Isaac Newton - biography and scientific discoveries that turned the world upside down. The years of the life of a great scientist: Isaac Newton - a short biography and his discoveries

Sir Isaac Newton. Born December 25, 1642 - died March 20, 1727. English physicist, mathematician, mechanic and astronomer, one of the founders of classical physics. The author of the fundamental work "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", in which he outlined the law of universal gravitation and the three laws of mechanics, which became the basis of classical mechanics. He developed differential and integral calculus, color theory, laid the foundations of modern physical optics, created many other mathematical and physical theories.

Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, on the eve of the Civil War. Newton's father, a small but prosperous farmer Isaac Newton (1606-1642), did not live to see his son's birth.

The boy was born prematurely, was painful, so they did not dare to baptize him for a long time. And yet he survived, was baptized (January 1), and named Isaac in memory of his father. The fact of being born on Christmas Day was considered by Newton to be a special sign of fate. Despite poor health as an infant, he lived to be 84 years old.

Newton sincerely believed that his family goes back to the Scottish nobles of the 15th century, but historians have discovered that in 1524 his ancestors were poor peasants. By the end of the 16th century, the family had grown rich and moved into the category of yeomen (landowners). Newton's father left a large sum of 500 pounds sterling for those times and several hundred acres of fertile land occupied by fields and forests.

In January 1646, Newton's mother, Hannah Ayscough (1623-1679), remarried. She had three children with her new husband, a 63-year-old widower, and began to pay little attention to Isaac. The boy's patron was his maternal uncle, William Ayskoe. As a child, Newton, according to contemporaries, was silent, withdrawn and isolated, loved to read and make technical toys: sun and water clocks, a mill, etc. All his life he felt lonely.

His stepfather died in 1653, part of his inheritance passed to Newton's mother and was immediately issued by her to Isaac. The mother returned home, but her main attention was paid to the three youngest children and the extensive household; Isaac was still on his own.

In 1655, 12-year-old Newton was sent to study at a nearby school in Grantham, where he lived in the house of the apothecary Clark. Soon the boy showed extraordinary abilities, but in 1659 his mother Anna returned him to the estate and tried to entrust the 16-year-old son with part of the management of the household. The attempt was not successful - Isaac preferred reading books, versification and especially the construction of various mechanisms to all other activities.

At this time, Anna was approached by Stokes, Newton's school teacher, and began to persuade her to continue the education of an unusually gifted son; this request was joined by Uncle William and Grantham acquaintance of Isaac (relative of the apothecary Clark) Humphrey Babington, a member of Trinity College Cambridge. With their combined efforts, they finally succeeded.

In 1661, Newton successfully graduated from school and went to continue his education at Cambridge University.

In June 1661, 18-year-old Newton arrived in Cambridge. According to the statute, he was given an examination in Latin, after which he was informed that he was accepted into Trinity College (College of the Holy Trinity) of Cambridge University. More than 30 years of Newton's life are connected with this educational institution.

The college, like the entire university, was going through a difficult time. The monarchy had just been restored in England (1660), King Charles II often delayed the payments due to the university, dismissed a significant part of the teaching staff appointed during the years of the revolution. In total, 400 people lived in Trinity College, including students, servants and 20 beggars, to whom, according to the charter, the college was obliged to give alms. The educational process was in a deplorable state.

Newton was enrolled in the ranks of student "sizers" (sizar), from whom they did not take tuition fees (probably on the recommendation of Babington). According to the norms of that time, the sizer was obliged to pay for his education through various jobs at the University, or by providing services to wealthier students. There are very few documentary evidence and memories of this period of his life. During these years, the character of Newton was finally formed - the desire to get to the bottom, intolerance to deceit, slander and oppression, indifference to public glory. He still didn't have any friends.

In April 1664, Newton, having passed his exams, moved to the higher student category of "schoolboys" (scholars), which made him eligible for a scholarship and continued education in college.

Despite the discoveries of Galileo, science and philosophy were still taught at Cambridge. However, Newton's surviving notebooks already mention Cartesianism, Kepler and Gassendi's atomistic theory. Judging by these notebooks, he continued to make (mainly scientific instruments), enthusiastically studied optics, astronomy, mathematics, phonetics, and music theory. According to the memoirs of a roommate, Newton selflessly indulged in teaching, forgetting about food and sleep; probably, despite all the difficulties, this was exactly the way of life that he himself desired.

The year 1664 in Newton's life was also rich in other events. Newton experienced a creative upsurge, began independent scientific activity and compiled a large-scale list (of 45 points) of unresolved problems in nature and human life (Questionnaire, Latin Questiones quaedam philosophicae). In the future, such lists appear more than once in his workbooks. In March of the same year, the lectures of a new teacher, 34-year-old Isaac Barrow, a prominent mathematician, future friend and teacher of Newton, began at the newly founded (1663) department of mathematics of the college. Newton's interest in mathematics increased dramatically. He made the first significant mathematical discovery: the binomial expansion for an arbitrary rational exponent (including negative ones), and through it he came to his main mathematical method - the expansion of a function into an infinite series. At the very end of the year, Newton became a bachelor.

The scientific support and inspirers of Newton's creativity to the greatest extent were physicists: Galileo and Kepler. Newton completed their works by uniting them into a universal system of the world. Lesser but significant influence was exerted by other mathematicians and physicists: Fermat, Huygens, Wallis and his immediate teacher Barrow.

In Newton's student notebook there is a program phrase: "In philosophy, there can be no sovereign, except for truth ... We must erect monuments of gold to Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and write on each: "Plato is a friend, Aristotle is a friend, but the main friend is truth"".

On Christmas Eve 1664, red crosses began to appear on London houses, the first marks of the Great Plague. By the summer, the deadly epidemic had expanded considerably. On August 8, 1665, classes at Trinity College were discontinued and the staff disbanded until the epidemic ended. Newton went home to Woolsthorpe, taking with him the basic books, notebooks and tools.

These were disastrous years for England - a devastating plague (only in London, a fifth of the population died), a devastating war with Holland, the Great Fire of London. But Newton made a significant part of his scientific discoveries in the solitude of the "plague years". Surviving notes show that the 23-year-old Newton was already fluent in the basic methods of differential and integral calculus, including the expansion of functions into series and what was later called the Newton-Leibniz formula. Having carried out a number of ingenious optical experiments, he proved that white is a mixture of colors of the spectrum.

But his most significant discovery during these years was law of gravity. Later, in 1686, Newton wrote to Halley: "In papers written more than 15 years ago (I cannot give the exact date, but, in any case, it was before the beginning of my correspondence with Oldenburg), I expressed the inverse quadratic proportionality of the planets' gravity to the Sun depending on the distance and calculated the correct the relation of the earth's gravity and the conatus recedendi [tendency] of the moon to the center of the earth, although not entirely accurate".

The inaccuracy mentioned by Newton was due to the fact that Newton took the dimensions of the Earth and the value of the acceleration of gravity from Galileo's Mechanics, where they were given with a significant error. Later, Newton received more accurate Picard data and was finally convinced of the truth of his theory.

well known the legend that Newton discovered the law of gravity by watching an apple fall from a tree branch. For the first time, "Newton's apple" was briefly mentioned by Newton's biographer William Stukeley (book "Memoirs of the Life of Newton", 1752): "After dinner, warm weather set in, we went out into the garden and drank tea in the shade of apple trees. He [Newton] told me the idea of ​​gravity came to him while he was sitting under a tree in the same way.He was in a contemplative mood when suddenly an apple fell from a branch. "Why do apples always fall perpendicular to the ground?" he thought.

The legend became popular thanks to Voltaire. In fact, as can be seen from Newton's workbooks, his theory of universal gravitation developed gradually.

Newton Isaac. Newton's bone of contention

Another biographer, Henry Pemberton, gives Newton's reasoning (without mentioning the apple) in more detail: "Comparing the periods of several planets and their distances from the Sun, he found that ... this force must decrease in quadratic proportion with increasing distance." In other words, Newton discovered that from Kepler's third law, which relates the periods of revolution of the planets to the distance to the Sun, it is precisely the "inverse square formula" for the law of gravity (in the approximation of circular orbits) that follows. The final formulation of the law of gravitation, which was included in the textbooks, was written out by Newton later, after the laws of mechanics became clear to him.

These discoveries, as well as many of the later ones, were published 20-40 years later than they were made. Newton did not pursue fame.

In 1670 he wrote to John Collins: “I see nothing desirable in fame, even if I were capable of earning it. This would probably increase the number of my acquaintances, but this is exactly what I try to avoid most of all.

He did not publish his first scientific work (October 1666), which outlined the basics of analysis, it was found only 300 years later.

In March-June 1666, Newton visited Cambridge. However, in the summer, a new wave of plague forced him to leave home again. Finally, in early 1667, the epidemic subsided, and in April Newton returned to Cambridge. On October 1, he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, and in 1668 became a master. He was given a spacious private room to live in, a salary of £2 a year, and a group of students with whom he conscientiously studied standard subjects for several hours a week. However, neither then nor later did Newton become famous as a teacher, his lectures were poorly attended.

Having consolidated his position, Newton traveled to London, where shortly before, in 1660, the Royal Society of London was established - an authoritative organization of prominent scientists, one of the first Academies of Sciences. The organ of the Royal Society was Philosophical Transactions.

In 1669, mathematical works began to appear in Europe using expansions into infinite series. Although the depth of these discoveries did not go to any comparison with Newton's, Barrow insisted that his student fix his priority in this matter. Newton wrote a brief but fairly complete summary of this part of his discoveries, which he called "Analysis using equations with an infinite number of terms". Barrow sent this treatise to London. Newton asked Barrow not to reveal the name of the author of the work (but he still let it slip). "Analysis" spread among specialists and gained some notoriety in England and beyond.

In the same year, Barrow accepted the invitation of the king to become a court chaplain and left teaching. On October 29, 1669, the 26-year-old Newton was elected as his successor, professor of mathematics and optics at Trinity College, with a high salary of £100 a year. Barrow left Newton an extensive alchemical laboratory; during this period, Newton became seriously interested in alchemy, conducted a lot of chemical experiments.

Simultaneously, Newton continued experiments in optics and color theory. Newton investigated spherical and chromatic aberrations. To minimize them, he built a mixed reflecting telescope: a lens and a concave spherical mirror, which he made and polished himself. The project of such a telescope was first proposed by James Gregory (1663), but this idea was never realized. Newton's first design (1668) was unsuccessful, but the next one, with a more carefully polished mirror, despite its small size, gave a 40-fold increase in excellent quality.

Word of the new instrument quickly reached London, and Newton was invited to show his invention to the scientific community.

In late 1671 and early 1672, a reflector was demonstrated before the king, and then at the Royal Society. The device received rave reviews. Probably, the practical importance of the invention also played a role: astronomical observations served to accurately determine the time, which in turn was necessary for navigation at sea. Newton became famous and in January 1672 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Later, improved reflectors became the main tools of astronomers; with their help, the planet Uranus, other galaxies, and redshift were discovered.

At first, Newton valued communication with colleagues from the Royal Society, which included, in addition to Barrow, James Gregory, John Vallis, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren and other famous figures of English science. However, tedious conflicts soon began, which Newton did not like very much. In particular, a noisy controversy flared up about the nature of light. It began with the fact that in February 1672 Newton published in "Philosophical Transactions" a detailed description of his classical experiments with prisms and his theory of color. Hooke, who had previously published his own theory, stated that Newton's results did not convince him; it was supported by Huygens on the grounds that Newton's theory "contradicts conventional wisdom". Newton responded to their criticism only six months later, but by this time the number of critics had increased significantly.

The avalanche of incompetent attacks caused Newton to become irritated and depressed. Newton asked the secretary of the Oldenburg Society not to send him any more critical letters and gave a vow for the future: not to get involved in scientific disputes. In letters, he complains that he is faced with a choice: either not to publish his discoveries, or to spend all his time and all his energy on repelling unfriendly amateurish criticism. In the end, he chose the first option and made a declaration of resignation from the Royal Society (March 8, 1673). Oldenburg, not without difficulty, persuaded him to stay, but scientific contacts with the Society were reduced to a minimum for a long time.

In 1673 two important events took place. First, by royal decree, Newton's old friend and patron, Isaac Barrow, returned to Trinity, now as head ("master") of the college. Second: he became interested in Newton's mathematical discoveries, known at that time as a philosopher and inventor.

After receiving Newton's 1669 work on infinite series and studying it in depth, he further independently began to develop his own version of analysis. In 1676, Newton and Leibniz exchanged letters in which Newton explained a number of his methods, answered questions from Leibniz, and hinted at the existence of even more general methods, not yet published (meaning the general differential and integral calculus). The secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, insistently asked Newton to publish his mathematical discoveries on analysis for the glory of England, but Newton replied that he had been working on another topic for five years and did not want to be distracted. Newton did not answer another letter from Leibniz. The first brief publication on the Newtonian version of analysis appeared only in 1693, when Leibniz's version had already spread widely throughout Europe.

The end of the 1670s was sad for Newton. In May 1677, 47-year-old Barrow died unexpectedly. In the winter of the same year, a strong fire broke out in Newton's house, and part of Newton's manuscript archive burned down. In September 1677, the secretary of the Royal Society of Oldenburg, who favored Newton, died, and Hooke, who was hostile to Newton, became the new secretary. In 1679, Anna's mother fell seriously ill; Newton, leaving all his affairs, came to her, took an active part in caring for the patient, but his mother's condition quickly worsened, and she died. Mother and Barrow were among the few people who brightened up Newton's loneliness.

In 1689, after the overthrow of King James II, Newton was elected for the first time to Parliament from the University of Cambridge and sat there for a little over a year. The second election took place in 1701-1702. There is a popular anecdote that Newton took the floor to speak in the House of Commons only once, asking that the window be closed to keep out the draft. In fact, Newton performed his parliamentary duties with the same conscientiousness with which he treated all his affairs.

Around 1691, Newton became seriously ill (most likely he got poisoned during chemical experiments, although there are other versions - overwork, shock after a fire that led to the loss of important results, and age-related ailments). Relatives feared for his sanity; the few surviving letters of his from this period do indeed testify to mental disorder. Only at the end of 1693 did Newton's health fully recover.

In 1679, Newton met at Trinity an 18-year-old aristocrat, lover of science and alchemy, Charles Montagu (1661-1715). Probably Newton made the strongest impression on Montagu, because in 1696, having become Lord Halifax, President of the Royal Society and Chancellor of the Exchequer (that is, the Minister of the Exchequer of England), Montagu proposed to the king appoint Newton to be caretaker of the Mint. The king gave his consent, and in 1696 Newton took up this position, left Cambridge and moved to London. Since 1699, he became the manager ("master") of the Mint.

To begin with, Newton thoroughly studied the technology of coin production, put the paperwork in order, redid the accounting for the last 30 years. At the same time, Newton energetically and skillfully contributed to the monetary reform carried out by Montagu, restoring confidence in the monetary system of England, which had been thoroughly launched by his predecessors.

In England of these years, almost exclusively underweight coins were in circulation, and counterfeit coins were in considerable quantity. Trimming of the edges of silver coins has become widespread. Now, the coin began to be produced on special machines and there was an inscription along the rim, so that the criminal grinding of metal became almost impossible.

The old, underweight silver coin was completely withdrawn from circulation and re-minted for 2 years, the issue of new coins increased to keep up with the demand for them, their quality improved. Earlier, during such reforms, the population had to change the old money by weight, after which the amount of cash decreased both among individuals (private and legal), and throughout the country, but interest and loan obligations remained the same, which caused the economy to begin stagnation. Newton, on the other hand, proposed exchanging money at par, which prevented these problems, and the inevitable after such a shortage of funds was made up by taking loans from other countries (most of all from the Netherlands), inflation dropped sharply, but external public debt grew by the middle of the century to unprecedented levels in the history of England sizes. But during this time, there was a noticeable economic growth, because of it, tax deductions to the treasury increased (equal in size with the French, despite the fact that France was inhabited by 2.5 times more people), due to this, the public debt was gradually paid off.

However, an honest and competent person at the head of the Mint did not suit everyone. From the very first days, complaints and denunciations rained down on Newton, and inspection commissions constantly appeared. As it turned out, many denunciations came from counterfeiters irritated by Newton's reforms.

Newton, as a rule, was indifferent to slander, but never forgave if it affected his honor and reputation. He personally participated in dozens of investigations, and more than 100 counterfeiters were hunted down and convicted; in the absence of aggravating circumstances, they were most often sent to the North American colonies, but several ringleaders were executed. The number of counterfeit coins in England has been greatly reduced. Montagu, in his memoirs, praised Newton's extraordinary administrative abilities, which ensured the success of the reform. Thus, the reforms carried out by the scientist not only prevented an economic crisis, but also, decades later, led to a significant increase in the country's welfare.

In April 1698, the Russian Tsar Peter I visited the Mint three times during the “Great Embassy”. Unfortunately, the details of his visit and communication with Newton have not been preserved. It is known, however, that in 1700 a monetary reform similar to the English one was carried out in Russia. And in 1713, Newton sent the first six printed copies of the 2nd edition of "Beginnings" to Tsar Peter in Russia.

Two events in 1699 became a symbol of Newton's scientific triumph: the teaching of Newton's world system began at Cambridge (since 1704, also at Oxford), and the Paris Academy of Sciences, a stronghold of his Carthusian opponents, elected him as its foreign member. All this time, Newton was still a member and professor of Trinity College, but in December 1701 he officially resigned from all his posts at Cambridge.

In 1703, the president of the Royal Society, Lord John Somers, died, having attended meetings of the Society only twice in 5 years of his presidency. In November, Newton was chosen as his successor and ran the Society for the rest of his life - more than twenty years.

Unlike his predecessors, he personally attended all meetings and did everything to ensure that the British Royal Society took an honorable place in the scientific world. The number of members of the Society grew (among them, in addition to Halley, Denis Papin, Abraham de Moivre, Roger Cotes, Brooke Taylor can be distinguished), interesting experiments were carried out and discussed, the quality of journal articles improved significantly, financial problems were alleviated. The society acquired paid secretaries and its own residence (on Fleet Street), Newton paid for the moving costs from his own pocket. During these years, Newton was often invited as a consultant to various government commissions, and Princess Caroline, the future Queen of Great Britain, spent hours talking with him in the palace on philosophical and religious topics.

In 1704, the monograph "Optics" was published (first in English), which determined the development of this science until the beginning of the 19th century. It contained an appendix "On the quadrature of curves" - the first and fairly complete exposition of the Newtonian version of calculus. In fact, this is Newton's last work in the natural sciences, although he lived for more than 20 years. The catalog of the library he left behind contained books mainly on history and theology, and it was to these pursuits that Newton devoted the rest of his life.

Newton remained the manager of the Mint, since this post, unlike the post of caretaker, did not require him to be especially active. Twice a week he went to the Mint, once a week - to a meeting of the Royal Society. Newton never traveled outside of England.

Newton is a gloomy heretic

Newton was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705. From now on, he is Sir Isaac Newton. For the first time in English history, a knighthood was awarded for scientific merit; the next time it happened more than a century later (1819, in reference to Humphry Davy). However, some biographers believe that the queen was guided not by scientific, but by political motives. Newton acquired his own coat of arms and not very reliable pedigree.

In 1707, a collection of Newton's lectures on algebra was published, called "Universal Arithmetic". The numerical methods presented in it marked the birth of a new promising discipline - numerical analysis.

In 1708, an open priority dispute with Leibniz began, in which even the reigning persons were involved. This feud between two geniuses cost science dearly - the English school of mathematics soon reduced its activity for a whole century, and the European one ignored many of Newton's outstanding ideas, rediscovering them much later. The conflict was not extinguished even by the death of Leibniz.

The first edition of Newton's Elements was sold out long ago. Newton's many years of work on the preparation of the 2nd edition, revised and supplemented, was crowned with success in 1710, when the first volume of the new edition was published (the last, third - in 1713).

The initial circulation (700 copies) turned out to be clearly insufficient, in 1714 and 1723 there was an additional printing. When finalizing the second volume, Newton, as an exception, had to return to physics in order to explain the discrepancy between the theory and experimental data, and he immediately made a major discovery - the hydrodynamic compression of the jet. The theory is now in good agreement with experiment. Newton added a "Homily" to the end of the book with a scathing critique of the "vortex theory" with which his Cartesian opponents tried to explain the motion of the planets. To the natural question “how is it really?” the book follows the famous and honest answer: “I still could not deduce the cause ... of the properties of the force of gravity from phenomena, but I do not invent hypotheses.”

In April 1714, Newton summarized his experience of financial regulation and submitted to the Treasury his article "Observations on the Value of Gold and Silver". The article contained specific proposals for adjusting the value of precious metals. These proposals were partially accepted, and this had a favorable effect on the British economy.

Shortly before his death, Newton became one of the victims of a financial scam by a large trading South Sea Company, which was supported by the government. He bought a large amount of the company's securities, and also insisted on their acquisition by the Royal Society. On September 24, 1720, the company's bank declared bankruptcy. Niece Catherine recalled in her notes that Newton lost over 20,000 pounds, after which he declared that he could calculate the movement of celestial bodies, but not the degree of crowd madness. However, many biographers believe that Catherine did not mean a real loss, but a failure to receive the expected profit. After the company went bankrupt, Newton offered to compensate the Royal Society out of his own pocket, but his offer was rejected.

Newton devoted the last years of his life to writing the "Chronology of the Ancient Kingdoms", which he worked on for about 40 years, as well as to the preparation of the third edition of the "Beginnings", which was published in 1726. Unlike the second edition, the changes in the third edition were small - mainly the results of new astronomical observations, including a fairly complete guide to comets observed since the 14th century. Among others, the calculated orbit of Halley's comet was presented, the reappearance of which at the indicated time (1758) clearly confirmed the theoretical calculations of the (by that time already deceased) Newton and Halley. The circulation of the book for the scientific edition of those years could be considered huge: 1250 copies.

In 1725, Newton's health began to noticeably deteriorate, and he moved to Kensington near London, where he died at night, in his sleep, on March 20 (31), 1727. He did not leave a written will, but shortly before his death he transferred a significant part of his large fortune to his closest relatives. Buried in Westminster Abbey.

Legends and myths about Newton:

Several common legends have already been cited above: “Newton's apple”, his only parliamentary speech.

There is a legend that Newton made two holes in his door - one larger, the other smaller, so that his two cats, large and small, could enter the house on their own. In reality, Newton never kept cats or other pets.

Another myth accuses Newton of destroying the only portrait of Hooke, once held by the Royal Society. In fact, there is not a single piece of evidence in favor of such an accusation. Allan Chapman, Hooke's biographer, argues that no portrait of Hooke existed at all (which is not surprising, given the high cost of portraits and Hooke's constant financial difficulties). The only source of assumption about the existence of such a portrait is the mention of the portrait of a certain "Hoock" (Hoock) who visited the Royal Society in 1710, but Uffenbach did not speak English and, most likely, had in mind a portrait of another member of the society, Theodor Haack (Theodore Haak). The portrait of Haack really existed and has survived to this day. An additional argument in favor of the opinion that there never was a portrait of Hooke is the fact that Hooke's friend and secretary of the Society, Richard Waller, published in 1705 a posthumous collection of Hooke's works with excellent quality of illustrations and a detailed biography, but without Hooke's portrait; all other works of Hooke also do not contain a portrait of the scientist.

Newton is credited with an interest in astrology. If he was, it quickly gave way to disappointment.

From the fact of Newton's unexpected appointment as Governor of the Mint, some biographers conclude that Newton was a member of a Masonic lodge or other secret society. However, no documentary evidence has been found to support this hypothesis.

Newton's works:

"A New Theory of Light and Colors" - 1672
"The movement of bodies in orbit" - 1684
"Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" - 1687
"Optics or Treatise on Reflections, Refractions, Curvature and Colors of Light" - 1704
"On the quadrature of curves" - an appendix to "Optics"
"Enumeration of lines of the third order" - an appendix to "Optics"
"Universal Arithmetic" - 1707
"Analysis by means of equations with an infinite number of terms" - 1711
"Method of Differences" - 1711

"Lectures on Optics" - 1728
"System of the World" - 1728
"Brief Chronicle" - 1728
"Chronology of ancient kingdoms" - 1728
"Remarks on the Book of the Prophet Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John" - 1733
"Method of Fluxions" - 1736
"Historical Tracing of Two Notable Corruptions of the Holy Scriptures" - 1754.

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 in the small British village of Woolsthorpe, located in Lincolnshire. A frail, prematurely left mother's womb boy 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 forest land with fertile soil and an impressive sum of £500.

Isaac's mother, Anna Ayskow, soon remarried and bore her new husband three children. Anna paid more attention to her younger offspring, and the upbringing of her first child was first taken up by Isaac's grandmother, and then by his uncle William Ayskoe.

As a child, Newton was fond of painting, poetry, selflessly invented a water clock, a windmill, made kites. At the same time, he was still very painful, and also extremely uncommunicative: Isaac preferred his own hobbies to cheerful games with his peers.

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 to the point of fainting. This humiliation Newton could not bear. But, of course, he could not acquire an athletic physical form overnight, so the boy decided to amuse his self-esteem in another way.

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

When Isaac was 16 years old, his mother took him back to the estate and tried to entrust the grown-up eldest son with some of the household chores (Anna Ayskoe's second husband had also died by that time). However, the guy was only engaged in designing ingenious mechanisms, “swallowing” numerous books and writing poetry.

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

The 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 he had to do various jobs at the university, or provide services to wealthier students. Isaac courageously endured this test, although he still did not like to feel 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 discoveries of Galileo, the atomistic theory of Gassendi, the bold works of Copernicus, Kepler and other outstanding scientists had already been demonstrated to the world. Isaac Newton devoured all the information he could find on mathematics, astronomy, optics, phonetics, and even music theory. At the same time, he often forgot about food and sleep.

Isaac Newton studying the refraction of light

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

Further intrigued by mathematics thanks to a gifted teacher, Newton performed the binomial expansion for an arbitrary rational exponent, which was his first brilliant discovery in the field of mathematics. In the same year, Isaac received a bachelor's degree.

In 1665-1667, as the plague swept through England, the Great Fire of London, and the costly war with Holland, Newton briefly settled in Woosthorpe. During these years, he directed his main activity to 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 set was in an effort to know the physical nature of light, and many of them are still being carried out in educational institutions.

As a result, Newton came to the corpuscular model of light, deciding that it can be considered as a stream of particles that fly out of some source of light and move in a straight line to the nearest obstacle. Although such a model cannot claim to be the ultimate objectivity, it has become one of the foundations of classical physics, without which more modern ideas about physical phenomena would not have appeared.

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 authoritative philosopher Voltaire in those days.

Scientific fame

In the late 1660s, Isaac Newton returned to Cambridge, where he received the status of a master, his own room for living, and even a group of young students, for whom the scientist became a teacher. However, teaching was clearly not the "horse" of a gifted researcher, and the attendance of his lectures noticeably limped. At the same time, the scientist invented a reflecting telescope, which glorified him and allowed Newton to join the Royal Society of London. Through this device, many amazing astronomical discoveries were made.

In 1687 Newton published perhaps his most important work, Principia Mathematica. The researcher had published his works before, but this one was of paramount importance: it became the basis of rational mechanics and all mathematical science. 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 the heliocentric system of Copernicus was not questioned.

In terms of mathematical and physical level, the "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" was 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 the works of Aristotle and Descartes so sinned.

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

Personal life

Women, neither then, nor over the years, did not show much sympathy for Newton, and in his entire life he never married.

The death of the great scientist came in 1727, and almost all of London gathered at 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 is carried out 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.
• The law of universal gravitation: 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.

Isaac Newton was born into a farmer's family in the village of Wilsthorpe, Lincolnshire, in the east of England, off the coast of the North Sea. After successfully graduating from school in the city of Grantham, the young man entered Trinity College, Cambridge University. Among the famous graduates of the college are the philosopher Francis Bacon, Lord Byron, the writer Vladimir Nabokov, the kings of England Edward VII and George VI, Prince Charles of Wales. Interestingly, Newton became a bachelor in 1664, having already made his first discovery. With the outbreak of the plague, the young scientist went home, but in 1667 he returned to Cambridge, and in 1668 he became a master of Trinity College. The following year, the 26-year-old Newton became professor of mathematics and optics, succeeding his teacher Barrow, who was appointed royal chaplain. In 1696, King William III of Orange appointed Newton superintendent of the Mint, and three years later, manager. In this position, the scientist actively fought against counterfeiters and carried out several reforms that, decades later, led to an increase in the country's welfare. In 1714, Newton wrote an article "Observations on the Value of Gold and Silver", thereby summarizing his experience of financial regulation in public office.
Fact
Isaac Newton never married.

14 major discoveries of Isaac Newton

1. Binomial Newton. Newton made his first mathematical discovery at the age of 21. As a student, he deduced the binomial formula. Newton's binomial is a formula for expanding into a polynomial of an arbitrary natural degree of a binomial (a + b) to the degree n. Everyone today knows the formula for the square of the sum a + b, but in order not to make a mistake with the determination of the coefficients when the exponent increases, Newton's binomial formula is used. Through this discovery, the scientist came to his other important discovery - the expansion of a function into an infinite series, later called the Newton-Leibniz formula.
2. Algebraic curve of the 3rd order. Newton proved that for any cube (algebraic curve) it is possible to choose a coordinate system in which it will have one of the types indicated by him, and also divided the curves into classes, genera and types.
3. Differential and integral calculus. Newton's main analytical achievement was the expansion of all possible functions into power series. In addition, he created a table of antiderivatives (integrals), which entered almost unchanged into all modern textbooks of mathematical analysis. The invention allowed the scientist, according to him, to compare the areas of any figures "in half a quarter of an hour."
4. Newton's method. Newton's algorithm (also known as the tangent method) is an iterative numerical method for finding the root (zero) of a given function.

5. Color theory. At 22, in the words of the scientist himself, he "received the theory of colors." It was Newton who first divided the continuous spectrum into seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. The nature of color and experiments with the decomposition of white into 7 component colors, described in Newton's Optics, formed the basis for the development of modern optics.

6. The law of universal gravitation. In 1686, Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation. The idea of ​​gravitational force has been expressed before (for example, by Epicurus and Descartes), but before Newton, no one was able to mathematically connect the law of gravitation (a force proportional to the square of distance) and the laws of planetary motion (that is, Kepler's laws). Newton was the first to guess that gravity acts between any two bodies in the Universe, that the motion of a falling apple and the rotation of the Moon around the Earth are controlled by the same force. Thus, Newton's discovery formed the basis of another science - celestial mechanics.

7. Newton's first law: Law of inertia. The first of the three laws underlying classical mechanics. Inertia is the property of a body to keep its speed of motion unchanged in magnitude and direction when no forces act on it.

8. Newton's second law: The differential law of motion. The law describes the relationship between the force applied to the body (material point) and the acceleration following this.

9. Newton's third law. The law describes how two material points interact and states that the force of action is opposite in direction to the force of interaction. In addition, force is always the result of the interaction of bodies. And no matter how bodies interact with each other through forces, they cannot change their total momentum: hence follows the Law of Conservation of Momentum. Dynamics based on Newton's laws is called classical dynamics and describes the movements of objects with velocities ranging from fractions of millimeters per second to kilometers per second.

10. Reflecting telescope. The optical telescope, where a mirror is used as a light-collecting element, despite its small size, gave a high-quality 40-fold magnification. Thanks to his invention in 1668, Newton gained fame and became a member of the Royal Society. Later, improved reflectors became the main tools of astronomers, with their help, in particular, the planet Uranus was discovered.
11. Mass. Mass as a scientific term was introduced by Newton as a measure of the amount of matter: before that, natural scientists operated with the concept of weight.
12. Newton's pendulum. A mechanical system of several balls suspended on threads in the same plane, oscillating in this plane and hitting each other, was invented to demonstrate the conversion of various types of energy into each other: kinetic into potential or vice versa. The invention went down in history as "Newton's Cradle".
13. Interpolation formulas. Computational mathematics formulas are used to find intermediate values ​​of a quantity given a discrete (discontinuous) set of known values.
14. "Universal Arithmetic". In 1707, Newton published a monograph on algebra, and thus made a great contribution to the development of this branch of mathematics. Among the discoveries of Newton's work: one of the first formulations of the fundamental theorem of algebra and a generalization of Descartes' theorem.

One of Newton's most famous philosophical sayings:

In philosophy, there can be no sovereign other than truth... We must erect monuments of gold to Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and write on each one: "Plato is a friend, Aristotle is a friend, but the main friend is truth."

Sir Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727) was the world's most famous English mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He is considered the founder and ancestor of classical physics, because in one of his works - "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" - Newton outlined the three laws of mechanics and proved the law of universal gravitation, which helped classical mechanics to move far ahead.

Childhood

Isaac Newton was born on December 25 in the small town of Woolsthorpe, located in the county of Lincolnshire. His father was an average but very successful farmer who did not live to see the birth of his own son and died a couple of months before this event from a severe form of consumption.

It was in honor of his father that the child was named Isaac Newton. So decided the mother, who for a long time mourned the deceased husband and hoped that her son would not repeat his tragic fate.

Despite the fact that Isaac was born at his due date, the boy was very sickly and weak. According to some records, it was because of this that they did not dare to baptize him, but when the child grew a little and got stronger, the baptism nevertheless took place.

There were two versions about the origin of Newton. Previously, bibliographers were sure that his ancestors were the nobles who lived in England in those distant times.

However, the theory was refuted later, when manuscripts were found in one of the local settlements, from which the following conclusion was made: Newton did not have absolutely any aristocratic roots, rather, on the contrary, he came from the poorest part of the peasants.

The manuscripts said that his ancestors worked for wealthy landowners and later, having accumulated a sufficient amount of funds, they bought a small plot of land, becoming yeomen (full landowners). Therefore, by the time Newton's father was born, the position of his ancestors was slightly better than before.

In the winter of 1646, Newton's mother, Anna Ayskow, remarries a widower, and three more children are born. Since the stepfather communicates little with Isaac and practically does not notice him, after a month a similar attitude towards the child can already be discerned in his mother.

She also becomes cold to her own son, which is why the already gloomy and closed boy becomes even more alienated, not only in the family, but also with classmates and friends around him.

In 1653, Isaac's stepfather dies, leaving his entire fortune to his newfound family and children. It would seem that now the mother should begin to devote much more time to the child, but this does not happen. Rather, on the contrary, now in her hands is the entire household of her husband, as well as children who need care. And despite the fact that part of the state still passes to Newton, he, as before, does not receive attention.

Youth

In 1655, Isaac Newton went to the Grantham School, located near his home. Since he has practically no relationship with his mother during this period, he becomes close to the local pharmacist Clark and moves in with him. But he is not allowed to calmly study and make various mechanisms in his free time (by the way, this was Isaac's only passion). Six months later, his mother forcibly takes him out of school, returns him to the estate and tries to transfer some of her own responsibilities for managing the household to him.

She believed that in this way she could not only provide her son with a decent future, but also greatly facilitate her own life. But the attempt turned out to be a failure - the management was not interesting to the young man. On the estate, he only read, invented new mechanisms and tried to compose poems, showing with his whole appearance that he was not going to interfere in the economy. Realizing that there is no need to wait for help from her son, the mother allows him to continue his studies.

In 1661, after graduating from Grantham School, Newton entered Cambridge and successfully passed the entrance exams, after which he was enrolled in Trinity College as a "sizer" (a student who does not pay for his education, but works it out by providing services the institution itself or its more affluent students).

Little is known about Isaac's university education, so it was extremely difficult for scientists to restore this period of his life. It is only known that the unstable political situation had a negative impact on the university: teachers were fired, student payments were delayed, and the educational process was partially absent.

Start of scientific activity

Until 1664, Newton, according to his own notes in his workbooks and personal diary, did not see any benefit and prospects in his university education. However, it was 1664 that became a turning point for him. First, Isaac draws up a list of problems of the world around him, consisting of 45 items (by the way, such lists will appear more than once on the pages of his manuscripts in the future).

Then he meets a new math teacher (and later best friend) Isaac Barrow, thanks to whom he develops a special love for mathematics. At the same time, he makes his first discovery - he creates a binomial expansion for an arbitrary rational exponent, with the help of which he proves the existence of an expansion of a function into an infinite series.

In 1686, Newton created the theory of universal gravitation, which later, thanks to Voltaire, acquired a certain mysterious and slightly humorous character. Isaac was on friendly terms with Voltaire and shared with him almost all theories. One day they were sitting under a tree in the park after dinner, talking about the essence of the universe. And at this very moment, Newton suddenly admits to a friend that the theory of universal gravitation came to him at exactly the same moment - during the rest.

“The afternoon weather was so warm and good that I certainly wanted to go out into the fresh air, under the apple trees. And at that moment, when I was sitting, completely immersed in my thoughts, a large apple fell from one of the branches. And I thought about why all the objects fall vertically down?.

The further scientific activity of Isaac Newton was more than just fruitful. He was in constant correspondence with many famous scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, biologists and physicists. He wrote such works as A New Theory of Light and Colors (1672), Orbital Motion of Bodies (1684), Optics or a Treatise on the Reflections, Refractions, Bendings, and Colors of Light (1704), Enumeration of the Lines of the Third order" (1707), "Analysis by means of equations with an infinite number of terms" (1711), "Method of differences" (1711) and many others.

The great English physicist Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642, on the day of the Christmas holiday, in the village of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire. His father died before the birth of the child, his mother gave birth to him prematurely, and the newborn Isaac was amazingly small and frail. Isaac was brought up in his grandmother's house. At the age of 12, he attended a public school in Grantham, studied poorly. But on the other hand, he early showed a penchant for mechanics and invention. So, being a boy of 14 years old, he invented a water clock and a kind of scooter. In his youth, Newton loved painting, poetry and even wrote poetry. In 1656, when Newton was 14 years old, his stepfather, the priest Smith, died. Mother returned to Woolstorp and took Isaac to her place to help with business. At the same time, he turned out to be a poor assistant and preferred to do more mathematics than agriculture. His uncle once found him under a hedge, book in hand, busy solving a mathematical problem. Struck by such a serious and active direction of such a 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. The University of Cambridge 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 pursuing this mysterious wisdom? Little is known about Newton's first three years at Cambridge. In 1661, he was a "subsizzar" (subsizzar), as the poor students were called, whose duties included serving the members of the college. Only in 1664 did he become a real student.
In 1665 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. It is rather difficult to resolve the issue, the first scientific discoveries of Newton belong to the ᴋaᴋᴏᴍ time. We can only state that rather early. In 1669 he received the Lucas 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 method of fluxes, investigated the dispersion of light, designed the first mirror 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 constructed in 1671 (the second, improved) served as a pretext for Newton to be elected a member of the Royal Society of London on January 11, 1672. At the same time, he refused membership, referring to the lack of funds to pay membership dues. The Council of the Society considered it possible to make an exception and, in view of his scientific merit, exempted him from paying fees.
His fame as a scientist gradually grew. But Newton was no stranger to social activity. In the rather difficult political situation of that time, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge played a significant role. For upholding 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 his nervous system so much that for 2 years, with some intervals ϶ᴛᴏᴛ, the great man showed signs of a clear mental disorder and there were periods when he experienced seizures of real, so-called quiet insanity, or melancholy. As another great scientist of that time, Christian Huygens, testifies (in a letter dated May 22, 1694): “The Scotsman Dr. Colm informed me that the famous geometer Isaac Newton fell into insanity a year and a half ago, partly from excessive labors, partly due to grief caused by him by a fire that destroyed his chemical laboratory and many important manuscripts. Then his friends took him for treatment and, concluding him in a room, forced him to take medicines, willy-nilly or not, from which his health improved so much that now he is beginning to understand his book "Beginnings ..". Fortunately, the disease passed without a trace.
Newton was already 50 years old. Despite his great fame and the brilliant success of his book, he lived in very cramped circumstances, and, sometimes, simply needed. In 1695, however, his financial situation 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 post of superintendent of the mint, which brought in 400-500 pounds of annual income. Under his leadership, in 2 years, the entire coin of England was re-minted. In 1699 he was appointed director of the mint (12-15 thousand pounds). He left the chair 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 occupied a rich apartment, kept servants, and had a carriage for traveling. On March 20, 1727, at the age of 85, Isaac Newton died and was magnificently buried in Westminster Abbey. In honor of Newton, a medal was stamped with the inscription: "Happy is he who knows the reasons."

Newton's main discoveries

Discovery of the 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 - current, variable value. All fluent have one argument - time. Fluxion is the derivative of the fluent function with respect to time, that is, fluxion is the rate of fluent change. Fluxions are approximately proportional to the increments of fluent, which are formed in equal, very small intervals 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 integration technique (by expanding expressions into infinite series).
It can be seen how much Newton possessed the images of continuous motion when creating mathematical analysis. Its uniformly current independent variable is, as a rule, time. Fluents are variables, such as path, that change with time. Fluxions are the rates of change of these quantities. Fluents are denoted by the letters x, y …, and fluxes by the same letters with dots above them.
Regardless of Newton, the famous German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) came to the discovery of differential and integral calculus. Between them and their followers there was even a trial about the priority of the discovery of analysis. As it turned out later, the International Commission for the Settlement of the Dispute was headed by Newton himself (secretly) and she 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 it earlier. Now in the analysis, Leibniz's approach is mainly used, including his infinitesimal numbers, the separate existence of which Newton did not consider.
Optical research.
In this area of ​​physics, Newton is credited with great merit. "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 of a complex composition of light: "Light consists of rays of different refraction." The refractive index depends on the color of the 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 a glass prism, but a property of light itself. Monochromatic light was isolated. The main thing is that the color of the beam is its original and unchanging property. “Every homogeneous light has its own color, corresponding to the degree of its refraction, and such a color cannot change with reflections and refractions,”
The mirror telescope-reflector created by Newton is a consequence of Newton's conviction in the fundamental irremovability of the chromatic aberration of lenses due to the dispersion of light in them. This Newton, that the dispersion is the same for all substances.
Newton studies the colors of thin films. Comes up with a remarkable arrangement of lenses, which is now known under the name of the installation for obtaining Newtonian rings, both in reflected and transmitted light. He found that the squares of ring diameters increase in an arithmetic progression of odd or even numbers. Thus, he contributed to the study of the phenomenon of light interference. 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 the wave theory of Huygens.
gravity
Newton began to deal with the problem of gravitation in the same years 1665-66 as he did with optics and mathematics. At first, he interprets the presence of gravitation by the theory of the ether in the Cartesian spirit. The qualitative picture suggested the law of the dependence of the gravitational force on the distance inversely proportional to the square of the latter. From here it was not far to the conclusion that the Moon is kept 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 stress of the gravitational field in lunar orbit and compare it with the value of the centripetal acceleration. The first calculations showed discrepancies. But Picard's more accurate measurements of the Earth's radius produced a satisfactory match. The moon, of course, continuously falls to the Earth, simultaneously moving away from it with a uniform tangential motion.
Further, from Kepler's laws, Newton mathematically concludes that the force holding the planets in orbit around the Sun is the force of mutual gravitation, decreasing in proportion to the square of the distance.
The law of gravitation remained a hypothesis (experimental proof was obtained only in the 18th century), but Newton, having repeatedly tested it in astronomy, no longer doubted. Now the law of gravity is represented by a compact formula: F=G m_1 m_2 /(r^2) . This law gave the dynamic basis to 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 arose. Newton considered it to be derived in a purely inductive way. He himself found action at a distance meaningless, but refused to publicly discuss the nature of gravity. At the conclusion of "Beginnings ..." Newton makes the following statement: "moving bodies do not experience resistance from the omnipresent God", i.e. God is the mediator of action at a distance. "The cause ... of these properties of the force of gravity, I still could not deduce from the phenomena, but I do not invent hypotheses."
"Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"
The pinnacle of Newton's scientific work was precisely ϶ᴛᴏᴛ work, after the publication of which he largely departed from scientific works. The greatness of the author's intention, which subjected the system of the world to mathematical analysis, the depth and rigor of presentation struck contemporaries /2/.
In Newton's preface (there is also a preface by Kots, his student), the program of mechanical physics is casually thrown in: “We propose this work as the mathematical foundations of physics. The whole difficulty of physics, as will be seen, consists in recognizing the forces of nature from the phenomena of motion, and then using these forces to explain the rest of the phenomena (for example, in the 1st and 2nd books on the observed phenomena, the law of action of the central forces is derived, and in the third, the found law is applied to the description of the system of the world). It would be desirable to deduce from the principles of mechanics the rest of the phenomena of nature, arguing in a similar way, for much leads me to suppose that all ϶ᴛᴎ phenomena are determined by certain forces with which the particles of bodies, due to reasons as yet unknown, or tend to each other and interlock into regular figures, or mutually repulse and move away from each other.
"Beginnings ..." begins with the "Definitions" section, where the definitions of the amount of matter, inertial mass, centripetal force and some others are given. The ϶ᴛᴏᴛ section ends with the “Instruction”, where the definition of space, time, place, movement is given. Next comes the section of the axioms of motion, where the famous 3 laws of Newton's mechanics, the laws of motion and the immediate consequences of them are given. Therefore, we observe a certain imitation of Euclid's "Principles ...".
Further, "Beginnings ..." fall into 3 books. The first book is devoted to the theory of gravitation and motion in the field of central forces, the second - to the doctrine of the resistance of the medium. 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 fluxes", showed that the force that attracts a stone to the Earth does not differ 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. The regularity and simplicity of the basic principles that explained all the observed phenomena were regarded by Newton as proof of the existence of God: “Such an elegant combination 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 governs everything not as the soul of the world, but as the ruler of the universe, and according to his dominance, the Lord God Almighty should be called.
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