Intoduction
No one will ever know what went through the mind of the quaint Isaac Newton. He accelerated far above the knowledge of all the students at Cambridge University. He discovered the building-block of our universe: Gravity. His discovered bundles of other thing too, such as the cat flap. his life was also extremely hard for him. Isaac had many enemies that were genuinely jealous of him. Like all other scientists, his mind was reeling since the day he was born.
Childhood
Isaac Newton as a child was much smarter than any other child in Woolsthorpe. He was bored with the farm life he was born into. Because of this, and many other things, his childhood was extremely difficult. On the cold and snowy Christmas of 1642, Hannah Newton gave birth to a tiny, premature boy she decided to name him Isaac, after his dead father. When Isaac was only four years old, his mother left him with his grandparents in Woolsthorpe, and went away to marry Reverend Barnabas Smith. His mother came back seven years later with 3 new children she had with Smith: Hannah, Benjamin, and Mary. As Newton's mind flourished more and more, he started noticing patterns in the sky and the earth. He carved sundials from stone, and made a system of telling time with shadows. In 1655, Isaac's mother enrolled him in a grammar school in Grathem. After two years of school, his mother took him out of school to train to become a farmer. Isaac had not one bit of potential in farming. his mind was always set on science and he would always much rather be reading books than watching over sheep. Although Isaac's life started out hard, his life would soon change for the better.
College Years
Isaac Newton's years at Cambridge were filled with studies and achievements, but also many changes and upheavals. Newton's intense love of physics and science kept him from making friends and connecting with peers. In that time, like ours, connections were very useful for getting recognition and to the top levels of society. In 1660 Isaac began studying at Cambridge University. He was extremely reclusive and preferred working alone and secluded. Newton was known as a sizar at Trinity College -- a school within Cambridge. A sizar was a student who would either pay very low funds or didn't pay at all, much like today's scholarships. In exchange for lower payments for studies, the sizars would give their research to professors for the teachers to use. There were two other categories of students: gentleman fellows, who were heirs of wealthy families, and pensioners who were typically sons of the middle class. Unfortunately for Newton, sizars was the bottom category. Therefore his life at Trinity College was extremely grueling. As a sizar, Isaac was expected to serve to upper class students before he was able to eat his own meal which usually consisted of leftovers. In the spring of 1665 the plague spread through England and the countryside. London, near Cambridge, was especially hit hard. Soon after the university shut its doors and its students were forced to leave. Isaac returned home to Woolsthorpe to continue his studies. The following March of 1666 Cambridge reopened and Newton returned only to be sent home again in the summer when the plague struck again. Newton's research proceeded even faster at home. He had none of the distractions of school life and none of the burdens of being a sizar. He finally returned to his studies at Cambridge in 1667. One of his professors : Dr. Isaac Barrow, noticed potential in Isaac and lent him a book sent to Barrow by a mathematician. This mathematician named John Collins was crucial in connecting the research of various mathematicians. Newton's research gain much from this book of mathematical formulas and theories. Dr. Barrow urged Newton to send his own studies back to Collins. Collins was incredibly impressed with Newton's work and sent it out to other scholars. Whether he liked it or not, Newton's name was pervading beyond the walls of Cambridge
Adulthood
Newton's adulthood was most definitely the climax in his discoveries, but his achievements caused much resentment among his peers and detractors. Isaac was absolutely fascinated with optics. When in Woolsthorpe, he was almost always experimenting with optical science. In all of his experiments, he used a triangular prism to split a ray of white light into different colored light. He would completely darken a room, accept for a small hole he made in his window shutter. He placed the prism in front of the hole. From this simple arrangement, he discovered that white light is not pure, but made up of other colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple). In 1669, drawing on his studies on optics, Isaac Newton built the reflecting telescope. This became one of his top inventions. The telescope used a tiny concave mirror to capture and reflect light onto another mirror, and that mirror reflected into an eyepiece. When he finally revealed his invention to the world it affected the society of the Renaissance like almost nothing that had come before. Astronomers were finally able to view the night sky in ways and depths that had not ever been seen. King Charles II himself looked at the night sky through Newton's telescope. Everyone agreed that Newton's telescope was amazing and he was immediately accepted into the Royal Society. The Royal Society was a group of geniuses who were known throughout England, including Robert Hooke. Hooke was one of the primary figures of the Society. He was very angry when Newton wrote a treatise called "A Letter on Light and Colors". Hooke claimed the information in the letter was from his own research and discoveries. Newton and Hooke proceeded to exchange angry letters. At on time during the disagreement Newton threatened to leave the Royal Society but that never came in to being. Newton wrote others letters and again, Hooke claimed the ideas. In 1684 Edmund Halley , a young astronomer and physicist , came to Cambridge wishing to see Newton. The primary reason for his visit was to pose a question to Newton; "Do planets journey in elliptical orbits?" To Halley's delight, Newton answered, "Yes". Newton said he had proof on paper somewhere in his study, but it had been misplaced. Three months later Newton sent Halley nine-page review on elliptical orbits. Halley was astonished at the pure genius evidenced in the paper. He implored that Newton combine all of his studies into one book. Isaac agreed and began a two year intensive writing period integrating all of his research and data. Upon finishing the book he sent it, page by page, to Halley, most likely for purposes of safety and to avoid piracy of his information. It was Halley's desire to publish this masterpiece for the entire scientific world to read. And thus the Principia came to be known. Newton's Principia was destined to change the world forever.
The Principia
The Principia is one of the world's most extravagant books. It has led to many of the discoveries in physics, optics and astronomy that we have today. The world really did change after Isaac published the Principia. It explained all of Newton's laws and contained a graphic explanation of the law of gravity. Newton's first law was: an object will stay in motion unless stopped by another force and an standing-still object will not move without a force to propel it. Newton's second law was: the rate at which the momentum of an object changes is proportionate to the force acting upon it. And finally third law in Newton's Principia was: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Principia is now cherished as a priceless document by today's scientific community.
Old Age
The productive years of Newton's life unfortunately did not last long. As he grew older his studies focused more on the Bible and ancient history. In 1685, King Charles II died. Sadness pervaded throughout the British empire. The king produced no heir to the throne, so the King's younger sibling, James, became the new ruler. James was ardently Catholic and tried to change the official religion of England from Protestant to Catholic. London however, rebelled against this and Newton joined Cambridge its rebellion against the change to Catholicism. In 1688 Dutch warships sailed to England, fifty miles away from Cambridge, in an attempt to defeat King James and his supporters. They were able to drive James out of England and he fled to Catholic France. Because of Newton's devotion and rebellion he was elected to Parliament. Prince William of Orange and Princess Mary became the new regime. All of the uproar regarding religion in England only added to Newton's own religious commitments. Unfortunately for science, Newton spent most of the remainder of his life studying the ancient texts of the Bible and the ancient history of the Holy Land. He also devoted a good part of his life to the study of alchemy which became an obsession and for the most part, was eventually considered an area of research with little scientific basis. Isaac Newton passed away in his sleep on March 31st in the year 1727. At the time and considering his advanced age, it was presumed that he died of old age. However, his hair was later examined and found to have large deposits of mercury lending evidence to the theory that Newton died from mercury poisoning. It is an irony that this was most likely the result of his experiments with alchemy.
Conclusion
Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most advanced minds of his century. He not only invented, but improved upon earlier astronomers and scientist's inventions and studies. The world would not be the same without his determination and hard-work. He had a glorious life and made gobs of differences in the world, and he deserves unimaginable credit. Many people are disheartened because he studied alchemy, but what they refuse to note is that he did so much more in his life than just alchemy.