Astronomy- A Historical Saga: Part 3.3.5

3.5

Sir Isaac Newton

The Catholics won seemingly, by ending the ‘Galileo’ chapter. But actually, science was going to win. The Copernican revolution was about to fulfill. There was much evidence for the sun-centered world-model. But there was a gap somewhere! Yes, we’re talking about the force, for which satellites move around their mother planets, and the planets move around their mother stars. And this is where a new legend comes by turn- Isaac Newton.

He was born at the end of the same year when Galileo died, in a village called Willsthorp in England.

Gravity- if something goes up, it comes back down. A theory that made a revolution! Isaac Newton explained everything in terms of gravity. Therefore, Newton is considered as one of the greatest scientists of all time.

Newton was an amazing person. Aldus Huxly said- “He was futile as a human, but was superior as a monster.” This quote proves how strange and interesting fellow Newton was. A theory which was beyond the imagination of Kepler and Galileo, Newton shaped it in mathematical terms.

Aristotle divided the world in two regions- first one is the polluted region under the moon, and other is the holy (!) region at the other side of the moon. Newton canceled this division, and established the base of ‘The Copernican Universe System’.

Newton’s theory and laws are so easy to understand that even today; we count them as the basis of physics. Though, the modern basis of physics is created by Albert Einstein, but very few people understand it.

Gravitational theory, Laws of motion, Laws of conservation of momentum etc- we all know about these. Newton’s laws still works today while a car running on the road, or a lawn-roller is pushed or pulled, or marbles hits one another etc.

Newton was very talented. He invented Calculus when he was 23 or 25, while he was a student of Cambridge University. He became world’s one of the greatest mathematician in that age!

Philosphia Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Newton was aversion to publicity. He kept inventing amazing things and kept those writing in his handbook. He averted from publishing those researches. At the age of 41, he started to write a book in request of his friend- Edmund Halley. It was his greatest creation- Philosphia Naturalis Principia Mathematica. This book was published in 1687.

In 1666, plague broke out and Newton went to his village, leaving Cambridge. It is said that- one day he was sitting under a tree and saw an apple falling from a branch. He questioned himself- the force which made the apple fall, isn’t it also pulling the moon? Thus, gravity was discovered; a force that keeps everything attracting towards each other, and vice-versa. Everything in cosmos attracts each other. . And also, gravitation is that force which makes everything move in the universe.

In 1727, Newton died. Our solar system was almost discovered. But that’s not the point. Newton’s laws work everywhere in the galaxy. Even today, all physical incidents are explained by those terms.