![]() He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid. His work on light was collected in his highly influential book Opticks, published in 1704. Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colours of the visible spectrum. Newton's inference that the Earth is an oblate spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems. He demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton used his mathematical description of gravity to prove Kepler's laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the Solar System's heliocentricity. In Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until it was superseded by the theory of relativity. ![]() ![]() Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus. His book PhilosophiƦ Naturalis Principia Mathematica Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, first published in 1687, established classical mechanics. Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author described in his own day as a "natural philosopher" who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. ![]()
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