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Usher of modern Physics
Sir Isaac NewtonPhoto: AFP
SIR Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemists, and theologian. He is considered to be one of the most influential scientists, who ever lived. He was born on December 25, 1642 in Wools Thorpe. He described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion. These theories dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. His monograph Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematical was published in 1687 for most of classical mechanics. Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound. He showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws, by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his own theory of Gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the Scientific Revolution. Sir Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he lived from 1661 to 1696. In 1696 he was appointed Master of the Royal Mint, and moved to London, where he resided until his death. Beginning in 1714 he served on the government's Board of Longitude. Later, on March 20, 1727, he died in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
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