It all started with an apple…


Sir Isaac Newton was one of the greatest scientists of all time, if not the greatest. His laws regarding how things move changed the way we see the world.

 

He was born in 1642 in England, not long after the death of another great scientist Galileo Galilei. Newton was very interested in Galileo’s ideas, which he to a big part shared. Newton entered the show at the peak of the Scientific Revolution, and Newton followed great brains as Nicholas Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and the already mentioned Galilei and he combined their ideas with ideas of his own into one big, unified picture of how the universe works. Newton’s big discovery is gravity. Legend has it that it started with an apple falling down from a tree. Newton then started to think about this and came up with three laws. The three laws explain the way objects move. They are often referred to as Newton’s Laws.

 

His big discovery was as mentioned gravity, he started to think that it maybe not only included objects at earth, but also objects in space. Maybe that is why the Earth moves around the sun and the Moon do the same around the Earth. Newton understood that mathematics was the key to understand this phenomenon, and as the mathematic genius he was he calculated the force needed for keeping the Moon move around the Earth, and then compared it to the force that made the apple fall down. After some more calculations he discovered that the forces were the same. It is gravity that keeps the moon moving around the Earth.

 

Newton’s calculations explained how the planets stay in their orbits around the sun, and that way he developed the theories of earlier scientists as Copernicus and Galilei. The way the planets move around the sun is the same way as with the Moon, it the huge gravitational force of the sun that keeps the planets moving. He also showed that gravity was affected by the object’s mass and the distance.

 

The way Newton managed to explain and make us understand the universe is why I see him as one of the greatest scientists of all time, playing in the same league as other brilliant minds as Louis Pasteur, Albert Einstein, and Charles Darwin.  What do you think? How important was Newton's discoveries for the world that we live in today, or do the legacy of Pasteur or Darwin or Nikola Tesla affect the world more? What can be said is that Newton's discoveries have helped the scientists of today to make their own theories, just as the likes of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler helped Newton.

 

So what do you think of Sir Isaac Newton and his science? Do you find it interesting or is it just boring physics?

 

If you want to learn more about Newton or the other scientists mentioned check these links out!

 

http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/newton/

http://techblogbiz.blogspot.com/2006/10/10-great-scientists-of-world.html

 

/Andreas Larsson


Kommentarer
Postat av: Olof

A very interesting entry Kajsa!



As you say, it might be easier to help each other and to remain friends in self-contained societies, but I see one major problem with this: I today’s world, we have problems with pollution, exploitation of our resources etc. Do you think that it is possible to solve major problems like these in self-contained societies? I do not think that it is possible, since these problems affect us all, and I think that the key to survival is to remain united against these dilemmas. What do you think? Correct me if I am wrong!



Once again, well written!

2011-04-10 @ 19:58:47
Postat av: Olof

Once again Andreas, well done!



I think that everything we do affects the future and us. I do not see any reason for comparing these different discoveries that scientists and others have done with each other. They have all played an important role for mankind, even though some have been of higher importance!



The comment above this one is one the wronf entry, just so you know! Haha!!

2011-04-10 @ 20:00:01

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