Isaac Newton’s Bibliography and his Laws of Motion

Isaac Newton Bibliography

Isaac Newton was an English philosopher, mathematician, and physicist who was one of the most known and influential scientists in history. He was the one who introduced calculus in the area of mathematics, the heterogeneous white light in the area of optics, the three laws of motion in the area of mechanics, and the universal law of gravitation in the area of physics.

Where and When was Isaac Newton Born?

Isaac Newton was born on the 4th of January 1643 in a Woolsthorpe manor house which is in Lincolnshire, England. His recorded birthday was on Christmas day which is on December 25, 1642 because England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar yet at the time he was born. His father, who also went by the name Isaac, was a farmer and he died three months before his son Isaac Newton was born.

When he was at the age of three, his mother Hanna Ayscough remarried to Reverend Barnabus Smith. Isaac Newton was left to be cared for by his grandmother, who was named Margery Ayscough, because his mother raised a new family with her new husband.
Isaac Newton did not have a happy childhood. He grew up holding grudges against his mother and his stepfather. He went to school at a free grammar school known as The King’s School which is in Grantham. When his mother returned to Woolsthorpe after her second husband died, she took Isaac Newton away from school because she wanted him to become a farmer. Isaac Newton was never inclined to become a farmer and eventually, he returned to The King’s School in 1660 for him to be prepared to enter a university.

Isaac Newton at Cambridge

Isaac Newton was admitted to Cambridge university's Trinity College on the 5th June 1661. He entered as a sizar which means that he entered college as a working student despite having a wealthy mother. The scientific revolution has not yet penetrated the aura of learning in Cambridge and Isaac Newton, along with other students, was taught of Aristotle’s teachings in the college. Isaac Newton had a preference to study the more modern philosophies of Rene Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, Thomas Hobbes, and other modern philosophers because he himself had already mastered and understood the ideas of these modern philosophers during his private studies when he was still in Woolsthorpe.

Isaac Newton was taking his bachelor’s degree in 1665 when the university in Cambridge closed for two years because of the Great Plague. It was during this time of the Great Plague in 1665 and 1666 that the genius of Isaac Newton was surfacing out and it showed through developing and formulating his own theories and formulas in mathematics, optics, physics, and even in astronomy.

Isaac Newton Picture

Isaac Newton as a fellow

In 1667, he became a minor fellow in Trinity College. In 1668, he became a major fellow after he got his Master’s Degree. In 1669, he became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and his position enabled him to enhance his earlier researches. In 1672, he became a Royal Society fellow and then his first publication on light and the nature of color was released.

Publications of Isaac Newton’s principles and great works on different subjects went on as he continued to do experiments and intensive studies. He had encountered disputes on most of his works after releasing them but he remains someone to have had a substantial influence on science.

He died in London on March 31, 1727 leaving the world his great works and contributions in science.

Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion

Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion are the basic foundations of classical mechanics. These laws relate the forces that act upon a body to the motion of the body.

Newton's First Law of Motion

The first law states that “An object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by a net external force.” This law is also called as the law of inertia. This law means that a stationary object will remain stationary and not moving until a force will act upon it and a moving object will neither slow down nor move faster until an unbalanced force will act upon it.

An unbalanced force or net external force is referred to as the vector sum of all forces acting on the body that is not equal to zero. As an example, consider a remote-controlled toy car. It does not move unless you attempt to move it. When it is already in motion, it moves in one direction unless you attempt to change its direction and it remains moving until you attempt to stop it.

Newton's Second Law of Motion

The second law states that “The force applied to a body produces a proportional acceleration.” This law is described in the equation F=ma where F is force applied to the body, m is the mass of the body, and a is the acceleration of the body. The force applied to the body is equal to the vector sum of all  forces acting upon the body when many forces are acting upon the body in an instant. The direction of the applied force acting upon the body is the same as the direction of the acceleration of the body.

This law also describes that the acceleration of the body is inversely proportional to the mass of the body. Applications of this law are easily observed in our everyday life. Consider again a toy car. When a net external force is applied to it, it accelerates but when you put something heavy on it, it needs more applied force to achieve the same acceleration. When the same force is applied on both, the one that is heavier will accelerate less.

Newton's Third Law of Motion

The third law states that ''every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.” This means that when a force is applied on an object, the object reacts with a force that is equal in magnitude to the force applied on it but it acts in the opposite direction. The force may be equal in magnitude but the acceleration of the one doing the action is not always the same as the acceleration of the one that is reacting because the mass of the two objects may not always have the same mass. Consider a jack in the box. When the top of the box is pushing the jack down, the jack is pushing the top of the box upward with the same amount of force that it is pushed by the top of the box. In the same way, when you press or push something, it will press or push you back with the same amount of force.

These three laws of motion are the basic principles in which the statics and dynamics of bodies are developed.