Newton

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1. Mid Life
2. Later Life

Newton Introduction and Early Life

Issac Newton  (1643 – 1727)

There is a beginning and an end of every scientist that passed away.  However, his/her life impact the generations by leaving behind his/her contribution in this world.  We start looking at Newton’s life from what people at their time view him through the remark in his tomb stone.  After this end point of Newton’s life on earth, we go back to look at his beginning life, early life, then mid life and later life…

Here Lies on the front of his monument are sculptured youths, bearing in their hands emblematic designs of Newton’s principal discoveries. One carries a prism, another a reflecting telescope, a third is weighing the sun and planets with a steelyard, a fourth is employed about a furnace, and two others are loaded with money newly coined. The monument bears this inscription.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON, KNIGHT,
Who by a vigor of mind, almost supernatural,
First demonstrated the motions and figures of the Planets,
The Paths of the Comets, and the tides of the Ocean.
He diligently investigated the different refrangibilities (notes) of the Rays of Light,   (notes: That may be refracted)
And the properties of the Colors to which they give rise an Assiduous (persistent attention), Sagacious (keen discernment), and Faithful Interpreter of Nature, Antiquity, and the Holy Scriptures,
He asserted in his Philosophy the Majesty of God, and exhibited in his Conduct the simplicity of the Gospel.
Let Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great An ornament of the human race.Born 25 Dec., 1642; Died 20 March, 1727.

牛頓以撒 爵士一生

他憑著堅毅的研究和不平凡的生命，首先向世人展示了行星的運動和形狀，與及彗星的軌跡和潮水漲退的規律。他認真探求不同色彩、光線的折射和特性，這一切科學的成就，都指出他是一位精心專注和熱愛求証真理的學者，也是對自然、歷史和聖經的忠實翻譯者。他一生的哲學思想都是堅定不移地肯定創造主的偉大，又在他人生的旅程中見証出福音的真諦。(Chinese translation)

This is a memorial statue erected near his grave    Added by: Kieran Smith                                          Burial: Westminster Abbey, Westminster, City of Westminster, Greater London, England

A beautiful full-length, white marble statue of Sir Isaac was erected in the ante-chapel of Trinity College, where he had done his wonderful work, when scarcely more than a boy.

Early Life

On January 4, 1643, Isaac Newton was born in the hamlet of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. He was the only son of a prosperous local farmer, also named Isaac Newton, who died three months before he was born. A premature baby born tiny and weak, Newton was not expected to survive. When he was 3 years old, his mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, remarried a well-to-do minister, Barnabas Smith, and went to live with him, leaving young Newton with his maternal grandmother.

At age 12, Newton was reunited with his mother after her second husband died. She brought along her three small children from her second marriage. Newton had been enrolled at the King’s School in Grantham, a town in Lincolnshire, where he lodged with a local apothecary and was introduced to the fascinating world of chemistry. His mother pulled him out of school, for her plan was to make him a farmer and have him tend the farm. Newton failed miserably, as he found farming monotonous.

When he was sixteen he was greatly interested in finding the proper form of a body which would offer the least resistance when moving in a fluid. In a severe storm, to test the force of the gale, he jumped first in the direction in which the wind blew, and then in opposition to the wind, and after measuring the length of the leap in both directions, and comparing it with the length to which he could jump in a perfectly calm day, he was enabled to compute the force of the storm.

It is probable that the time spent at Grantham was a happy time; for young Newton there met and, it is said, loved Miss Storey, sister of Dr. Storey, a physician near Colsterworth, and daughter of the apothecary’s second wife. She was two or three years younger than Newton, a girl of attractive face and unusual talents. As his income as a Fellow was small, after leaving college, they did not marry, though his interest in her continued unabated through life. Though she was twice married, he never paid a visit to Woolsthorpe without going to see her, and liberally relieved her from little pecuniary embarrassments, when his own circumstances had become easy. How the world loves constancy; an affection which knows no change! That he would have been happier in those quiet years of study, even in his poverty, had he married, is probable; but that the world gained by his undivided devotion to science, is equally probable. (Source: from book in ref.)

He soon was sent back to King’s School to finish his basic education. Perhaps sensing the young man’s innate intellectual abilities, his uncle, a graduate of the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College, persuaded Newton’s mother to have him enter the university. Newton enrolled in a program similar to a work-study in 1661, and subsequently waited on tables and took care of wealthier students’ rooms.

When Newton arrived at Cambridge, the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century was already in full force. The heliocentric view of the universe—theorized by astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler, and later refined by Galileo—was well known in most European academic circles. Philosopher René Descartes had begun to formulate a new concept of nature as an intricate, impersonal and inert machine. Yet, like most universities in Europe, Cambridge was steeped in Aristotelian philosophy and a view of nature resting on a geocentric view of the universe, dealing with nature in qualitative rather than quantitative terms.

During his first three years at Cambridge, Newton was taught the standard curriculum but was fascinated with the more advanced science. All his spare time was spent reading from the modern philosophers. The result was a less-than-stellar performance, but one that is understandable, given his dual course of study. It was during this time that Newton kept a second set of notes, entitled “Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae” (“Certain Philosophical Questions”). The “Quaestiones” reveal that Newton had discovered the new concept of nature that provided the framework for the Scientific Revolution.

Though Newton graduated with no honors or distinctions, his efforts won him the title of scholar and four years of financial support for future education. Unfortunately, in 1665, the Great Plague that was ravaging Europe had come to Cambridge, forcing the university to close. Newton returned home to pursue his private study. It was during this 18-month hiatus that he conceived the method of infinitesimal calculus, set foundations for his theory of light and color, and gained significant insight into the laws of planetary motion—insights that eventually led to the publication of hisPrincipia in 1687. Legend has it that, at this time, Newton experienced his famous inspiration of gravity with the falling apple.

When the threat of plague subsided in 1667, Newton returned to Cambridge and was elected a minor fellow at Trinity College, as he was still not considered a standout scholar. However, in the ensuing years, his fortune improved. Newton received his Master of Arts degree in 1669, before he was 27.

Continue in Mid life & later life tag…

The stereotypical absent-minded professor, Newton was considered very generous to the other scientists and publishers who helped him with his work. Albert Einstein, the great German-American physicist, stated that without Newton, his work would have been impossible, and that Newton’s concepts “are even today still guiding our thinking in physics.” Newton died in 1727 at the age of 84, and was buried in Westminster Abbey; burial there is considered one of the highest honors in Great Britain that can be bestowed upon a person. (bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson)

While he gave generously during his life, he said, “they who give nothing till they die, never give at all,”—he left a personal estate of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, to be divided among his nephews and nieces.

Others description related to Newton:

Isaac Newton is well known as one of the greatest scientists who ever lived. Less well known is his deep belief in God and his conviction that scientific investigation leads to a greater knowledge of God the Creator of the universe.

Isaac Newton lived at a time when politics, religion and education were not separated. King Charles II commanded that everyone who taught at places such as Trinity College, where Church of England ministers were trained, must themselves be ordained as Church of England ministers after seven years. This included people such as Newton who taught only mathematics and science, not theology.

Although a devout Christian, Newton was not in full agreement with all the doctrines of the Church of England. Thus, his conscience would not allow him to accept ordination. 1

In Newton’s day, many people were superstitious or afraid of what they could not understand—such as the appearance of a comet, which was considered a sign of coming disaster. Even scientists generally considered the motion of planets and the motion of bodies on the earth as separate problems. In contrast, Newton reasoned that since the same God created the heavens as well as the earth, the same laws should apply throughout.

In 1684, Newton again began to consider gravity. He developed his theory of universal gravitation, which used what is known as the inverse square law. He developed his three laws of motion (movement) and proved mathematically that the same laws did, in fact, apply both to the heavens and the earth. His faith had focused his thoughts in the right direction.

When Newton was investigating the movement of the planets, he quite clearly saw the hand of God at work. He wrote:

‘This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being. … This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called “Lord God” Παντοκράτωρ [Pantokratōr cf. 2 Corinthians 6:18], or “Universal Ruler”. … The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect.’2

‘Opposition to godliness is atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.’3

In a manuscript he wrote in 1704 in which he describes his attempts to extract scientific information from the Bible, he estimated that the world would end no earlier than 2060. In predicting this he said, “This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.”

Isaac Newton’s times of hardship and struggle throughout his lifetime did not produce bitterness. Instead, Newton’s own words show that this brought him closer to God. ‘Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise physician gives because we need them; and the proportions the frequency and weight of them to what the case requires. Let us trust his skill and thank him for the prescription.’

Albert Einstein kept a picture of Newton on his study wall alongside ones of Michael Faraday andJames Clerk Maxwell. Newton remains influential to today’s scientists, as demonstrated by a 2005 survey of members of Britain’s Royal Society (formerly headed by Newton) asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton or Einstein. Royal Society scientists deemed Newton to have made the greater overall contribution. In 1999, an opinion poll of 100 of today’s leading physicists voted Einstein the “greatest physicist ever;” with Newton the runner-up, while a parallel survey of rank-and-file physicists by the site PhysicsWeb gave the top spot to Newton.

Although born into an Anglican family, by his thirties Newton held a Christian faith that, had it been made public, would not have been considered orthodox by mainstream Christianity.

Newton saw God as the master creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.

Ref.: Book: Famous men of science, By Sarah Knowles Bolton

T. Y. Crowell & co., 1889 – Scientists – 426 pages

http://creation.com/sir-isaac-newton-1642-1727

1. Some have accused him of Arianism, but this is rejected by Pfizenmaier, T.C., Was Isaac Newton an Arian? Journal of the History of Ideas 68(1):57–80, 1997. A very detailed defense of Newton’s Trinitarianism is Van Alan Herd, The theology of Sir Isaac Newton, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 2008. This documents much evidence, including Newton’s words refuting tritheism and affirming Triniarian monotheism:
   

   That to say there is but one God, ye father of all things, excludes not the son & Holy ghost from the Godhead becaus they are virtually conteined & implied in the father. … To apply ye name of God to ye Son or holy ghost as distinct persons from the father makes them not divers Gods from ye Father. … Soe there is divinity in ye father, divinity in ye Son, & divinity in ye holy ghost, & yet they are not thre forces but one force.

2. Principia, Book III; cited in; Newton’s Philosophy of Nature: Selections from his writings, p. 42, ed. H.S. Thayer, Hafner Library of Classics, NY, 1953.
3. A Short Scheme of the True Religion, manuscript quoted in Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, p. 347, by Sir David Brewster, Edinburgh, 1855.

http://www.biography.com/people/isaac-newton-9422656

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

http://todayinsci.com/N/Newton_Isaac/NewtonIsaac-FamousMenOfScience.html