Isaak Newton

Isaak Newton was born in a farmer's house on December 25, 1642 in a little village not far from the old university town of Cambridge.

His family wanted him to become a farmer, but with no success, as his mind was always busy with observing various phenomena of nature. He studied at Cambridge at mathematical course. Some years later after having taken his degree he was appointed professor to the chair of physics and mathematics at Cambridge. He delivered lectures in optics. The study of light was Newton's favorite study. He came to the conclusion that white light consisted of rays of different coloures and that each particular kind of coloured ray was differently bent when it fell on a glass surface at the angle. His results formed the bases of modern spectrography. The theory of gravity was developed by him when he was only 24. Having seen the fall of an apple he came to the conclusion that the apple and the earth were pulling each other, and he began to think of the same pull of gravity extending far beyond the earth. The problem of the paths of the planets was “What laws could account for the ceaseless motion of the planets round the Sun?” Newton deduced and calculated the force of gravity acting between the Sun and the planets, thus establishing the law of gravitation. By discovering this law, he demonstrated the uniformity of things and found a connecting link between the mechanics of the earth and the mechanics of the heavens.

His great work “Principia”, published in 1687, gave an insight into the structure and mechanics of the universe. He also discovered the laws of motion which we still consider to be the basis of all calculations concerning the motion.

Although a genius of science, Newton owed much to his predecessors. The year of his birth was the year of the death of Galileo. Galileo had founded the science of mechanics, and his application of the astronomical telescope (then recently invented) had been of the greatest help in the study of the heavens. Copernicus, Brahe and Kepler had overthrown the old conception of the earth as the centre of the universe.

Newton himself modestly said: “If I have seen farther than most men, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

While studing light, Newton invented the reflecting telescope. It was only an inch in diametre, and six inches long, but it magnified forty times and gave a good view of the Jupiter's moons. He made a larger one. You can see it in the library of the Royal Society in London, and there you can read: “The first reflecting telescope, invented by Sir Isaak Newton, and made with his own hands”.

(В.В. Леонтьев, В.В. Булатов “Английский язык для математиков”, 2001)

6.2 Read the text to learn about French-Iitalian scientist Joseph Conte Lagrange.

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