What discovery did Isaac Newton make? Isaac Newton and his discoveries (from the series “Great Men”). Frenchman from Paris

The great English physicist Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642, on Christmas Day in the village of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire. His father died before the child was born, his mother gave birth to him prematurely, and the newborn Isaac was amazingly small and frail. Isaac was raised in his grandmother's house. At the age of 12 he attended public school in Grantham and was a weak student. But he showed an early inclination towards mechanics and invention. So, as a boy of 14 years old, he invented a water clock and a type of scooter. In his youth, Newton loved painting, poetry, and even wrote poetry. In 1656, when Newton was 14 years old, his stepfather, Rev. Smith, died. The mother returned to Woolsthorpe and took Isaac to her place to help with business. At the same time, he turned out to be a bad assistant and preferred to do more mathematics than agriculture. His uncle once found him under a hedge with a book in his hands, busy solving a mathematical problem. Struck by such a serious and active direction, yet so young man, he persuaded Isaac's mother to send him to study further.
On June 5, 1660, when Newton was not yet 18 years old, he was admitted to Trinity College. Cambridge University was at that time one of the best in Europe. Newton paid attention to mathematics, not so much for the sake of the science itself, with which he was still little familiar, but because he had heard a lot about astronomy and wanted to check whether it was worth studying this mysterious wisdom? Little is known about Newton's first three years at Cambridge. In 1661 he was a “subsizzar”, the name given to poor students whose duties included serving the members of the college. Only in 1664 did he become a real student.
In 1665 he received the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts. It is quite difficult to decide the question of when the first scientific discoveries Newton. We can only state that it is quite early. In 1669 he received the Lucasian chair of mathematics, which had previously been occupied by his teacher Barrow. At this time, Newton was already the author of the binomial and the fluxion method, studied the dispersion of light, designed the first reflecting telescope, and approached the discovery of the law of gravitation. Newton's teaching load consisted of one hour of lectures per week and four hours of rehearsals. As a teacher he was not popular and his lectures on optics were poorly attended.
The reflecting telescope (second, improved) designed in 1671 was the reason for Newton being elected a member of the Royal Society of London on January 11, 1672. At the same time, he refused membership, citing lack of Money to pay membership fees. The Council of the Society considered it possible to make an exception and, in view of his scientific merits, exempted him from paying fees.
His fame as a scientist gradually grew. But Newton was no stranger to social activities. In the rather difficult political situation of that time, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge played a significant role. For defending the position of the university's independence from royal power, he was proposed as a candidate and elected to parliament. In 1687, his famous “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” were published. At the same time, in 1692 an event occurred that shocked him so much nervous system, that for 2 years with some intervals ϶ᴛᴏᴛ great person showed signs of obvious mental disorder and there were periods when he experienced attacks of real, so-called quiet insanity, or melancholy. As another great scientist of that time, Christiaan Huygens, testifies (in a letter dated May 22, 1694): “The Scotsman Doctor Colm informed me that the famous geometer Isaac Newton fell into insanity a year and a half ago, partly from excessive work, partly as a result of grief caused he suffered a fire that destroyed his chemical laboratory and many important manuscripts. Then his friends took him for treatment and, confining him in a room, forced him to take medications, willy-nilly, from which his health improved so much that now he is beginning to understand his book “Principles...”. Fortunately, the illness passed without a trace.
Newton was already 50 years old. Despite his enormous fame and the brilliant success of his book, he lived in very cramped circumstances, and, sometimes, he was simply in need. In 1695, his financial situation, however, changed. Newton's close friend Charles Montagu achieved one of the highest positions in the state: he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Through him, Newton received the position of superintendent of the mint, which brought in 400-500 pounds of annual income. Under his leadership, in 2 years, the entire coinage of England was minted. In 1699 he was appointed director of the mint (12-15 thousand pounds). He left the department and moved to London permanently. In 1703, Newton was elected president of the Royal Society. In 1704, his second most important book was published. "Optics". In 1705, Queen Anne elevated him to knighthood, he occupies a rich apartment, keeps servants, and has a carriage for trips. On March 20, 1727, at the age of 85, Isaac Newton died and was magnificently buried in Westminster Abbey. A medal was struck in Newton’s honor with the inscription: “Happy is he who knows the reasons.”

Newton's main discoveries

Discovery of calculus (analysis) of infinitesimals (differential and integral calculus).
A successor to Barrow, his teacher in mathematics, Newton introduces the concepts of fluent and fluxions. Fluent is a current, variable value. All fluents have one argument - time. Fluxion is the derivative of the fluent function with respect to time, that is, fluxion is the rate of change of fluent. Fluxions are approximately proportional to fluent increments, occurring in equal, very short periods of time.
A method was given for calculating fluxions (finding derivatives), based on the method of expansion into infinite series. Along the way, many problems were solved: finding the minimum and maximum of a function, determining the curvature and inflection points, calculating the areas closed by curves. Newton also developed the technique of integration (by expanding expressions into infinite series).
It is clear how much Newton mastered the images of continuous motion when creating mathematical analysis. His uniformly current independent variable is, as a rule, time. Fluents are variable quantities, for example, a path, that change depending on time. Fluxions are the rates of change of these quantities. Fluents are designated by the letters x, y..., and fluxions by the same letters with dots above them.
Independently of Newton, the famous German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) came to the discovery of differential and integral calculus. There was even a lawsuit between them and their followers about the priority of opening the analysis. As it turned out later, the International Commission to Resolve the Dispute was headed by Newton himself (secretly) and it recognized his priority. Subsequently, it turned out that the Leibniz school developed a more beautiful version of the analysis, but in Newton’s version the “physicality” of the method is more pronounced and important. In general, both Leibniz and Newton worked independently, but Newton completed the work earlier and Leibniz published earlier. Nowadays, analysis mainly uses Leibniz’s approach, including his infinitesimal numbers, the separate existence of which Newton did not consider.
Optical research.
Newton made great achievements in this area of physics. “Optics” is one of his main works.
The main merit was the study of the dispersion (decomposition) of light in a prism and the establishment complex composition light: “Light consists of rays of different refrangibility.” The refractive index depends on the color of light. Newton conducted the famous experiment with crossed prisms, which showed that the decomposition of white light into the colors of the rainbow is not a property of the glass prism, but a property of the light itself. Monochromatic light was highlighted. The main thing is that the color of a beam is its original and unchangeable property. “Every homogeneous light has its own color, corresponding to the degree of its refraction, and such color cannot change during reflections and refractions,”
The reflecting telescope created by Newton is a consequence of Newton’s conviction in the fundamental irremovability of chromatic aberration of lenses due to the dispersion of light in them. Moreover, Newton said that the dispersion is the same for all substances.
Newton studies the colors of thin films. Invents a remarkable arrangement of lenses, which is now known as the installation for obtaining Newtonian rings, both in reflected and transmitted light. He found that the squares of the diameters of the rings increase in the arithmetic progression of odd or even numbers. Thus, he contributed to the study of the phenomenon of interference of light. In the last part of Optics, Newton describes some diffraction phenomena.
In the field of establishing the nature of light, Newton was a supporter of the corpuscular theory. Actually, he substantiated it, as opposed to Huygens' wave theory.
Gravity
Newton began to study the problem of gravitation in the same years 1665-66 as he studied optics and mathematics. At first, he interprets the presence of gravity with the theory of the ether in the Cartesian spirit. The qualitative picture suggested the law of dependence of the force of gravity on distance in inverse proportion to the square of the latter. From here it was not far to the conclusion that the Moon is held in its orbit by the action of the earth's gravity, weakened in proportion to the square of the distance. It was possible to calculate the tension of the gravitational field in lunar orbit and compare it with the magnitude of the centripetal acceleration. The first calculations showed discrepancies. But more accurate measurements of the Earth's radius carried out by Picard made it possible to obtain a satisfactory agreement. The Moon, of course, is continuously falling towards the Earth, while simultaneously moving away from it in a uniform tangential motion.
Further, from Kepler's laws, Newton, through mathematical analysis, comes to the conclusion that the force that holds the planets in orbit around the Sun is the force of mutual gravity, which decreases in proportion to the square of the distance.
The law of gravity remained a hypothesis (experimental proof was obtained only in the 18th century), but Newton, having repeatedly tested it in astronomy, no longer doubted it. Now the law of gravity is represented by a compact formula: F=G m_1 m_2 /(r^2) . This law provided the dynamic basis for all celestial mechanics. For more than 200 years, theoretical physics and astronomy were considered in accordance with this law, until quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity emerged. Newton believed it to be derived purely inductively. He himself found action at a distance meaningless, but refused to publicly discuss the nature of gravity. At the conclusion of “Principles...” Newton makes the following statement: “moving bodies experience no resistance from the omnipresence of God,” i.e. God is a mediator of action at a distance. “I still could not deduce the reason ... for these properties of the gravitational force from the phenomena, but I do not invent hypotheses.”
"Mathematical principles of natural philosophy"
The top scientific creativity Newton was precisely this work, after the publication of which he largely moved away from scientific works. The greatness of the author’s plan, which subjected the system of the world to mathematical analysis, and the depth and rigor of the presentation amazed his contemporaries /2/.
In Newton’s preface (there is also a preface by Cotes, his student), the program of mechanical physics is casually sketched: “We propose this work as the mathematical foundations of physics. The whole difficulty of physics, as will be seen, is to recognize the forces of nature from the phenomena of motion, and then to explain other phenomena using these forces (thus, in books 1 and 2, the law of action of central forces is derived from observable phenomena, and in the third, the found law is applied to the description of the world system). It would be desirable to deduce from the principles of mechanics the rest of the phenomena of nature, reasoning in a similar way, for many things force me to assume that all phenomena are determined by certain forces with which the particles of bodies, due to reasons as yet unknown, either tend to each other and interlock into regular figures, or they mutually repel and move away from each other.”
“Principles...” begin with the “Definitions” section, where definitions of the amount of matter, inertial mass, centripetal force and some others are given. The section concludes with “Instructions”, where the definition of space, time, place, and movement is given. Next comes the section on the axioms of motion, where Newton’s famous 3 laws of mechanics, the laws of motion and the immediate consequences of them are given. Consequently, we are observing a certain imitation of Euclid’s “Principles...”.
Next, “Beginnings...” is divided into 3 books. The first book is devoted to the theory of gravity and movement in the field of central forces, the second - to the doctrine of environmental resistance. In the third book, Newton outlined the established laws of motion of the planets, the Moon, the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, gave a dynamic interpretation of the laws, outlined the “method of fluxions,” and showed that the force that attracts a stone to the Earth is no different in nature from the force that keeps the Moon in orbit , and the weakening of attraction is associated only with an increase in distance.
Thanks to Newton, the Universe began to be perceived as a well-oiled clockwork mechanism. The regularity and simplicity of the basic principles that explained all observed phenomena were regarded by Newton as proof of the existence of God: “Such a most graceful conjunction of the Sun, planets and comets could not have happened except by the intention and in the power of a wise and powerful being. This one rules everything not as the soul of the world, but as the ruler of the Universe, and according to his dominion he should be called the Lord God Almighty.”
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Introduction

Biography

Scientific discoveries

Mathematics

Mechanics

Astronomy

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The relevance of this topic lies in the fact that with the works of Newton, with his system of the world, classical physics takes on a face. He started new era in the development of physics and mathematics.

Newton completed the creation of theoretical physics, begun by Galileo, based, on the one hand, on experimental data, and on the other, on a quantitative and mathematical description of nature. Powerful analytical methods are emerging in mathematics. In physics, the main method of studying nature is the construction of adequate mathematical models natural processes and intensive research of these models with the systematic use of the full power of the new mathematical apparatus.

His most significant achievements are the laws of motion, which laid the foundations of mechanics as a scientific discipline. He discovered the law universal gravity and developed calculus (differential and integral), which have been important tools for physicists and mathematicians ever since. Newton built the first reflecting telescope and was the first to split light into spectral colors using a prism. He also studied the phenomena of heat, acoustics and the behavior of liquids. The unit of force, the newton, is named in his honor.

Newton also dealt with current theological problems, developing an accurate methodological theory. Without a correct understanding of Newton's ideas, we will not be able to fully understand either a significant part of English empiricism, or the Enlightenment, especially the French, or Kant himself. Indeed, the “mind” of the English empiricists, limited and controlled by “experience”, without which it can no longer move freely and at will in the world of entities, is Newton’s “mind”.

It must be admitted that all these discoveries are widely used by people in modern world in a variety of scientific fields.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the discoveries of Isaac Newton and the mechanistic picture of the world he formulated.

To achieve this goal, I consistently solve the following tasks:

2. Consider the life and works of Newton

only because I stood on the shoulders of giants"

I. Newton

Isaac Newton - English mathematician and natural scientist, mechanic, astronomer and physicist, founder of classical physics - was born on Christmas Day 1642 (in the new style - January 4, 1643) in the village of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire.

Isaac Newton's father, a poor farmer, died a few months before his son was born, so as a child Isaac was in the care of relatives. Isaac Newton was given his initial education and upbringing by his grandmother, and then he studied at the town school of Grantham.

As a boy, he loved making mechanical toys, models of water mills, and kites. Later he was an excellent grinder of mirrors, prisms and lenses.

In 1661, Newton took one of the vacancies for poor students at Trinity College, Cambridge University. In 1665 Newton received his bachelor's degree. Fleeing the horrors of the plague that swept England, Newton left for his native Woolsthorpe for two years. Here he works actively and very fruitfully. Newton considered the two plague years - 1665 and 1666 - to be the heyday of his creative powers. Here, under the windows of his house, the famous apple tree grew: the story is widely known that Newton’s discovery of universal gravitation was prompted by the unexpected fall of an apple from the tree. But other scientists also saw the falling of objects and tried to explain it. However, no one managed to do this before Newton. Why does the apple always fall not to the side, he thought, but straight down to the ground? He first thought about this problem in his youth, but published its solution only twenty years later. Newton's discoveries were not an accident. He thought about his conclusions for a long time and published them only when he was absolutely sure of their accuracy and accuracy. Newton established that the motion of a falling apple, a thrown stone, the moon and planets obeys the general law of attraction that operates between all bodies. This law still remains the basis of all astronomical calculations. With its help, scientists accurately predict solar eclipses and calculate the trajectories of spacecraft.

Also in Woolsthorpe, Newton's famous optical experiments were begun, and the "method of fluxions" was born - the beginnings of differential and integral calculus.

In 1668, Newton received a master's degree and began to replace his teacher, the famous mathematician Barrow, at the university. By this time, Newton was gaining fame as a physicist.

The art of polishing mirrors was especially useful to Newton during the manufacture of a telescope for observing the starry sky. In 1668, he personally built his first reflecting telescope. He became the pride of all England. Newton himself highly valued this invention, which allowed him to become a member of the Royal Society of London. Newton sent an improved version of the telescope as a gift to King Charles II.

Newton collected a large collection of various optical instruments and conducted experiments with them in his laboratory. Thanks to these experiments, Newton was the first scientist to understand the origin of various colors in the spectrum and correctly explained the wealth of colors in nature. This explanation was so new and unexpected that even the greatest scientists of that time did not immediately understand it and for many years had fierce disputes with Newton.

In 1669, Barrow gave him the Lucasian chair at the university, and from that time on, for many years, Newton lectured on mathematics and optics at the University of Cambridge.

Physics and mathematics always help each other. Newton understood perfectly well that physics could not do without mathematics; he created new mathematical methods, from which modern higher mathematics was born, now familiar to every physicist and engineer.

In 1695 he was named caretaker, and from 1699 - chief director of the mint in London and established the coin business there, carrying out the necessary reform. While serving as superintendent of the Mint, Newton spent most of his time organizing English coinage and preparing for publication of his work from previous years. Newton's main scientific heritage is contained in his main works - "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" and "Optics".

Among other things, Newton showed interest in alchemy, astrology and theology, and even tried to establish a biblical chronology. He also studied chemistry and the study of the properties of metals. The great scientist was a very modest man. He was constantly busy with work, so carried away by it that he forgot to have lunch. He slept only four or five hours a night. Newton spent the last years of his life in London. Here he publishes and republishes his scientific works, works a lot as president of the Royal Society of London, writes theological treatises and works on historiography. Isaac Newton was a deeply religious man, a Christian. For him there was no conflict between science and religion. The author of the great "Principles" became the author of theological works "Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel", "Apocalypse", "Chronology". Newton considered the study of nature and the Holy Scriptures equally important. Newton, like many great scientists born of humanity, understood that science and religion are different forms of comprehension of existence that enrich human consciousness, and did not look for contradictions here.

Sir Isaac Newton died on March 31, 1727, aged 84, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Newtonian physics describes a model of the Universe in which everything appears to be predetermined by known physical laws. And even though in the 20th century Albert Einstein showed that Newton's laws do not apply at speeds close to the speed of light, Isaac Newton's laws are used for many purposes in the modern world.

Scientific discoveries

Newton's scientific legacy boils down to four main areas: mathematics, mechanics, astronomy and optics.

Let us take a closer look at his contribution to these sciences.

Mathatika

Newton made his first mathematical discoveries back in his student years: the classification of algebraic curves of the 3rd order (curves of the 2nd order were studied by Fermat) and the binomial expansion of an arbitrary (not necessarily integer) degree, from which Newton’s theory of infinite series began - a new and powerful tool analysis. Newton considered series expansion to be the main and general method of analyzing functions, and in this matter he reached the heights of mastery. He used series to calculate tables, solve equations (including differential ones), and study the behavior of functions. Newton was able to obtain expansions for all the functions that were standard at that time.

Newton developed differential and integral calculus simultaneously with G. Leibniz (a little earlier) and independently of him. Before Newton, operations with infinitesimals were not linked into a single theory and had the character of isolated ingenious techniques. The creation of a systemic mathematical analysis reduces the solution of relevant problems, to a large extent, to the technical level. A complex of concepts, operations and symbols appeared, which became the starting point further development mathematics. The next century, the 18th century, was a century of rapid and extremely successful development of analytical methods.

Perhaps Newton came to the idea of analysis through difference methods, which he studied a lot and deeply. True, in his “Principles” Newton almost did not use infinitesimals, adhering to ancient (geometric) methods of proof, but in other works he used them freely.

The starting point for differential and integral calculus were the works of Cavalieri and especially Fermat, who already knew how (for algebraic curves) to draw tangents, find extrema, inflection points and curvature of a curve, and calculate the area of its segment. Among other predecessors, Newton himself named Wallis, Barrow and the Scottish scientist James Gregory. There was no concept of a function yet; he interpreted all curves kinematically as trajectories of a moving point.

Already as a student, Newton realized that differentiation and integration are mutually inverse operations. This fundamental theorem of analysis had already emerged more or less clearly in the works of Torricelli, Gregory and Barrow, but only Newton realized that on this basis it was possible to obtain not only individual discoveries, but a powerful systemic calculus, similar to algebra, with clear rules and gigantic possibilities.

For almost 30 years Newton did not bother to publish his version of the analysis, although in letters (in particular to Leibniz) he willingly shared much of what he had achieved. Meanwhile, Leibniz's version had been spreading widely and openly throughout Europe since 1676. Only in 1693 did the first presentation of Newton's version appear - in the form of an appendix to Wallis's Treatise on Algebra. We have to admit that Newton’s terminology and symbolism are rather clumsy in comparison with Leibniz’s: fluxion (derivative), fluente (antiderivative), moment of magnitude (differential), etc. Only Newton’s notation “is preserved in mathematics.” o» for infinitesimal dt(however, this letter was used earlier by Gregory in the same sense), and also the dot above the letter as a symbol of the derivative with respect to time.

Newton published a fairly complete statement of the principles of analysis only in the work “On the Quadrature of Curves” (1704), attached to his monograph “Optics”. Almost all of the material presented was ready back in the 1670s and 1680s, but only now Gregory and Halley persuaded Newton to publish the work, which, 40 years late, became Newton’s first printed work on analysis. Here, Newton introduced derivatives of higher orders, found the values of the integrals of various rational and irrational functions, and gave examples of solutions differential equations 1st order.

In 1707, the book “Universal Arithmetic” was published. It presents a variety of numerical methods. Newton always paid great attention to the approximate solution of equations. Newton's famous method made it possible to find the roots of equations with previously unimaginable speed and accuracy (published in Wallis' Algebra, 1685). Modern look Newton's iterative method was introduced by Joseph Raphson (1690).

In 1711, after 40 years, Analysis by Equations with an Infinite Number of Terms was finally published. In this work, Newton explores both algebraic and “mechanical” curves (cycloid, quadratrix) with equal ease. Partial derivatives appear. In the same year, the “Method of Differences” was published, where Newton proposed an interpolation formula for carrying out (n+1) data points with equally spaced or unequally spaced abscissas of the polynomial n-th order. This is a difference analogue of Taylor's formula.

In 1736, the final work, “The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series,” was published posthumously, significantly advanced compared to “Analysis by Equations.” It provides numerous examples of finding extrema, tangents and normals, calculating radii and centers of curvature in Cartesian and polar coordinates, finding inflection points, etc. In the same work, quadratures and straightenings of various curves were performed.

It should be noted that Newton not only developed the analysis quite fully, but also made an attempt to strictly substantiate its principles. If Leibniz was inclined to the idea of actual infinitesimals, then Newton proposed (in the Principia) a general theory of passage to limits, which he somewhat floridly called the “method of first and last relations.” The modern term “limit” (lat. limes), although there is no clear description of the essence of this term, implying an intuitive understanding. The theory of limits is set out in 11 lemmas in Book I of the Elements; one lemma is also in book II. There is no arithmetic of limits, there is no proof of the uniqueness of the limit, and its connection with infinitesimals has not been revealed. However, Newton rightly points out the greater rigor of this approach compared to the “rough” method of indivisibles. Nevertheless, in Book II, by introducing “moments” (differentials), Newton again confuses the matter, in fact considering them as actual infinitesimals.

It is noteworthy that Newton was not at all interested in number theory. Apparently, physics was much closer to mathematics to him.

Mechanics

In the field of mechanics, Newton not only developed the principles of Galileo and other scientists, but also gave new principles, not to mention many remarkable individual theorems.

Newton's merit lies in the solution of two fundamental problems.

Creation of an axiomatic basis for mechanics, which actually transferred this science to the category of strict mathematical theories.

Creation of dynamics that connects the behavior of the body with the characteristics of external influences (forces) on it.

In addition, Newton finally buried the idea, rooted since ancient times, that the laws of motion of earthly and celestial bodies completely different. In his model of the world, the entire Universe is subject to uniform laws that can be formulated mathematically.

According to Newton himself, Galileo established the principles that Newton called the “first two laws of motion”; in addition to these two laws, Newton formulated a third law of motion.

Newton's first law

Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform rectilinear motion until some force acts on it and forces it to change this state.

This law states that if any material particle or body is simply left undisturbed, it will continue to move in a straight line at a constant speed on its own. If a body moves uniformly in a straight line, it will continue to move in a straight line with constant speed. If the body is at rest, it will remain at rest until someone applies pressure to it. external forces. To simply move a physical body from its place, an external force must be applied to it. For example, an airplane: it will never move until the engines are started. It would seem that the observation is self-evident, however, as soon as one distracts from the rectilinear movement, it ceases to seem so. When a body moves inertially along a closed cyclic trajectory, its analysis from the position of Newton’s first law only allows one to accurately determine its characteristics.

Another example: an athletics hammer - a ball at the end of a string that you spin around your head. In this case, the nucleus does not move in a straight line, but in a circle - which means, according to Newton’s first law, something is holding it back; this “something” is the centripetal force that is applied to the core, spinning it. In reality, it is quite noticeable - the handle of an athletics hammer puts significant pressure on your palms. If you unclench your hand and release the hammer, it - in the absence of external forces - will immediately set off in a straight line. It would be more accurate to say that this is how the hammer will behave in ideal conditions(for example, in outer space), since under the influence of the gravitational attraction of the Earth it will fly strictly in a straight line only at the moment when you let it go, and in the future the flight path will deviate more and more in the direction earth's surface. If you try to actually release the hammer, it turns out that the hammer released from a circular orbit will travel strictly along a straight line, which is tangent (perpendicular to the radius of the circle along which it was spun) with a linear speed equal to the speed of its revolution in the “orbit”.

If we replace the core of an athletics hammer with a planet, the hammer with the Sun, and the string with the force of gravitational attraction, we get a Newtonian model solar system.

At first glance, such an analysis of what happens when one body orbits another in a circular orbit seems self-evident, but we should not forget that it incorporates a whole series of conclusions best representatives scientific thought of the previous generation (just remember Galileo Galilei). The problem here is that when moving in a stationary circular orbit, the celestial (and any other) body looks very serene and appears to be in a state of stable dynamic and kinematic equilibrium. However, if you look at it, only the modulus (absolute value) of the linear velocity of such a body is conserved, while its direction is constantly changing under the influence of the force of gravitational attraction. This means that the celestial body moves with uniform acceleration. Newton himself called acceleration a “change of motion.”

Newton's first law also plays another important role from the point of view of natural scientists' attitude to the nature of the material world. It implies that any change in the pattern of movement of a body indicates the presence of external forces acting on it. For example, if iron filings bounce and stick to a magnet, or clothes dried in a washing machine dryer stick together and dry to each other, we can argue that these effects are the result of natural forces (in the examples given, these are the forces of magnetic and electrostatic attraction, respectively) .

INNewton's second law

The change in motion is proportional to the driving force and is directed along the straight line along which this force acts.

If Newton's first law helps determine whether a body is under the influence of external forces, then the second law describes what happens to a physical body under their influence. The greater the sum of external forces applied to the body, this law states, the greater the acceleration the body acquires. This time. At the same time, the more massive the body to which an equal amount of external forces is applied, the less acceleration it acquires. That's two. Intuitively, these two facts seem self-evident, and in mathematical form they are written as follows:

where F is force, m is mass, and is acceleration. This is probably the most useful and most widely used of all physics equations. It is enough to know the magnitude and direction of all the forces acting in a mechanical system, and the mass of the material bodies of which it consists, and one can calculate its behavior in time with complete accuracy.

It is Newton's second law that gives all of classical mechanics its special charm - it begins to seem as if the entire physical world is structured like the most precise chronometer, and nothing in it escapes the gaze of an inquisitive observer. Tell me the spatial coordinates and velocities of all material points in the Universe, as if Newton is telling us, tell me the direction and intensity of all the forces acting in it, and I will predict to you any of its future states. And this view of the nature of things in the Universe existed until the advent of quantum mechanics.

Newton's third law

Action is always equal and directly opposite to reaction, that is, the actions of two bodies on each other are always equal and directed in opposite directions.

This law states that if body A acts with a certain force on body B, then body B also acts on body A with a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. In other words, when you stand on the floor, you exert a force on the floor that is proportional to the mass of your body. According to Newton's third law, the floor at the same time acts on you with absolutely the same force, but directed not downward, but strictly upward. This law is not difficult to test experimentally: you constantly feel the earth pressing on your soles.

Here it is important to understand and remember that Newton is talking about two forces of completely different natures, and each force acts on “its own” object. When an apple falls from a tree, it is the Earth that acts on the apple with the force of its gravitational attraction (as a result of which the apple rushes uniformly towards the surface of the Earth), but at the same time the apple also attracts the Earth to itself with equal force. And the fact that it seems to us that it is the apple that falls to the Earth, and not vice versa, is already a consequence of Newton’s second law. The mass of an apple compared to the mass of the Earth is incomparably low, therefore it is its acceleration that is noticeable to the eye of the observer. The mass of the Earth, compared to the mass of an apple, is enormous, so its acceleration is almost imperceptible. (If an apple falls, the center of the Earth moves upward by a distance less than the radius of the atomic nucleus.)

Having established the general laws of motion, Newton deduced from them many corollaries and theorems that allowed him to develop theoretical mechanics to a high degree of perfection. With the help of these theoretical principles, he deduces in detail his law of gravitation from Kepler's laws and then solves the inverse problem, that is, shows what the motion of the planets should be if we accept the law of gravitation as proven.

Newton's discovery led to the creation of a new picture of the world, according to which all planets located at colossal distances from each other are connected into one system. With this law, Newton laid the foundation for a new branch of astronomy.

Astronomy

The very idea of gravitating bodies towards each other appeared long before Newton and was most obviously expressed by Kepler, who noted that the weight of bodies is similar to magnetic attraction and expresses the tendency of bodies to connect. Kepler wrote that the Earth and Moon would move towards each other if they were not held in their orbits by an equivalent force. Hooke came close to formulating the law of gravitation. Newton believed that a falling body, due to the combination of its motion with the motion of the Earth, would describe a helical line. Hooke showed that a helical line is obtained only if air resistance is taken into account and that in a vacuum the movement must be elliptical - we are talking about true movement, that is, one that we could observe if we ourselves were not involved in movement of the globe.

Having checked Hooke's conclusions, Newton was convinced that a body thrown with sufficient speed, while at the same time under the influence of gravity, could indeed describe an elliptical path. Reflecting on this subject, Newton discovered the famous theorem according to which a body under the influence of an attractive force similar to the force of gravity always describes some conic section, that is, one of the curves obtained when a cone intersects a plane (ellipse, hyperbola, parabola and in special cases a circle and a straight line). Moreover, Newton found that the center of attraction, that is, the point at which the action of all attractive forces acting on a moving point is concentrated, is at the focus of the curve being described. Thus, the center of the Sun is (approximately) at the common focus of the ellipses described by the planets.

Having achieved such results, Newton immediately saw that he had derived theoretically, that is, based on the principles of rational mechanics, one of Kepler’s laws, which states that the centers of the planets describe ellipses and that the center of the Sun is at the focus of their orbits. But Newton was not content with this basic agreement between theory and observation. He wanted to make sure whether it was possible, using theory, to really calculate the elements of planetary orbits, that is, to predict all the details of planetary movements?

Wanting to make sure whether the force of gravity, which causes bodies to fall to the Earth, is really identical to the force that holds the Moon in its orbit, Newton began to calculate, but, not having books at hand, he used only the roughest data. The calculation showed that with such numerical data, the force of gravity is greater than the force holding the Moon in its orbit by one sixth, and as if there was some reason opposing the movement of the Moon.

As soon as Newton learned about the measurement of the meridian made by the French scientist Picard, he immediately made new calculations and, to his great joy, became convinced that his long-standing views were completely confirmed. The force that causes bodies to fall to the Earth turned out to be exactly equal to that which controls the movement of the Moon.

This conclusion was the highest triumph for Newton. Now his words are fully justified: “Genius is the patience of a thought concentrated in a certain direction.” All his deep hypotheses and many years of calculations turned out to be correct. Now he was fully and finally convinced of the possibility of creating an entire system of the universe based on one simple and great principle. All the complex movements of the Moon, planets and even comets wandering across the sky became completely clear to him. It became possible to scientifically predict the movements of all bodies in the Solar System, and perhaps the Sun itself, and even stars and stellar systems.

Newton actually proposed a holistic mathematical model:

law of gravitation;

law of motion (Newton's second law);

system of methods for mathematical research (mathematical analysis).

Taken together, this triad is sufficient for a complete study of the most complex movements of celestial bodies, thereby creating the foundations of celestial mechanics. Thus, only with the works of Newton does the science of dynamics begin, including as applied to the movement of celestial bodies. Before the creation of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, no fundamental amendments to this model were needed, although the mathematical apparatus turned out to be necessary to significantly develop.

The law of gravity made it possible to solve not only problems of celestial mechanics, but also a number of physical and astrophysical problems. Newton indicated a method for determining the mass of the Sun and planets. He discovered the cause of tides: the gravity of the Moon (even Galileo considered tides to be a centrifugal effect). Moreover, having processed many years of data on the height of tides, he calculated the mass of the Moon with good accuracy. Another consequence of gravity was the precession of the earth's axis. Newton found out that due to the oblateness of the Earth at the poles, the earth's axis undergoes a constant slow displacement with a period of 26,000 years under the influence of the attraction of the Moon and the Sun. Thus, the ancient problem of “anticipation of the equinoxes” (first noted by Hipparchus) found a scientific explanation.

Newton's theory of gravitation caused many years of debate and criticism of the concept of long-range action adopted in it. However, the outstanding successes of celestial mechanics in the 18th century confirmed the opinion about the adequacy of the Newtonian model. The first observed deviations from Newton's theory in astronomy (a shift in the perihelion of Mercury) were discovered only 200 years later. These deviations were soon explained by the general theory of relativity (GR); Newton's theory turned out to be an approximate version of it. General relativity also filled the theory of gravitation with physical content, indicating the material carrier of the force of attraction - the metric of space-time, and made it possible to get rid of long-range action.

Optics

Newton made fundamental discoveries in optics. He built the first mirror telescope (reflector), in which, unlike purely lens telescopes, there was no chromatic aberration. He also studied the dispersion of light in detail, showed that white light is decomposed into the colors of the rainbow due to the different refraction of rays of different colors when passing through a prism, and laid the foundations for a correct theory of colors. Newton created the mathematical theory of interference rings discovered by Hooke, which have since been called “Newton’s rings.” In a letter to Flamsteed, he outlined a detailed theory of astronomical refraction. But his main achievement was the creation of the foundations of physical (not only geometric) optics as a science and the development of its mathematical basis, the transformation of the theory of light from an unsystematic set of facts into a science with rich qualitative and quantitative content, well substantiated experimentally. Newton's optical experiments became a model of deep physical research for decades.

During this period there were many speculative theories of light and color; mainly fought against Aristotle's point of view (" different colors there is a mixture of light and darkness in different proportions”) and Descartes (“different colors are created when light particles rotate at different speeds”). Hooke, in his Micrographia (1665), proposed a variant of Aristotelian views. Many believed that color is an attribute not of light, but of an illuminated object. The general discord was aggravated by a cascade of discoveries in the 17th century: diffraction (1665, Grimaldi), interference (1665, Hooke), double refraction (1670, Erasmus Bartholin, studied by Huygens), estimation of the speed of light (1675, Roemer). There was no theory of light compatible with all these facts. In his speech to the Royal Society, Newton refuted both Aristotle and Descartes, and convincingly proved that white light is not primary, but consists of colored components with different angles of refraction. These components are primary - Newton could not change their color with any tricks. Thus, the subjective sensation of color received a solid objective basis - the refractive index

Historians distinguish two groups of hypotheses about the nature of light that were popular in Newton’s time:

Emissive (corpuscular): light consists of small particles (corpuscles) emitted by a luminous body. This opinion was supported by the straightness of light propagation, on which geometric optics is based, but diffraction and interference did not fit well into this theory.

Wave: light is a wave in the invisible world ether. Newton's opponents (Hooke, Huygens) are often called supporters of the wave theory, but it must be borne in mind that by wave they did not mean a periodic oscillation, as in modern theory, but a single impulse; for this reason, their explanations of light phenomena were hardly plausible and could not compete with Newton’s (Huygens even tried to refute diffraction). Developed wave optics appeared only in early XIX century.

Newton is often considered a proponent of the corpuscular theory of light; in fact, as usual, he “did not invent hypotheses” and readily admitted that light could also be associated with waves in the ether. In a treatise presented to the Royal Society in 1675, he writes that light cannot be simply vibrations of the ether, since then it could, for example, travel through a curved pipe, as sound does. But, on the other hand, he suggests that the propagation of light excites vibrations in the ether, which gives rise to diffraction and other wave effects. Essentially, Newton, clearly aware of the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, puts forward a compromise, particle-wave theory of light. In his works, Newton described in detail the mathematical model of light phenomena, leaving aside the question of the physical carrier of light: “My teaching about the refraction of light and colors consists solely in establishing certain properties of light without any hypotheses about its origin.” Wave optics, when it appeared, did not reject Newton's models, but absorbed them and expanded them on a new basis.

Despite his dislike of hypotheses, Newton included at the end of Optics a list of unsolved problems and possible answers to them. However, in these years he could already afford this - Newton’s authority after “Principia” became indisputable, and few people dared to bother him with objections. A number of hypotheses turned out to be prophetic. Specifically, Newton predicted:

* deflection of light in the gravitational field;

* phenomenon of light polarization;

* interconversion of light and matter.

Conclusion

newton discovery mechanics mathematics

“I don’t know what I may seem to the world, but to myself I seem only like a boy playing on the shore, amusing myself by finding from time to time a more colorful pebble than usual, or a beautiful shell, while the great ocean of truth spreads out unexplored before me."

I. Newton

The purpose of this essay was to analyze the discoveries of Isaac Newton and the mechanistic picture of the world he formulated.

The following tasks were accomplished:

1. Conduct an analysis of the literature on this topic.

2. Consider the life and work of Newton

3. Analyze Newton's discoveries

One of the most important meanings of Newton’s work is that the concept of the action of forces in nature that he discovered, the concept of the reversibility of physical laws into quantitative results, and, conversely, the obtaining of physical laws on the basis of experimental data, the development of the principles of differential and integral calculus created a very effective methodology for scientific research.

Newton's contribution to the development of world science is invaluable. Its laws are used to calculate the results of a wide variety of interactions and phenomena on Earth and in space, are used in the development of new engines for air, road and water transport, calculate the length of takeoff and landing strips for various types of aircraft, parameters (inclination to the horizon and curvature) of high-speed highways, for calculations in the construction of buildings, bridges and other structures, in the development of clothing, shoes, exercise equipment, in mechanical engineering, etc.

And in conclusion, to summarize, it should be noted that physicists have a strong and unanimous opinion about Newton: he reached the limits of knowledge of nature to the extent that only a man of his time could reach.

List of sources used

Samin D.K. One Hundred Great Scientists. M., 2000.

Solomatin V.A. History of science. M., 2003.

Lyubomirov D.E., Sapenok O.V., Petrov S.O. History and philosophy of science: Tutorial for organization independent work graduate students and applicants. M., 2008.

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Isaac Newton: short biography and his discoveries

Was born Isaac Newton December 25 (January 4th according to the Gregorian calendar ) 1624 in the small village of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, Royal England before the Civil War. The boy's father was an ordinary farmer who tried to feed his family. Isaac was born ahead of schedule, on Christmas Eve. Subsequently, for a long time he considered the peculiarities of his birth a sign of success. Despite the sickness and frail health that had not left him since childhood, he lived to be 84 years old.

At the age of 3, Isaac was raised by his grandmother.. As a child, young Newton was aloof, more dreamy than active and sociable. At the age of 12 he entered school in Grantham. Newton’s education was worse than other schoolchildren due to poor health and character traits, so he put in twice as much effort. Teachers noticed the young man's serious interest in mathematics. At 17 he entered Cambridge University on social security. Roughly speaking, he did not pay for his studies, but he should “help” his superior students in every possible way. In 1665 he received the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts– a basic, passing certificate for further education in those days.

He had a chance to leave the walls of his native educational institution in 1664 . On Christmas Eve the plague broke out which marked the period of the Great Epidemic (from 1664 to 1667) - 5 of the population of England died. Added to everything else was the war with Holland. Isaac Newton spent these years in hometown, secluded from the rest of the world. The difficult period turned into real discoveries for the young scientist.

The Newton-Leibniz formula is the first sketch of the expansion of functions of differential and integral calculus into series (fluxion method).
Optical experiments - decomposition white for 7 spectral colors.
The law of universal gravitation.

From the book "Memoirs of the Life of Newton" by William Stukeley, 1752: “After lunch there was warm weather, and we went out into the garden to drink tea in the shade of the apple trees. Newton showed me that the idea of gravity came to him under the same tree. While he was thinking, one of the apples suddenly fell from the branch. Newton thought: “Why do apples always fall perpendicular to the ground?”

In 1668, Newton returned to Cambridge to receive his master's degree. Later he took Lucas’s chair of mathematics - Professor I. Barrow gave the place to the young genius so that Isaac would have enough money to live. The leadership of the department lasted until 1701. In 1672, Isaac Newton was invited to become a member of the Royal Society of London.

In 1686, the works of “The Mathematical Principle of Natural Philosophy” were created and sent out.- a revolutionary discovery that laid the foundation for the system of classical physics and provided the basis for research in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, and optics.

In 1695 he received a position at the Mint, without leaving his position as a Cambridge professor. This event finally improved the scientist’s financial condition. In 1699 he became director and moved to London, continuing to hold the position until his death. In 1703 he became president of the Royal Society, and two years later he was awarded a knighthood.. In 1725 he left the service. Died March 31, 1727 in London, when England was re-swept by the plague. Buried in Westminster Abbey.

Isaac Newton's discoveries:

Magnifying lens of a mirror telescope (40 closer);
The simplest forms of motion of matter;
Doctrines about mass, force, attraction, space;
Classical mechanics;
Physical theories of color;
Hypotheses on light deflection, polarization, interconversion of light and matter;

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/brief historical perspective/

The greatness of a true scientist is not in the titles and awards with which he is marked or awarded by the world community, and not even in the recognition of his services to Humanity, but in the discoveries and theories that he left to the World. The unique discoveries made during his bright Life by the famous scientist Isaac Newton are difficult to overestimate or underestimate.

Theories and discoveries

Isaac Newton formulated the basic laws of classical mechanics, was opened law of universal gravitation, theory developed movements of celestial bodies, created fundamentals of celestial mechanics.

Isaac Newton(independently of Gottfried Leibniz) created theory of differential and integral calculus, opened light dispersion, chromatic aberration, studied interference and diffraction, developed corpuscular theory of light, gave a hypothesis that combined corpuscular And wave representations, built mirror telescope.

Space and time Newton considered absolute.

Historical formulations of Newton's laws of mechanics

Newton's first law

Every body continues to be maintained in a state of rest or uniform and rectilinear motion until and unless it is forced by applied forces to change this state.

Newton's second law

IN inertial system reference, the acceleration that a material point receives is directly proportional to the resultant of all forces applied to it and inversely proportional to its mass.

The change in momentum is proportional to the applied driving force and occurs in the direction of the straight line along which this force acts.

Newton's third law

An action always has an equal and opposite reaction, otherwise the interactions of two bodies on each other are equal and directed in opposite directions.

Some of Newton's contemporaries considered him alchemist. He was the director of the Mint, established the coin business in England, and headed the society Prior-Zion, studied the chronology of ancient kingdoms. He devoted several theological works (mostly unpublished) to the interpretation of biblical prophecies.

Newton's works

– “A New Theory of Light and Colors”, 1672 (communication to the Royal Society)

– “Motion of bodies in orbit” (lat. De Motu Corporum in Gyrum), 1684

– “Mathematical principles of natural philosophy” (lat. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica), 1687

- “Optics or a treatise on the reflections, refractions, bendings and colors of light” (eng. Opticks or a treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colors of light), 1704

– “On the quadrature of curves” (lat. Tractatus de quadratura curvarum), supplement to "Optics"

– “Enumeration of lines of the third order” (lat. Enumeratio linearum tertii ordinis), supplement to "Optics"

– “Universal arithmetic” (lat. Arithmetica Universalis), 1707

– “Analysis using equations with an infinite number of terms” (lat. De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas), 1711

– “Method of Differences”, 1711

According to scientists around the world, Newton's work was significantly ahead of the general scientific level of his time and was poorly understood by his contemporaries. However, Newton himself said about himself: “ I don’t know how the world perceives me, but to myself I seem to be only a boy playing seashore who amuses himself by occasionally finding a pebble more colorful than the others, or a beautiful shell, while the great ocean of truth lies unexplored before me. »

But according to the conviction of no less a great scientist, A. Einstein “ Newton was the first to try to formulate elementary laws that determine the time course of a wide class of processes in nature with a high degree of completeness and accuracy." and “... with his works had a deep and strong influence on the entire worldview as a whole. »

Newton's grave bears the following inscription:

“Here lies Sir Isaac Newton, the nobleman who, with an almost divine mind, was the first to prove with the torch of mathematics the motion of the planets, the paths of comets and the tides of the oceans. He investigated the differences in light rays and the various properties of colors that appeared thereby, which no one had previously suspected. A diligent, wise and faithful interpreter of nature, antiquity and Holy Scripture, he affirmed with his philosophy the greatness of Almighty God, and with his disposition he expressed evangelical simplicity. Let mortals rejoice that such an adornment of the human race existed. »

Prepared Lazarus Model.

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 in the small British village of Woolsthorpe, located in the county of Lincolnshire. A frail boy who left his mother’s womb prematurely came into this world on the eve of the English civil war, shortly after the death of his father and shortly before the celebration of Christmas.

The child was so weak that for a long time he was not even baptized. But still, little Isaac Newton, named after his father, survived and lived a very long life for the seventeenth century - 84 years.

The father of the future brilliant scientist was a small farmer, but quite successful and wealthy. After the death of Newton Sr., his family received several hundred acres of fields and woodland with fertile soil and an impressive sum of 500 pounds sterling.

Isaac's mother, Anna Ayscough, soon remarried and bore her new husband three children. Anna paid more attention to her younger offspring, and Isaac’s grandmother, and then his uncle William Ayscough, was initially involved in raising her first-born.

As a child, Newton was interested in painting and poetry, selflessly inventing a water clock, a windmill, and making paper kites. At the same time, he was still very sickly, and also extremely uncommunicative: fun games with his peers, Isaac preferred his own hobbies.

Physicist in his youth

When the child was sent to school, his physical weakness and poor communication skills once even caused the boy to be beaten until he fainted. Newton could not endure this humiliation. But, of course, he could not acquire an athletic physical form overnight, so the boy decided to please his self-esteem in a different way.

If before this incident he studied rather poorly and was clearly not the teachers’ favorite, then after that he began to seriously stand out in terms of academic performance among his classmates. Gradually, he became a better student, and also became even more seriously interested in technology, mathematics and amazing, inexplicable natural phenomena than before.

When Isaac turned 16, his mother took him back to the estate and tried to entrust some of the responsibilities of running the household to the older eldest son (Anna Ayscough’s second husband had also died by that time). However, the guy did nothing but construct ingenious mechanisms, “swallow” numerous books and write poetry.

The young man's school teacher, Mr. Stokes, as well as his uncle William Ayscough and his acquaintance Humphrey Babington (part-time member of Trinity College Cambridge) from Grantham, where the future world-famous scientist attended school, persuaded Anna Ayscough to allow her gifted son to continue his studies. As a result of collective persuasion, Isaac completed his studies at school in 1661, after which he successfully passed the entrance exams to Cambridge University.

Beginning of a scientific career

As a student, Newton had the status of "sizar". This meant that he did not pay for his education, but had to perform various tasks at the university, or provide services to wealthier students. Isaac bravely withstood this test, although he still extremely disliked feeling oppressed, was unsociable and did not know how to make friends.

At that time, philosophy and natural science were taught in the world-famous Cambridge, although at that time the world had already been shown the discoveries of Galileo, the atomic theory of Gassendi, the bold works of Copernicus, Kepler and other outstanding scientists. Isaac Newton greedily absorbed all the possible information on mathematics, astronomy, optics, phonetics and even music theory that he could find. At the same time, he often forgot about food and sleep.

Isaac Newton studies the refraction of light

The researcher began his independent scientific activity in 1664, compiling a list of 45 problems in human life and nature, which have not yet been resolved. At the same time, fate brought the student together with the gifted mathematician Isaac Barrow, who began working in the college’s mathematics department. Subsequently, Barrow became his teacher, as well as one of his few friends.

Having become even more interested in mathematics thanks to a gifted teacher, Newton performed the binomial expansion for an arbitrary rational exponent, which became his first brilliant discovery in the mathematical field. That same year, Isaac received his bachelor's degree.

In 1665-1667, when the plague, the Great Fire of London and the extremely costly war with Holland swept through England, Newton settled briefly in Woesthorpe. During these years, he directed his main activity towards the discovery of optical secrets. Trying to figure out how to rid lens telescopes of chromatic aberration, the scientist came to the study of dispersion. The essence of the experiments that Isaac carried out was in an effort to understand the physical nature of light, and many of them are still carried out in educational institutions.

As a result, Newton came to a corpuscular model of light, deciding that it can be considered as a stream of particles that fly out from a certain light source and carry out linear motion to the nearest obstacle. Although such a model cannot lay claim to ultimate objectivity, it has nevertheless become one of the foundations of classical physics, without which more modern ideas about physical phenomena.

Among those who like to collect Interesting Facts There has long been a misconception that Newton discovered this key law of classical mechanics after an apple fell on his head. In fact, Isaac systematically walked towards his discovery, which is clear from his numerous notes. The legend of the apple was popularized by the then authoritative philosopher Voltaire.

Scientific fame

At the end of the 1660s, Isaac Newton returned to Cambridge, where he received master's status, his own room to live, and even a group of young students for whom the scientist became a teacher. However, teaching was clearly not the gifted researcher’s forte, and attendance at his lectures was noticeably poor. At the same time, the scientist invented a reflecting telescope, which made him famous and allowed Newton to join the Royal Society of London. Many amazing astronomical discoveries have been made through this device.

In 1687, Newton published perhaps his most important work, a work entitled “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” The researcher had published his works before, but this one was of paramount importance: it became the basis of rational mechanics and all mathematical natural sciences. It contained the well-known law of universal gravitation, the three hitherto known laws of mechanics, without which classical physics is unthinkable, key physical concepts were introduced, and there was no doubt heliocentric system Copernicus.

In terms of mathematical and physical level, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” were an order of magnitude higher than the research of all scientists who worked on this problem before Isaac Newton. There was no unproven metaphysics with lengthy reasoning, groundless laws and unclear formulations, which was so common in the works of Aristotle and Descartes.

In 1699, while Newton was working in administrative positions, his world system began to be taught at the University of Cambridge.

Personal life

Women, neither then nor over the years, showed much sympathy for Newton, and throughout his life he never married.

The death of the great scientist occurred in 1727, and almost all of London gathered for his funeral.

Newton's laws

The first law of mechanics: every body is at rest or remains in a state of uniform translational motion until this state is corrected by the application of external forces.
The second law of mechanics: the change in momentum is proportional to the applied force and occurs in the direction of its influence.
The third law of mechanics: material points interact with each other along a straight line connecting them, with forces equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
Law of Gravity: The force of gravitational attraction between two material points is proportional to the product of their masses multiplied by the gravitational constant, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between these points.