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Newton's first three laws of motion 1000 words
Contributions of Isaac Newton Science
Contributions of Isaac Newton
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In 1687, Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (also known as Principia). The Principia was the “climax of Newton's professional life” (“Sir Isaac Newton”, 370). This book contains not only information on gravity, but Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. The First Law states that an object in constant motion will remain in motion unless an outside force is applied. The Second Law states that an object accelerates when a force is applied to a mass and greater force is needed to accelerate an object with a larger mass. The Third Law states that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. These laws were fundamental in explaining the elliptical orbits of planets, moons, and comets. They were also used to calculate …show more content…
the mass of planets, calculate the flattening of the Earth at the poles and the bulge of the equator, the explanation of tides, and how gravity keeps the universe at balance. This book won Newton international recognition and helped him to become friends with leading intellectuals of the time, such as John Locke. The book also won him high positions in society. In 1696, he attained the position of warden of the Mint and became master of the Mint in 1699. In 1703, Newton was elected president of the Royal Society (a group of the world’s leading scientists). Queen Anne of England knighted Newton in 1705. He then spent his later years in wealth. Newton lost consciousness on March 30, 1727 and died the next day on March 31, 1727. Newton began to show interest in light while he was away from Trinity College. In the years prior to Newton’s experiment, it was thought that color was created by a mixture of light and darkness. In the summer of 1666, Newton noticed that when he held the page of a book at a distance, the text on the page appeared to be grey, not colored. He then began to question the accepted theory of light and the theory of his soon to be rival, Robert Hooke. Hooke believed that the scale of light went from a bright red, to a dull blue, to absolute darkness. Newton’s questioning of that theory of light led to the conception of his experiment on light. Not only did this experiment lead to the disproving of Hooke’s theory, it also led to the formation of the modern theory of light quanta. Isaac Newton created an intricate experiment to test and verify the current theory of light.
His problem statement (a description of the issue being tested during the experiment) was: Can Hooke’s theory of light and the currently accepted theory be verified? The key to Newton’s experiment was a glass prism. According to the book, Isaac Newton (written by Gale E. Christianson), glass prisms were believed to have displayed the phenomena of the scale of light and give proof that the scale of light went from a bright red (color closest to white) to a dull blue (color closest to black). It was also believed that all of these colors were modifications of true white. To test this theory, Newton bought a glass prism “to try therewith the celebrated phenomena of colors” (More, 389). Newton took his prism to his upstairs bedroom and made sure that the room was completely darkened. He then positioned the prism on a table and drilled a one-eighth inch hole into the window shutter so that the light would pass through the prism at a specific angle and was projected onto a wall ("Newton and the Colour of Light"). According to the accepted theory of light, should light pass through a glass prism at that angle, the colors of the spectrum of light should be projected in a perfect circle. However, Newton observed that the colors were arranged into a rectangular shape and the pattern was wider than was predicted. Newton concluded that each color refracted at a different angle as it passed …show more content…
through the prism, contradicting the accepted theory of light. To further test the theory of light, Newton performed a second experiment called his experimentum crucis (crucial experiment)("Newton's Theory of Light.").
In this experiment, Newton placed a second prism 5 or 6 yards away from the first. At first, when the light passed through the prisms, his results were the same as the first experiment. However, when the prisms were moved farther away from the wall onto which the light was being projected, the light projected from the prisms became white again. When they were moved even farther, the light became colored again, but the color scale was inverted from the original scale. According to the accepted theory of light, the second prism changed the color of the light projected onto the wall. Therefore, Newton’s results once again contradicted the accepted theory of light. He also rotated the prisms to test if this would have an effect on the light, but it did not. Due to these observations, Newton concluded that light was in fact a combination of all light on the spectrum of light, not just a mixture of light and
darkness. Newton’s experiment had various variables. A variable is a factor, condition, or object in an experiment that can exist in different quantities or types and can be controlled. In the experiment, the independent variables (the variable that is changed throughout the experiment) were the number of prisms used in the experiment and their distance from the wall onto which the light was projected. The dependent variable (The variable being tested in the experiment, it is dependent on the independent variable.) in the experiment was the appearance and color of the light projected onto the wall. The constant (remains the same throughout the experiment) in the experiment was the size of the hole through which the light passed into the room. This controlled the amount of light entering the room and striking the prism, assuring that it was constant throughout the entirety of the experiment.
For over two hundred centuries, mankind has wrestled with the problem of how to hit an object with another object. From the earliest days of the bow and arrow, to today's modern missile defense system, the need to achieve maximum accuracy and distance from a projectile has been critical to the survival of the human race. There are numerous of ways to solve the problem ranging from trial and error—as early man did—to advanced mathematics including trigonometry and calculus. (While the specific mathematical operations are beyond the scope of this work, we will briefly touch on the equations of motion and how they apply to projectile motion as the project progresses.)
Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple had fallen on his head. He then began to think about how the apple had fallen onto his head and thus Newton’s three laws of motion were created. Newton’s first law of motion is an object in motion tends to stay in motion; an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless another force is acted upon it. Newton’s second law of motion is about the formula for force, which is force= mass*acceleration. Newton’s third law of motion is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Furthermore, Isaac Newton created the three laws of motion.
Newtons second law can be indentified more easily using the equation F=ma. This is an equation that is very familiar to those of us that wish to do well in any physics class! This equation tells us many things. First it tells us the net force that is being exerted on an object, but it also tells us the acceleration of that object as well as its mass. The force on an object is measured in Newtons (I wonder where they got that from). One Newton is equal to one (kg)(m)/s^2. For example, if superman pushes on a 10,000kg truck and it is moving at a rate of 2m/s^2, then the force that superman is exerting on the truck is 20,000N. For those of us that wish to move on in the field of physics, Newtons second law (F=ma) will forever haunt us!
Sir Isaac Newton made an enormous amount of contributions to the world of physics. He invented the reflecting telescope, proposed new theories of light and color, discovered calculus, developed the three laws of motion, and devised the law of universal gravitation. His greatest contribution to physics was the development of the three laws of motion. The first law was called the law of inertia; this law stated that, “Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.” The second law is called the law of acceleration; this law stated that, “Force is equal to the chan...
In this essay, published in 1738, Voltaire explains the philosophies of not only Newton, but in a large part Descartes because of his contributions in the fields of geometry. In Voltaire's concise explanation of Newton's and other philosophers' paradigms related in the fields of astronomy and physics, he employs geometry through diagrams and pictures and proves his statements with calculus. Voltaire in fact mentions that this essay is for the people who have the desire to teach themselves, and makes the intent of the book as a textbook. In 25 chapters, and every bit of 357 pages, as well as six pages of definitions, Voltaire explains Newton's discoveries in the field of optics, the rainbow spectrum and colors, musical notes, the Laws of Attraction, disproving the philosophy of Descarte's cause of gravity and structure of light, and proving Newton's new paradigm, or Philosophy as Voltaire would have called it. Voltaire in a sense created the idea that Newton's principles were a new philosophy and acknowledged the possibility for errors.
When most people hear the name Isaac Newton, they think of various laws of physics and the story of the apple falling from the tree; in addition, some may even think of him as the inventor of calculus. However, there was much more to Newton’s life which was in part molded by the happenings around the world. The seventeenth century was a time of great upheaval and change around the world. The tumultuousness of this era was due mostly to political and religious unrest which in effect had a great impact on the mathematics and science discoveries from the time Newton was born in 1646 until the early 1700’s.
The three laws of motion are three rules that explain the motion of an object. The first law is the law of inertia. It states that every object remains at rest unless it is compelled by an external force. The second law is the law of acceleration. This law shows when there is a change in force, it causes a change in velocity. Finally, the third law states that every force in nature has an equal and opposite reaction. His discovery in calculus help confirms his second law of motion. Calculus also gave Isaac Newton powerful ways to solve mathematical problems. Lastly, for the color spectrum, he produced a beam of light from a tiny hole in a window shade. He placed a glass prism in front of the beam of light creating a color spectrum. In Newton’s undergraduate days, Newton was greatly influenced by the Hermetic tradition. After learning about the Hermetic tradition it influenced him to look at a different perspective into his discoveries and theories. One of the myths that followed the discovery is his discovery of universal gravitation. It is said that while Isaac Newton was thinking about the forces of nature, an apple fell on his head and he found the theory of gravity. There is no evidence that an apple fell on Newton’s head, but the evidence is shown that Newton got an idea of the theory of gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree. During his life; however, Isaac Newton faced many obstacles. When he published some of his ideas in Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society, some people challenged his ideas such as Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens to a point where Newton stopped publishing his work. During his life, he also suffered a nervous breakdown in a period of his life. He was convinced his friends were conspiring against him, and he couldn’t sleep at all for five
The Enlightenment characterizes a philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to analyze and scrutinize all previously accepted traditions and doctrines. Through this application of scientific method to all aspects of life, the role of science gradually replaced the role of religion. Sir Isaac Newton, quite possibly one of the most intelligent men to exist, played a key role in the development of the enlightenment. He supplied the foundations on which all sciences since him have been built. Without science and reason the enlightenment would have been unthinkable. In fact, historians quote the publishment of Newton's masterpiece Principia in 1687 as the most logical and fitting catalyst to the enlightenment. The scientific advances made by Sir Isaac Newton contributed immensely to the movement of the enlightenment; however, his primary purposes for discovery were not for scientific advancement rather all for the glorification of God, thus Newton's incredible religiousness will be seen in this paper.
An impressive feat Sir Isaac Newton accomplished was the evolution of optics. Every scientist since Aristotle had believed light to be a simple entity, but Newton thought otherwise through his studies and building telescopes. It was thought that, “The idea that visual perception involves a medium somehow relating the beheld to the beholder is as old as ancient Greece,” (Darrigol 117). Isaac Newton challenged old ideas after an experiment with a prism and how it refracted light, as he saw this happen in a telescope where he saw the rings of colors distorting the image. This lea...
With the Scientific Revolution in full swing, Sir Isaac Newton became very interested in advanced science and philosophy. In fact, he...
Physics is involved in everyday life and can be an essential explanation for how things work. Being a lacrosse goalie involves physics concepts and proves how they apply to every movement that is made on the field. To better understand the physics of a goalie, you must understand how Newton’s Three Laws of Motion work; Inertia, force equals mass times acceleration, and equal and opposite forces, as well as another law torque and leverage.
Newton was also involved with telescopes. After his growing interest with light bending, he applied his knowledge of the reflecting and refracting properties of light and invented the first reflective telescopes. Newton's reflective telescopes vastly improve the clarity of images as well as escaping from chromatic abberration. In order to fully understand the concepts and ideas of how a telescopes work, some knowledge of simple optics are required.
Sir Isaac Newton is the man well known for his discoveries around the term, Motion. He came up with three basic ideas, called Newton’s three laws of motion.
Rainbow color components are evident through dispersion of visible light and total internal reflection in prisms.
In the natural world, physicists find new discoveries constantly. Some of these discoveries include the study of motion and forces. The well-known scientist, Isaac Newton, came up with the three laws of motion, which state rules and facts about the movement of an object. Our textbook states the laws of motion, as ?A body in motion will remain in motion at a constant speed and direction unless an outside force acts upon it. The net force acting upon an object is directly related to the mass and acceleration of the object resulting acceleration is in the direction of the net force, which is the vector sum of all forces acting upon the object. Finally, the third law of motion states that when one object applies a force to another, the other object applies the same amount of force back to the first object, but in opposite directions.? With these laws of motion, we can understand in detail how our world works. Also, that the movement of an object is more complex than a simple push. This discovery is taught to students all over the world because of its great importance and will continue to enhance the knowledge of the mystery of our earth.