Biography of Isaac Newton,Isaac Newton: The Man and his Hidden Life

                                Biography of Isaac Newton

                                                     
Sir Isaac Newton is regarded as one of thegreatest scientists who ever lived. His breakthrough idea about motion influenced every area of physics, allowing other great thinkers to stand on his shoulders. Yet, Newton was also a man at odds with hispublic perception – a secret alchemist and heretic who risked his life to write aboutthe failings of the Anglican church. In this week’s Biographics, we uncover thereal Isaac Newton. Formative YearsIsaac Newton was born on January 4th, 1643 in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a small townin the county of Lincolnshire, England. He was a premature baby who was so small thathis mother said that he would have fit inside a quart mug with room to spare. The doctor who delivered him didn’t thinkthat he’d survive his first week. Newton’s father, who was also named Isaac,had died three months before the child was born. He had been a rather successful farmer and his wife, Hannah, was left a financially comfortable widow. For the next three years she raised young Isaac alone. Then, in 1646, she remarried, becoming Mrs.Barnabas Smith.

 The relationship between young Isaac and hisstepfather was a difficult one, and the boy spent a lot of his time in the care of hisgrandmother. Hannah and Barnabas went on to have threechildren together – Benjamin, Mary and Hannah. Isaac seems to have gotten on well with hishalf-siblings, though his relationship with his mother was tempestuous. When he was 19, Isaac wrote a list of sinsfor which he wanted to repent. One of them was threatening to burn down thefamily home with his mother and stepfather inside it! Isaac attended a village school sporadically,but didn’t begin his formal schooling until the age of 12, when he enrolled at the King’sSchool in Grantham, England. Initially, he showed little interest in his studies, and performed poorly in all subjects. However, soon enough he had an abrupt attitude change and decided to apply himself more seriously. When he was 17, Isaac’s stepfather died. His mother, looking to her oldest son’spotential as the family breadwinner, attempted to make a farmer out of him. But Isaac had no intention of becoming a farmer. In fact, he detested the very thought of spendinghis life out in the fields. Fortunately, after a few months, the masterat King’s School interceded on Isaac’s behalf, convincing Hannah that he was bestsuited back with them. Isaac had been bullied by another student,and chose to respond by outdoing the bully and his cronies academically. Isaac achieved outstanding academic results. He was the top performing student of 1660,displaying an amazing aptitude for all subjects.

A Trinity ManIn June of 1661, Isaac began studying at Trinity College at Cambridge University. In order to pay for his studies, he workedoutside of his study hours, serving meals and running errands for his professors. The 18-year-old had entered Trinity with thegoal of becoming a minister of the Church of England. However, some time within that first yearhe changed direction. It is unclear why he decided not to pursuea life in the church, but from his later writings it is clear that he was forming beliefs aboutGod that were at odds with the doctrine of the Anglican church. The foundation of the education that Newtonwas receiving at Trinity College was based on the teaching of Aristotle. He was fascinated with these ideas but objectedthat many of the concepts were not based on evidence, but merely on the great philosopher’sassumptions and ideas. Newton became increasingly focused on thenatural sciences and philosophy. He studied the works of such original thinkersas Descartes, Kepler and Galileo. Because the establishment had not acceptedthe scientific findings of these men, Isaac did a lot of his study outside of the classroom.

Newton absorbed scientific ideas from where-everhe could get them. So long as he was able to test and prove them,he would take them onboard and then debate them with his professors and other students. In 1662, Newton filled the pages of a notebookwith a list of 45 things he wanted to study. They all came under the general heading ofphysics. But, unlike everyone else who had gone beforehim, Newton didn’t just pose questions – he set out to answer them. He began to devise experiments in order tofind the answers he was looking for. Newton the MathematicianThe following year, however, Newton’s focus was pulled away from his list of physics-basedquestions. He became fascinated with the works of ReneeDescartes, and this led him to an in-depth study of mathematics. Descartes applied the Arabic discipline ofalgebra to geometry and called it algebraic geometry. Newton graduated from Trinity College in Augustof 1665. He did not receive the stellar grades thathis talents merited, which was probably due to the fact that he spent so much time onhis personal studies. At this time, all of Europe was being ravagedby the bubonic plague. In London, one in four people died. Colleges were closed down in an attempt tocontrol the spread of the disease. This postponed Newton’s continuing formaleducation, but he made great use of the time. For the next two years, Isaac focused on hispersonal studies from the family home. His main areas of study were calculus, lunarmotion and optics. He now had the time to mull over all the knowledgethat he had accumulated at Cambridge and relate them to the world around him. This led him to more questions, three of themost fundamental of which were . . . Why do things always fall down? Why doesn’t the moon fall to the earth? Why do planets stay in orbit? Newton was convinced that mathematics couldlead him to answer to these questions. He developed a new form of maths which hecalled fluxions, the basis of modern-day calculus.

 He later wrote about this time in his life. . . At this time, I was in the prime of my ageof invention and minded mathematics and philosophy more than any time since. Newton returned to Cambridge in the springof 1667. He had developed into a rather peculiar 23-year-old. A loner with no friends, he was content tospend hours on end with his thoughts. Many dismissed him as an absent-minded recluse. None of his contemporaries had any idea thathe was grappling with an understanding of planetary motion. He took up a position as a fellow of the collegeand held a number of prestigious positions over the coming years. In 1669, Isaac published his first work, whichhe called Analysis by Infinite Series. It was an investigation of cubic equationsand curves in three dimensions and was well received in the wider scientific community. As a fellow of Cambridge, Newton was expectedto become an ordained priest in the Anglican church. But his opposition to the belief in the Trinitydoctrine held him back. When he was appointed as Lucasian professorof mathematics, though, college officials pressed for his ordainship. He managed to put off the requirement andreceived the promotion. Newton the Lucasian ProfessorNow aged 27, Newton held one of the most prestigious positions in the mathematical world. As Lucasian professor he was required to lectureon mathematics and place copies of his notes in the University library, a requirement whichhe rarely complied with. He began lecturing on the subject of optics,with his notes forming the basis of his book, Opticks. His work on optics led Newton to focus onimproving the working of the refracting telescope. He was grappling with the problem of how toget the different colors of light to come into focus at the same spot on the lens.

 He failed to solve this issue and so turnedhis attention to the reflecting telescope. In 1668, Newton produced the first workingreflective telescope, building on the work of Scottish mathematician James Gregory. He used his telescope to look into the nightsky, where he was able to observe the four moons of the planet Jupiter. Newton the Royal Society MemberIn 1671, Newton was nominated as a member of the British Royal Society. To support his proposed candidacy, he wrotea letter on the nature of light, which was read at the Society’s next meeting. It caused mixed reactions, with some praisinghis observation and others vehemently opposed to them. Newton was admitted to the Royal Society in1672, marking his entry into the legitimate scientific community. Up until then he had done his work in isolation. But now he was rubbing shoulders with themost prominent scientists in the world. Isaac immediately came to loggerheads withone of the most respected members of the Royal Society. Robert Hooke was the Curator of Experimentsfor the Society. Unlike the quiet, reserved Newton, Hooke wasloud and outgoing.

 He objected to Newton’s writings on thenature of light, which challenged the conventional wisdom. Over a period of four years, Hooke wrote tenpublished objections to Newton’s ideas, each of which were countered by Isaac. Newton hated he constant quarreling that waspart and parcel of being a member of the Royal Society and, after fifteen months, he quitthe organization. The secretary of the Society, Henry Oldenburg,pleaded with him to stay, assuring him that he was greatly respected. But Newton stayed away from the society forthe next two years. Clashing with the ChurchBy 1675, Newton’s refusal to take the priesthood was becoming a serious problem. It was becoming a talking point which wasproving embarrassing to the College. With it looking as if he would lose his position,he turned to his mentor and the former Lucasian Professor, Isaac Barrow, for help. Barrow suggested that he write to King CharlesII and request a special dispensation allowing him to continue in his position without enteringthe priesthood. Newton was generally dissatisfied with theway that the Anglican church had evolved. It had retained many of the trappings of theCatholic Church which he objected to. But his biggest problem was with the doctrineof the Trinity. He could not accept that God and Jesus wereone. In March, 1675, Newton travel to London tofile for a special dispensation. To his relief and surprise, it was grantedwithout question.

 In fact, the King removed the priesthood requirementfor all future Lucasian professorships. In November,1680, a bright comet appearedin the skies over England. It was tracked and commented on by the leadingscientists, including Newton and a new member of the Royal Society named Edmond Halley. In 1684, the two men got together to discussthe shape of the orbit of planets. Halley was impressed with Newton’s ideasand persuaded him to present his works in written form to the Royal Society. Newton’s Magnum OpusFor the next 18 months, Newton was consumed with the writing of this master work, whichhe called Principia Mathematica. He was so absorbed with it that he often neglectedto eat or sleep. In this three-volume work, he brought togetherthe result of twenty years of study, observation and thinking about nature. He began by laying out a series of definitionsthat underpinned his thoughts on the natural world. These definitions for such things as inertia,matter, mass and momentum, still stand today.

 With his basis established, he then laid outhis 3 laws of motion – the law of inertia, the law of acceleration and the law of actionand reaction. These, in turn led to his most groundbreakingidea – the law of universal gravitation. The law of gravitation flew in the face ofAristotle’s 2,000-year-old teaching that the Earth operates under one set of rules,while the sun, moon, planets and stars follow different rules. According to Newton, there was one law thatgoverned the motion of everywhen in the universe. The Principia was presented to the Royal Societyin 1686. Robert Hooke immediately accused Newton ofplagiarizing his ideas. Despite this, the volume was well received. When it was published a year later, it becamean instant masterpiece. The law of universal gravitation was acceptedas the breakthrough explaining everything from the motion of planets to the tides ofthe sea. Despite, the popular reaction to the Principia,Newton’s ideas would not be taught in university for another fifty years. Newton the AlchemistWhile a student at Cambridge, Newton had first come into contact with alchemy.

This pseudo-science had its origins in theworks of Aristotle who taught that all matter was composed of four basic elements – earth,air, fire and water. By adjusting the proportions of any of thesecomponents, it was believed, one thing could be turned into another. Aristotle also taught that each of the elementswas connected to a human emotion or characteristic. Newton was fascinated with these concepts,even though they were completely at odds with the rational, evidence based way that he synthesizedhis scientific ideas. From that time onwards, he led a sort of doublelife where he portrayed himself as the ultimate logical thinker while pursuing unorthodoxalchemist experiments away from prying eyes. At the same time, he developed a number ofreligious views that were decidedly outside the mainstream. Starting in 1669, Newton built up an extensivelibrary of alchemy related books. He was obsessed with finding universal truthand saw alchemy as a means of doing so. He wrote thousands of words of notes on thesubject and conducted hundreds of experiments. His information was eventually condensed intoa book which he called Clavis. Newton the TheologianNewton had a deep and abiding interest in religion.

 Over the course of his life he wrote morethan a million words on the subject, but very few of them were published during his lifetime. Through his studies of the Hebrew languageand careful study of the scriptures, he became convinced that modern Christianity was notfollowing the model set by Jesus. Newton fundamentally disagreed with the doctrineof the Holy Trinity. At the time this was an act of heresy punishableby imprisonment or worse. By writing about it, even if his work wasunpublished, he was putting his life at risk. Two important works of scriptural interpretationthat were published in the century after his death were Observations on the Propheciesof Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John and The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended. Newton was fascinated with Solomon’s Temple,believing that the building was a paradigm for the universe and a pattern for the futureof the human race. It was his belief that the architecture ofthe temple held secrets to uncovering the mysteries of the universe and revealed futureBible prophecy. From it he gave predictions about the endof the Catholic Church, the return of Christ and the Day of Judgment. In 1687, Newton became involved in a conflictbetween King James II and Cambridge university. A Benedictine monk requested receipt of amaster’s degree without having to swear oath and allegiance to the Anglican Church.

The monk appealed to the king who issued amandate stating that the university must admit the man without requiring the oath. Newton came out on behalf of the universityand was soon appointed to represent them at a commission hearing at Westminster. His arguments proved persuasive and the monkwas not admitted to the university. Newton the Public ServantIn January 1689, Newton was elected to public office when he became the University’s representativein the Convention Parliament. With his new position came a change in personality. He transformed from an introverted, retiringacademic to a friendlier, more outgoing public servant. In 1690, Newton suffered a period of depressionand mental exhaustion, apparently compounded by a dose of influenza. He recovered to spend the 1690’s focusedon the moon’s orbit. His work required that he obtain astronomicalreadings from the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamstead. But the two men did not get on. They quarreled from the start, with the relationshipeventually completely breaking down. This meant that Newton was unable to completehis investigation into the lunar cycles. In 1696, Newton sought a higher paying jobin the public service.

 He was awarded the position of Warden of theRoyal Mint. The job required a move to London, which iswhere he lived until his death. He oversaw the re-coining of old silver andgold coins. He also standardized the weight and compositionof coins so that he was able to bring to British coinage a much greater degree of accuracythan was ever known before. Three years into the job he was promoted toMaster of the Mint. The job, which he held until his death paidaround fifteen hundred pounds a year, which was a huge amount for the times. In 1703, Newton, now the most famous scientistin the land, ascended to the presidency of the Royal Society. He held the position until his death. In 1705, he received a knighthood from QueenAnne. However, his acclaim among the scientificcommunity was strained with an ongoing dispute with German polymath Gottfried Leibniz overwhich of them should get the credit for the invention of calculus. Although, Newton was the first to developthe basic concepts of calculus, Leibniz published his work on calculus before Newton.

 The issue divided the leading scientists ofthe time. The Final YearsDuring the last two decades of his life, Newton spent a great deal of time revising his mostfamous work, Principia Mathematica. A second edition was published in 1713, witha third and final version appearing in 1726. He also indulged his passion for Biblicalstudy, spending days on end compiling notes on the history of the ancient Hebrews. It is clear that Newton was keen to ensurethat his legacy lived on beyond his physical years. He sat for a number of portraits and sculptureswere cast of him. Still, he professed an outward appearanceof humility, making the followings statement . . .I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only likea boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smootherpebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscoveredbefore me. The last years of Newton’s life were spentwith his niece, Catherine Barton Conduitt and her husband. In his seventies, he began to suffer frombreathing problems, prompting a move from London to Kensington, where the air was fresher. In 1725, at the age of 82, he was confinedto his bed with severe lung problems. Coughing fits were constant and he sufferedfrom an uncontrolled bladder. By early 1727, he seemed to have recoveredsomewhat. He felt good enough to preside over the RoyalSociety meeting on February 28th. But the effort was too much for him, uponhis return home, he was again confined to his bed. In early March, his doctors diagnosed a kidneystone. His condition steadily worsened throughoutthat month and he passed away in the early hours of March 31st, 1727. Newton was awarded the great honor of beingburied at Westminster Abbey. His funeral service was the most extravagantever held in England for a natural philosopher.