Sir Isaac Newton Essays (1212 words) - Classical Mechanics

Sir Isaac Newton Topics in Geometry A Research Project Presented To The Department Of Mathematics Of Thomas Edison High School In Partial Fulfillment Of The Course In Geometry Sir Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire. He went to Grantham grammar school. When he was young, he was interested in mechanical devices than in studying. His youth inventions included, a water clock and a sundial. Isaac's father had died when he was three years old and left the family with little money. His widowed spouse soon remarried, leaving Isaac in the of his grandmother. She had three more children and widowed a second time. Since Isaac paid little attention to the family farm because he spent so much time reading, he was sent back to grammar school in Grantham. Later, in the summer of 1661, he went to Trinity College, at the University of Cambridge. He learned of the scientific revolution that had been going on in Europe through the work of Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Ren? Descartes. Newton received his bachelor's degree in 1665. Two years later after avoiding the plague, Newton return to Trinity College where he was elected to a fellowship in 1667. Newton received his master's degree in 1668. Newton retracted much of the established curriculum of the university to pursue his interest such as mathematics and natural philosophy. Continuing entirely on his own, he analyzed recent developments in mathematics and natural philosophy. Eventually, he made discoveries that played an important part in his career in science. He became Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1669. He lectured once a week on Geometry, astronomy, optics, arithmetic, or other mathematical subjects. Three years later he invented the reflecting telescope. In 1687 he published his work, ?Principia'(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), setting forward the theory of gravity. In 1696 Newton was named warden of the mint where at that time a complete recoinage and standardization of coins were taking place. When the project was finished in 1699, he was made master of the mint. He was elected president of the Royal Society in 1703 and was knighted in 1705. Newton also engaged in a vicious argument with Leibniz over the priority of the invention of calculus. The effects of the quarrel inevitably lend to his death. Newton died in London on March 20, 1727, and was honored with a burial. Accomplishments One of Isaac Newton greatest achievement was the three laws of motion. Despite these three laws, they are not related to things such as air resistance or other kinds of friction. Newton's first law states that any body moving uniformly in a straight line of in a state of rest will remain in uniform motion in a straight line or in a state of rest unless it is acted upon by some outside force. This means when in motion you will remain in motion or if in a state of rest you remain at rest unless you are move by something. When kept in motion when in motion or at rest, it is called inertia. Whenever in motion, both acceleration and deceleration require subduing the inertia of an object. Newton's second law of motion states what happens when a force is applied to a moving body. The change in motion depends on the force on the object. It also depends on the size of the force and the mass of the object. The greater the force, the greater the acceleration and the greater the mass of the object, the smaller the acceleration. Acceleration or deceleration of an object depends on the direction of the force. The effects of two or more forces moving on the path of an object are determined by means of vectors. A vector is the of force and direction in which it moves. Forces acting on a single point are called concurrent forces. Suppose a rowboat is being pulled forward along a shore of a lake by someone. At the sametime, someone else in the rowboat uses an oar to push the boat away from the shore. This is an example of concurrent forces. Newton's third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is a perfect example