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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Newton Isaac. Biography of the scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
Isaac Newton was born on the day of the Christmas holiday of 1642 (January 4, 1643 according to the new style) in the village of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire. His father died before the birth of his son. Newton's mother, nee Aiskof, gave birth prematurely shortly after her husband's death, and the newborn Isaac was strikingly small and frail. They thought that the baby would not survive. Newton, however, lived to a ripe old age and always, with the exception of short-term disorders and one serious illness, was distinguished by good health. In terms of property status, the Newton family belonged to the number of farmers of the middle hand. Little Isaac spent the first three years of his life exclusively in the care of his mother. But, having remarried to the priest Smith, the mother entrusted the child to her grandmother, her mother. When Isaac grew up, he was placed in an elementary school. Upon reaching the age of twelve, the boy began to attend a public school in Grantham. He was placed in an apartment with the pharmacist Clark, where he lived intermittently for about six years. Life at the pharmacist for the first time aroused in him a desire to study chemistry, as for school science, it was not given to Newton. In all likelihood, the main fault in this case must be attributed to the inability of the teachers. From childhood, the future scientist loved to build various mechanical devices - and forever remained, first of all, a mechanic. Living with Clark, Isaac was able to prepare for university studies. On June 5, 1660, when Newton was not yet eighteen years old, he was admitted to Trinity College (Trinity College). The University of Cambridge was at that time one of the best in Europe: philological and mathematical sciences equally flourished here. Newton turned his main attention to mathematics. Little is known about Newton's first three years at Cambridge. According to the books of the university, in 1661 he was a "subsizer". This was the name of the poor students who did not have the means to pay for their studies and were not yet sufficiently prepared to listen to a real university course. They attended some lectures and at the same time had to serve the richer ones. It was not until 1664 that Newton became a real student; in 1665 he received the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts (verbal sciences). His first scientific experiments are related to the study of light. As a result of many years of work, Newton found that a white sunbeam is a mixture of many colors. The scientist proved that with the help of a prism, white color can be decomposed into its constituent colors. Studying the refraction of light in thin films, Newton observed a diffraction pattern, which was called "Newton's rings". The significance of this discovery was fully realized only in the second half of the XNUMXth century, when spectral analysis arose on its basis - a new method that made it possible to study the chemical composition of even stars far from the Earth. In 1666, an epidemic broke out in Cambridge, which, according to the custom of the time, was considered a plague, and Newton retired to his Woolsthorpe. Here, in the silence of the village, having no books or instruments at hand, living an almost reclusive life, the twenty-four-year-old Newton indulged in deep philosophical reflections. Their fruit was the most ingenious of his discoveries - the doctrine of universal gravitation. It was a summer day. Newton liked to meditate, sitting in the garden, in the open air. Tradition reports that Newton's thoughts were interrupted by the fall of an overflowing apple. The famous apple tree was kept for a long time as a warning to posterity, later withered, was cut down and turned into a historical monument in the form of a bench. Newton had been thinking about the laws of falling bodies for a long time, and it is quite possible that the fall of an apple again led him to think. Newton himself wrote many years later that he derived the mathematical formula expressing the law of universal gravitation from studying the famous laws of Kepler. Newton could never have developed and proved his brilliant idea if he had not possessed a powerful mathematical method that neither Hooke nor any of Newton's predecessors knew - this is the analysis of infinitesimal quantities, now known as differential and integral calculus. Long before Newton, many philosophers and mathematicians dealt with the question of infinitesimals, but limited themselves to only the most elementary conclusions. In 1669, Newton was already a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, having inherited the chair, which was headed by the famous mathematician of the time, Isaac Barrow. It was there that Newton made his first major discovery. Almost simultaneously with the German mathematician Leibniz, he created the most important branches of mathematics - differential and integral calculus. But Newton's discoveries were not limited to mathematics. Newton created his method based on previous discoveries made by him in the field of analysis, but in the most important issue he turned to the help of geometry and mechanics. When exactly Newton discovered his new method is not exactly known. Due to the close connection of this method with the theory of gravitation, one should think that it was developed by Newton between 1666 and 1669 and, in any case, before the first discoveries made in this area by Leibniz. Returning to Cambridge, Newton took up scientific and teaching activities. From 1669 to 1671 he lectured in which he presented his main discoveries regarding the analysis of light rays; but none of his scientific papers have yet been published. Newton still continued to work on the improvement of optical mirrors. Gregory's reflective telescope with a hole in the middle, an objective mirror, did not satisfy Newton. "The disadvantages of this telescope," he says, "seemed to me very significant, and I found it necessary to change the design, placing the eyepiece on the side of the tube." Nevertheless, much work remained in the field of telescope technology. Newton first tried to grind magnifying glasses, but after discoveries made by him regarding the decomposition of light rays, he abandoned the idea of improving refracting telescopes and took up grinding concave mirrors. The telescope made by Newton can rightfully be considered the first reflecting telescope. Then the scientist made by hand another telescope of larger dimensions and better quality. Finally, the Royal Society of London found out about these telescopes, which turned to Newton through their secretary Oldenburg with a request to provide details of the invention. In 1670, Newton gave his telescope to Oldenburg - a very important event in his life, since this instrument first made Newton's name known to the entire scientific world of that time. At the end of 1670, Newton was elected a member of the Royal Society of London. In 1678, the secretary of the Royal Society of London, Oldenburg, died, who treated Newton extremely friendly and with the greatest respect. His place was taken by Hooke, although envious of Newton, but involuntarily recognizing his genius. It should be noted that Hooke played a part in Newton's outstanding discoveries. Newton believed that a falling body, due to the combination of its motion with the motion of the Earth, would describe a helical line. Hooke showed that a helical line is obtained only if air resistance is taken into account and that in vacuum the movement must be elliptical - we are talking about true movement, that is, one that we could observe if we ourselves did not participate in the movement. the globe. After checking Hooke's conclusions, Newton became convinced that a body thrown at a sufficient speed, being at the same time under the influence of the earth's gravity, can indeed describe an elliptical path. Reflecting on this subject, Newton discovered the famous theorem, according to which a body under the influence of an attractive force, similar to the force of gravity, always describes a conic section, that is, one of the curves obtained when a cone is intersected by a plane (ellipse, hyperbola, parabola and in special cases a circle and a straight line). Moreover, Newton found that the center of attraction, that is, the point at which the action of all attractive forces acting on a moving point is concentrated, is at the focus of the described curve. Thus, the center of the Sun is (approximately) in the general focus of the ellipses described by the planets. Having achieved such results, Newton immediately saw that he had deduced theoretically, that is, based on the principles of rational mechanics, one of Kepler's laws, which states that the centers of the planets describe ellipses and that the center of the Sun is at the focus of their orbits. But Newton was not satisfied with this basic agreement between theory and observation. He wanted to see if it was possible, with the help of theory, to actually calculate the elements of planetary orbits, that is, to predict all the details of planetary motions? Wanting to make sure that the force of the earth's gravity, which causes bodies to fall to the Earth, is really identical to the force that keeps the Moon in its orbit, Newton began to calculate, but, having no books at hand, he used only the roughest data. The calculation showed that with such numerical data, the force of the earth's gravity is greater than the force holding the moon in its orbit by one sixth, and as if there is some reason that counteracts the movement of the moon. As soon as Newton learned about the measurement of the meridian, made by the French scientist Picard, he immediately made new calculations and, to his greatest joy, was convinced that his old views were completely confirmed. The force that causes bodies to fall to the Earth turned out to be exactly equal to that which controls the movement of the Moon. This conclusion was for Newton the highest triumph. Now his words were fully justified: "Genius is the patience of thought concentrated in a certain direction." All his deep hypotheses, long-term calculations turned out to be correct. Now he was completely and finally convinced of the possibility of creating an entire system of the universe based on one simple and great principle. All the most complex movements of the moon, planets and even comets roaming the sky became quite clear to him. It became possible to scientifically predict the movements of all the bodies of the solar system, and perhaps the sun itself, and even stars and star systems. At the end of 1683, Newton finally communicated to the Royal Society the main principles of his system, setting them out in the form of a series of theorems on the motion of the planets. Newton presented his main conclusions in a fundamental work entitled "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy". Before the end of April 1686, the first two parts of his book were ready and sent to London. In the field of mechanics, Newton not only developed the positions of Galileo and other scientists, but also gave new principles, not to mention many remarkable individual theorems. According to Newton himself, even Galileo established the principles that Newton called "the first two laws of motion." Newton formulates these laws as follows: I. Every body is in a state of rest or uniform rectilinear motion until some force acts on it and forces it to change this state. II. The change in motion is proportional to the driving force and is directed along the straight line along which the given force acts. In addition to these two laws, Newton formulated a third law of motion, expressing it as follows: III. The action is always equal and directly opposite to the reaction, that is, the actions of two bodies on each other are always equal and directed in opposite directions. Having established the general laws of motion, Newton derived from them many corollaries and theorems that allowed him to bring theoretical mechanics to a high degree of perfection. With the help of these theoretical principles, he derives his law of gravitation in detail from Kepler's laws and then solves the inverse problem, that is, shows what the motion of the planets should be if we accept the law of gravitation as proven. Newton's discovery led to the creation of a new picture of the world, according to which all the planets located at colossal distances from each other are connected into one system. With this law, Newton laid the foundation for a new branch of astronomy - celestial mechanics, which today studies the motion of the planets and allows you to calculate their position in space. Newton was able to calculate the orbits along which the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn move, and using these data, determine the force with which the Earth attracts the Moon. In turn, all these data will be used in future near-Earth space flights. Newton's further research allowed him to determine the mass and density of the planets and the Sun itself. Newton showed that the density of the Sun is four times less than the density of the Earth, and the average density of the Earth is approximately equal to the density of granite and, in general, the heaviest rocks. Regarding the planets, Newton found that the planets closest to the Sun are the most dense. Next, Newton proceeded to calculate the figure of the globe. He showed that the Earth has a spheroidal shape, namely, it is like a ball, expanded at the equator and flattened at the poles. The scientist proved the dependence of the tides on the combined action of the Moon and the Sun on the waters of the seas and oceans. As for the actual so-called "celestial mechanics", Newton not only advanced, but, one might say, created this science, since before him there was only a series of empirical data. The theory of motion of comets given by Newton, which he considered insufficiently developed and published only at the insistence of Halley, is very curious. Thanks to Newton's calculations, Halley was able to predict the appearance of a huge comet, which actually appeared in the sky in 1759. It was named Halley's comet. In 1842, the famous German astronomer Bessel, based on Newton's law, predicted the existence of an invisible satellite around the star Sirius. The discovery of this satellite 10 years later was proof that the law of universal gravitation not only operates in the solar system, but is also one of the general laws of the universe. In 1688 Newton was elected to Parliament, albeit by a narrow majority, and sat in the so-called Convention until its dissolution. In 1689, Newton suffered family grief - his mother died of typhus. Informed of her illness, he asked Parliament for leave and hurried to her. The great scientist spent whole nights at the bedside of his mother, he himself gave her medicines and prepared mustard plasters and flies, caring for the sick, like the best nurse. But the disease turned out to be fatal. The death of his mother deeply upset Newton and, perhaps, contributed a lot to the strong nervous irritability that manifested itself in him somewhat later than the illness. But even after his illness, Newton continued his scientific work, although not with the same intensity. He finally developed the theory of the motion of the moon and prepared repeated editions of his immortal work, in which he made many new, very important additions. After an illness, he created his theory of astronomical refraction, that is, the refraction of the rays of the stars in the layers of the earth's atmosphere. Finally, after an illness, Newton solved several very difficult problems proposed by other mathematicians. Newton was already over fifty years old. Despite his great fame and the brilliant success of his book (the publication was not owned by him, but by the Royal Society), Newton lived in very cramped circumstances, and sometimes simply in need: it happened that he could not pay a trifling membership fee. His salary was insignificant, and Newton spent everything he had, partly on chemical experiments, partly to help his relatives; he even helped his old love - the former Miss Storey. In 1695, Newton's material circumstances changed. Newton's close friend and admirer, Charles Montagu, a young aristocrat twenty years younger than Newton, was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Having taken this post, Montagu took up the issue of improving the circulation of money in England, where at that time, after a series of wars and revolutions, there was a lot of counterfeit and underweight coins, which brought great damage to trade. Montagu took it into his head to re-mint the whole coin. To give the greatest weight to his evidence, Montagu turned to the then famous, including Newton. And the scientist did not deceive the expectations of his friend. He undertook a new business with extraordinary zeal and quite conscientiously, and with his knowledge of chemistry and mathematical ingenuity he rendered enormous services to the country. Thanks to this, the difficult and intricate business of recoining was successfully completed within two years, which immediately restored trade credit. Shortly thereafter, Newton, from manager of the mint, was made chief director of the mint, and began to receive 1500 pounds a year; he held this position until his death. With Newton's extremely moderate lifestyle, a whole capital was formed from his salary. In 1701, Newton was elected a member of parliament, and in 1703 he became president of the English Royal Society. In 1705, the English king elevated Newton to the dignity of knighthood. Newton was distinguished by modesty and shyness. For a long time he did not dare to publish his discoveries, and was even going to destroy some of the chapters of his immortal "Beginnings". "I stand high only because I stood on the shoulders of giants," said Newton. Dr. Pemberton, who met Newton when the latter was already old, could not marvel at the modesty of this genius. According to him, Newton was extremely affable, did not have the slightest feigned eccentricity and was alien to the antics characteristic of other "geniuses". He adapted himself perfectly to any society and nowhere showed the slightest sign of swagger. But in others, Newton did not like an arrogant-authoritative tone and especially did not tolerate ridicule at other people's beliefs. Newton never kept track of money. His generosity was boundless. He used to say: "People who did not help anyone in life, never helped anyone." In the last years of his life, Newton became rich and distributed money, but even earlier, when he himself needed the necessary, he always supported close and distant relatives. Subsequently, Newton donated a large sum to the parish in which he was born, and often gave scholarships to young people. So, in 1724, he appointed a scholarship of two hundred rubles to Maclaurin, later a famous mathematician, sending him at his own expense to Edinburgh to be assistants to James Gregory. From 1725, Newton stopped going to work. Isaac Newton died on the night of March 20 (31), 1726 during the plague. On the day of his funeral, national mourning was declared. His ashes rest in Westminster Abbey, next to other eminent people of England. Author: Samin D.K.
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