and gravitation & analysis of sound propagation** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1704: Isaac Newton, publishes corpuscular(particulate) theory of light and colour, which explained reflection, in** //**Opticks**// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1711**: Newton publishes** //**Analysis per quantitatum.**// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">// **1713:** //**Newton publishes 2nd edition of** //**Principia.**// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**1727: Newton’s health fails, and he passes away.**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Major Discoveries and Achievements of Issac Newton** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__Overview__** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Issac Newton is one of the greatest scientists of all times. In his famous work, **//Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica//** (Latin for //Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy//, primarily known as //Principia Mathematica//) first published on 5 July 1687, he states among many other theories his three laws of motion, and brought together Galileo Galilei’s discovery of the motion of falling objects on Earth and Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion through his law of univeral gravitation. Newton used mathematical methods to formulate his physical theories. In order to describe the movement of heavenly objects in curves, Newton invented the first form of calculus. In addition to the work on motion and forces of attraction, Newton also worked on optics. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton had a mechanistic view of the universe, which dominated the Western worldview for centuries. He sought to explain the world in terms of mechanical metaphors. According to Newton, the universe was like a massive clock created by God, who was like a divine mechanic. The universe works like a machine that would function automatically after God set it in motion. (This view is based on the concept of Inertia (see below) The universe was hence undestood as being mechanical, and the qualities inherent in matter are a result of mechanical arrangement. Therefore, the universe can be understood and explained mechanically based on human reason and simple observation of natural phenomena. This mechanistic view of the universe, called classical mechanics, focuses entirely on the concept of motion, i.e. the basis of Newton’s thought is to explain how the universe moves. His laws of motion and gravity form the foundation of classical mechanics and accounted for motion throughout the universe. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__Major discoveries on Problem of Motion -__** **__Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and the Law of Universal Gravitation__** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton's greatest achievement was his work in physics and classical mechanics, which culminated in the theory of universal gravitation. Building on and refining upon the works and discoveries of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, his laws of motion and gravity explained almost everything about the motion of the universe, so much so that the remarkable advances of 150 years slowed down for more than half a century after the publicaition of the //Principia Mathematica//. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Newton’s First Law of Motion (Law of Inertia)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton’s First Law states that a body that is in motion persists in a state of uniform motion (constant velocity) until an external unbalanced force acts upon it, and a body at rest remains at rest until an external unbalanced force acts upon it. This means that there is a natural tendency of objects to maintain their state of motion. If the net force acting on an object is zero, the acceleration of the object is zero and hence its velocity is constant. Newton’s First Law forms the basis of Newton’s mechanistic view of the universe and establishes inertia reference frames for which the other laws of motion are applicable. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton’s First Law of Motion was refined and improved based on Galileo’s rough theory of inertia. In the early 1600s, Galileo begun work on the motion of objects on Earth. He found Aristotle’s explanation of motion, that all beings sought to reach its “natural place” in the universe, inadequate. Instead, he developed the first rough theory of inertia, which suggested that objects either stayed in motion or remained at rest until there is a physical cause for change in motion. However, this theory is not fully developed by Galileo, who thought motion was naturally in a circular direction, rather than a straight line. Also, Galileo still held the old medieval idea of impetus. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Nevertheless, Galileo’s explanation of inertia provided a foundation for Newton to improve and refine on. Galileo realized that force acting on a body determines acceleration, not velocity. This insight leads to Newton’s First Law, and Newton gave credit to Galileo. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Newton’s Second Law of Motion** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton’s Second Law of Motion states that the force applied to a body is equal to the mass of the body multiplied by the body’s acceleration. Since the mass of the object remains constant, it follows that the force applied to a body produces a proportional acceleration. In this law, the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector. Alternatively, this law can also be stated as: the net force on a body is equal to the time rate of change of its linear momentum. However, Newton’s Second Law is valid only for constant-mass systems, in which the body’s acceleration or change in momentum //is// a result of the force. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Newton’s Third Law of Motion** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action (force) in nature there is always an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, if object A exerts a force on object B, then object B also exerts an equal and opposite force on object A. For example, when a rocket takes off, the force of the engines pushes down on the floor (action), and the ground pushes the rocket upwards with an equal force (reaction), and the rocket takes off. The two forces act along the same line, but on different objects, and are of the same type (eg. Road exerts frictional force onto tires of cars, tires also push back and exert frictional force onto the road). The two forces are also equal in magnitude, but opposite in direction. In addition, even though the two forces are of the same magnitude, the accelerations are not. The object with a lesser mass will have a greater acceleration, according to Newton’s Second Law. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton’s Laws of Motion described the relationship between the force applied to a body and the resultant movement of the body. The laws, derived from empirical data and observation, mathematical and geometrical proofs, and powerful evidence from everyday observation and experience, rebutted the Aristotelian view of the universe, that each being sought to reach its “natural place” and that an object moving at constant velocity requires a continuous force acting on it to maintain that velocity, which means that there is only a velocity when there is a force. Aristotle’s view failed to take into the account of frictional forces. Once account is taken of all forces acting in a given situation it is the dynamics of Galileo and Newton, not of Aristotle, that are found to be in accord with the observations. Force determines acceleration, not velocity. Therefore, it can be seen that Newton’s laws represents a major breakaway from Aristotelian views and was a key achievement in the field of Physics of motion in the Scientific Revolution. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Although Newton had explained and described forces of motion, he wanted a clear mathematical description of the forces that governed how objects fell toward a moving Earth, and how even Earth and other heavenly bodies could move in a regular way. Newton accomplished this by bringing together two seemingly unrelated areas of work done by Galileo and Kepler on motion on Earth and motion in the heavens. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Johannes Kepler, assistant of Tycho Brahe, formulated three laws of planetary motion based on Copernicus’s concept of a sun-centered universe and close consideration of the huge set of astronomical data collected by Brahe. His first law states that the motions of the planets were elliptical rather than circular with the sun was at one end of the ellipse. His second law demonstrated that the speed of a planet increases as it is closer to the sun and decreases as it went further away. His third law established that the square of a planet’s period of revolution is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the sun, that is, the period of revolution around the sun is proportional to the distance from the sun. Through these laws, Kepler observed the attractive effects of the sun, like a giant magnet, but was unable to explain why this was the case. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Galileo, on the other hand, did experiments about motion on Earth and stumbled upon a clue to Kepler’s unsolved puzzle on the sun’s influence of planetary motion. He demonstrated, through practical experiments, that falling bodies always accelerated at the same rate no matter what their mass is. This was an important breakthrough to explain motion in the universe. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Although both Kepler and Galileo did not put forward theories of gravitation, they set the scene for later developments in gravitational theory done by Newton. To explain the strange “magnetism” which controls the motion of planets and objects, Newton brought the discoveries of Kepler and Galileo together in the theory of gravity. He realised that the force that make objects move and fall on Earth is the same force that makes the planets revolve about the sun in orbits. The planets are in free fall towards the sun just like how Galileo’s falling bodies were in free fall towards the Earth. The centre of it all was gravity, which Newton expressed as a provable equation, showing that gravity was the energy that kept matter, like planets and objects, from from flying off into space. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton took individual examples of falling objects and eventually managed to establish a mathematical explanation for gravitational force that accounted for all cases. He explained, “Every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force varying inversely as the square of the distance between them and directly proportional to the product of their masses.” Gravity affects all matter in the universe—everything with mass exerts a pulling force on everything else with mass. The closer the objects are to each other, the stronger gravity pulls. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In Newton’s //Principia Mathematica//, he revealed that the tides, the velocity of orbiting planets, even the shape of the Earth could all be explained though the pull of gravity. By tying to the observed properties of motion of Earth (Galileo), he provided an explanation for planetary motion (Kepler) and the motion of all objects on Earth. Newton had demonstrated that one universal law mathematically proved could explain all motion in the universe. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation was the fundamental law underneath all of the observations of motions in the universe. This was the culminating point of his work on motion and classical mechanics, and was the greatest and most overpowering achievement in the field of Physics and Astronomy for centuries. It is still considered to be the greatest contribution to physics ever made by a single person. In addition, it further proved the Aristotelian theory of “natural place” and that heavier objects fell more rapidly than lighter ones to be inaccurate. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton’s works and discoveries about motion and gravity completely broke the old Aristotlelian system of the universe and removed last doubts of heliocentricism, thus advancing the Scientific Revolution. In this light, Newton’s works on motion and gravity were the greatest achievements in the field of Physics. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__Major__** **__Achievements of Newton in the way knowledge was acquired and represented__** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Not only did Newton make significant discoveries on motion and gravity, he also had significant achievements in the way he viewed, acquired, and represented his knowledge of the universe. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton proposed universal laws and a mechanistic and mathematical universe that dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for centuries. In line with the concept of a mechanistic universe, Newton used math to understand and describe the laws of nature. He believed that mathematics was the language and rationality of the universe and saw mathematical regularity throughout physical nature. He explained the law of gravitation with the clarity of mathematics, and in his //Principia// //Mathematica//, used enourmous geometric proofs to show how forces worked. Furthermore, the fundamental arguments of his //Principia Mathematica// was that mathematical models of the universe were accurate physical descriptions of the universe, the universe operately in a completely rational and predictable way following the mathematical models, and that one need not turn to theology to explain any physical aspect of the universe. This new mode of thinking, which was also shared by other natural philosophers like Galileo, was a great achievement as it transformed knowledge of nature from having a divine purpose and symbolism to that of having more straightforward and practical uses of revealing just how the universe worked. This was an important breakaway from ancient views. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Another major achievement of Newton in the way knowledge was acquired was his combination of the two lines of science then—the Baconian stress on generating laws by the inductive method (empiricism) and the Descartes’ stress on deduction and mathematical logic (rationalism). While Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes sparked two intellectual traditions, Newton synthesized them into a single scientific methodology. He believed in the power of mathematics to describe nature and used Descarte’s mathematical approach. At the same time, he upheld the importance of empirical data and observation of the behaviour of objects in nature. His laws were generalised from organized experiments and thorough observations, but were based on mathematics. For example, to derive his law of gravity he took individual examples of falling objects on a moving Earth (empiricism) but in formulating this theory, he used calculus (mathematical logic). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Therefore, it can be seen that besides formulating laws of the motion of the universe, Newton’s views and means by which he formulated those laws were themselves major achievements in the field of physics. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__Conclusion__** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fused by Newton’s concept of a mechanical universe, all the pieces were now in place. Newton’s laws explained Galileo’s, Kepler’s, and many other natural philosophers’ observations about the universe that contradicted with theories of ancient authorities like Aristotle. Based on empirical observations and mathematical laws, Newton, together with Kepler and Galileo, completely broke the old Aristotelian system. The new and equally persuasive synthesis systemized by Newton based on his major discoveries and achievements explained the universe as well as Aristotle, leading to a major breakthrough in how people viewed their universe, and formed a very significant component of the scientific revolution. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Significance** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-laws Newton discovered could be used to fire cannons more accurately. This effect was felt soon after Newton <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-gravity described by the science of physics—newton first saw the fundamental laws underneath these observations of motion <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-sets us on this path: using math to describe the universe, power of math is brought to bare on the aspects of the physical universe <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-begin new era of using observation and math to describe the laws of nature <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Newton's laws were verified by experiment and observation for over 200 years, and they are excellent approximations at the scales and speeds of everyday life. Newton's laws of motion, together with his law of [|__universal gravitation__] and the mathematical techniques of [|__calculus__], provided for the first time a unified quantitative explanation for a wide range of physical phenomena. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Given the law of gravitation and the laws of motion, Newton could explain a wide range of hitherto disparate phenomena such as the eccentric orbits of comets, the causes of the tides and their major variations, the precession of the Earth's axis, and the perturbation of the motion of the Moon by the gravity of the Sun. Newton's one general law of nature and one system of mechanics reduced to order most of the known problems of astronomy and terrestrial physics. The work of Galileo, Copernicus, and Kepler was united and transformed into one coherent scientific theory. The new Copernican world-picture finally had a firm physical basis. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Newton's mechanistic view of the universe would soon be applied to other phenomena as well. If the universe was a machine and could be understood rationally, then so perhaps could economics, history, politics, and ethics (human character). It also followed that if economics, history, politics, and ethics were mechanical, they could be explained without recourse to religion or God and they could be **manipulated** as if they were machines, that is, they could be improved, engineered, and made to run better. As the Enlightenment developed, classical mechanics would give rise to a larger phenomenon, **Deism**, which is founded on the idea that all phenomena are fundamentally rational and mechanistic and can be explained in non-religious terms. All of modern Western knowledge and the majority of your experience is ultimately derived from this principle. Newton's separation of the mechanical universe from religious explanation and the Enlightenment concept of deism went further than this, however. If the universe was created by God and the universe was a rational place, that meant that God was rational. If one understood the workings of the universe, one understood the workings of the mind of God. So the separation of physical explanation from religious explanation was not as tightly enforced as it seems at first glance. The great innovation of this view for Western religion would be the Enlightenment insistence that religion itself be rational. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Newton's three laws are all based on the idea of force. With this one concept, which works the same way in all its diverse applications, Newton put into a far more less heterogeneous conception of dynamics. This achievement does not only make scientific reasoning simpler, but also changes our perception of the cosmos as it is, from having the idea that it is complexly regulated by many sets of 'scientific' rules to the fact that the cosmos is just governed by force. Newton has been credited with bringing about a "mathematization of nature." His three laws--the second law in particular--allow us to show our observations of natural phenomena in mathematical terms. We can view a world of numbers and formulae running parallel to the world we observe of sights and sounds, when we see them with Newton's laws, which provide the link between these two worlds, allowing us to enrich our understanding of the perceptible world with the world of mathematics that lie behind it. The importance of Newton's Laws becomes all the more clearly seen when we think about them in their historical context. In this context, Newton stands out as a revolutionary figure who changed the world through the clarity of his perception. Newton showed, with his theory of gravitation, that the laws governing the movement of the heavens are the same laws that govern regular things In so doing, he was the first to show that all observable phenomena can be classed under a single set of laws.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Newton’s discoveries were of great significance to the field and study of Science. His works were not only applicable in the study of Physics, but also in Mathematics. His discoveries were not purely confined to application in the past, but have also served its purpose in the modern field of applied science.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-One of his most important contributions to Science was his well-known work //Principia//. In several ways, //Principia// was the framework of modern physical science. He had created the mathematical foundation for physics as well as fundamental laws of motion and of universal gravitation that combine phenomena both in the heavens and on earth. The effects of Newton’s discoveries still impact modern science in that his celestial mechanics guide the paths of satellites and space shuttles. His reflecting telescope also enables astronomers to study recently discovered supernovas, his numerical methods used in computing algorithms and his mathematical approaches to tackling physical problems remain as pertinent today as it was almost 4 centuries ago.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-In his book the Opticks, he demonstrated the well-known fact that white light is composed of rays of seven different colours that pass through a prism at different angles. Although he perceived his optics experiments a failure in that he failed to develop a mathematical basis for them. The Opticks ensured a premier position in science for experimentation and had a major influence on the study of electricity, magnetism and chemistry by Benjamin Franklin and others later on after his discoveries. Newton’s several discoveries were paramount to modern science as we know it, and have also solved many of today’s technical problems. His legacy continues to affect our lives today in that without his discovery of universal gravitation, astronauts would not be able to determine what outer space is like in an almost zero-gravity zone. Without Newton’s findings that white light comprises of seven different colours, people today may still be living in Aristotelian belief that the colours are a combination of whiteness and blackness. Also, his reflecting telescope was a much improved device in comparison to that of the refracting telescope. The refracting telescope gave a blurry image because of its curved mirrors to the viewer, while on the other hand, Newton used his knowledge of optics to replace curved mirrors with normal mirrors to give a clearer, more apparent image. Hence, this discovery has helped many astronomers and astrologers later on to make countless discoveries. This has enabled accuracy in observations made about celestial bodies. Indeed, Newton has made great contributions in this study of Science. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">John Henry, **The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science****,** PALGRAVE; 2nd ed. 2002 (509.4 Hen) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Martha Moore, **Kaplan AP European History 2009,** Kaplan, Inc., New York, 2009 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Henderson, Harry, 1951 - **The scientific revolution** / by Harry Henderson and Lisa Yount <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/SCIREV.HTM__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_laws_of_motion__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newton3laws.html__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_laws_of_motion__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/louviere/Newton/__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/lect/mod07.html__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|__http://www.phy.hr/~dpaar/fizicari/xnewton.html__] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">__http://www.ierg.net/teaching/units/newton_unit.html__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">__@http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Home/05-sr-lng-timeline.htm__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">@http://www.ltrc.mcmaster.ca/newton/timelines.htm __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">__@http://www.weburbia.com/pg/hist1.htm http://www.gap-system.org/~history/PrintHT/Gravitation.html__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">RGS History Notes