From the start of secondary school to doctorates, we are taught about a legendary man who revolutionized the world of physics and mathematics on his own. A human of capabilities such that he set a foundation for a core concept in physics, the laws of motion, and made an everlasting achievement in mathematics that till this day is being used, a mathematical set of techniques known as calculus. This man is none other than the sculptor of mathematical thinking, Sir Isaac Newton.

Who is Sir Isaac Newton?

Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1643 in Woolsthorpe, in the house of Isaac Newton, his father had the same name, and his mother Hannah Ayscough. Three months prior to his birth, his biological father had died, and when he was three years old, his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband, leaving young Isaac with his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough. While Newton was once engaged in his late teens to Miss Storey, he never married and is believed to have been asexual, being highly engrossed in his studies and work. When Isaac became 17, his mother tried to force him to become a farmer, though he hated the profession. However, a professor from the institute he was studying in, the King’s School in Grantham, managed to persuade his mother and made Isaac continue his studies. Isaac completed his degree from Trinity College, Cambridge, in August 1665.

Advancements by Sir Isaac Newton in Mathematics and Physics

Mathematical Achievements

It is widely considered true that Sir Isaac Newton discovered calculus in the mid to late 1600s. Calculus is a field of mathematics that includes instantaneous rates of change, summations of infinitely many small factors to determine some whole, continuous change, and properties of derivatives and integrals. He viewed calculus as the scientific description of the generation of motion and magnitudes. Newton developed his version of calculus in response to issues he perceived pertaining to his physics. Newton's work on calculus has been said "to advance every branch of mathematics distinctly then studied." Newton's Method is an application of derivatives that allows us to approximate solutions to an equation.

Around 1664, Sir Isaac Newton claimed to have made what we now know as the ‘generalized binomial theorem.’ He explained in his letter to the secretary of the Royal Society on October 24, 1676, how he discovered it. In all, Newton wanted to find a sequence in the area under the curve of a sequence of curves. After finding a pattern in the denominators and numerators of the coefficients, he derived a generalized formula for this.

Physics Achievements

Newton also conducted experiments on light, where he darkened a room and allowed only a narrow beam of sunlight to pass through a small circular hole. This made a circular patch of white light on a wall. He then placed a glass prism in the path of the light rays. This was the moment the divergence of light rays and the color spectrum were discovered.

Lastly, the most famous discovery Newton made was the laws of motion and the law of universal gravity. In 1687, he published his book the ‘Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ on the three laws of motion and the law of gravity. The way Newton discovered the laws of motion is very amazing on its own. Newton basically simplified everything around him. The objects around him, he thought of them as just mathematical points without any properties, just mass. While ignoring factors like air resistance and friction, he succeeded in discovering the three laws of motion. As for the law of gravity, he discovered it by working out the paths of celestial bodies and making equations that accurately described the theory that he had—that every object in the universe attracts every other object in the universe.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we see that Sir Isaac Newton remains one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of all time. His numerous contributions have profoundly shaped the world of science, laying the foundation for future advancements. Newton's innovative thinking and approach led to the formation of calculus, laws of motion, and gravity, which continue to leave mankind in awe. He is a mark in history that will never be erased. Despite his personal hardships, he rose to unparalleled heights.

Written by Muhammad Awan, a space enthusiast who's currently trying to overcome the difficulty level of further maths in A-levels. I hope this article can ignite a flame in the reader's heart yearning for more on this topic like what I have. Thank you.