Newton's Apple: Isaac Newton and the English Scientific Renaissance

by Peter Aughton

In the aftermath of the English Civil War, the Restoration overturned England's medieval outlook and a new way of looking at the world allowed the genius of Isaac Newton (b. 1642) and his contemporaries to flourish. Newton had a long and eventful life apart from his scentific discoveries. He was born at the beginnings of the Civil War, his studies were disrupted by the twin disasters of the Great Plague and the Fire of London; a brilliant and enigmatic genius, Newton dabbled in alchemy, wrote over a million words on the Bible, quarrelled with his contemporaries and spent his last years as Master of the Royal Mint as well as President of the Royal Society. This book sets Newton's life and work against this dramatic intellectual rebirth; among his friends and contemporaries were Samuel Pepys, the colourful diarist, John Evelyn, the eccentric antiquarian, the astronomers Edmund Halley and John Flamsteed, and Christopher Wren, the greatest architect of his age. They were all instrumental in the founding of the Royal Society and their aim was nothing less than to examine the whole field of scientific knowledge.

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Taha Ababou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, in Lincolnshire, England. Isaac attended the Trinity College of Cambridge and paid for the school by cleaning and servicing the room of other students. Since he was bored with the “old science” being taught at university, he studied modern philosophy and science after school. While studying modern philosophy and science after school, he took notes that would be nowadays called, “certain philosophical questions”. Newton was at first really inspired about the idea that the apple and the earth's moon might both be governed by the same force. This idea is what lead him to study in the branch of science known as physics. He was very primarily concerned in matter and motions and later formulated the law of motion and the law of universal gravitation. Newton's laws of motion consist of three different laws. The first law states that an object will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it. The second law states that acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. Finally, Newton's third law of motion states that every action has an equal or opposite amount of reaction. Isaac Newton's three laws were one of the main reasons he got famous. Another reason is because he created a great invention known as the telescope. He later became President of the Royal Society and was re-elected every year until his death. On March 30, 1727, at the age of 84, Isaac Newton died because of poor health, which was because of a severe pain in his abdomen.

Isaac Newton had accomplished many things during his lifetime. Newton didn't change other people's life but change the whole knowledge of science, which is still used today. Isaac created the three laws of motion. This changed the whole perspective of how "old scientists" looked at science. Newton mainly became famous thanks to his three laws of motion, but that's not the only reason. He first got attention from the public when he invented his first telescope in 1668. Isaac also became President of the Royal Society and was re-elected every year until his death. I know this book is a biography because, since the first page, it talks about the life of a real person; not a fictional character. Therefore, Isaac Newton was a great scientist, physicist, and mathematician during his lifetime.

After having read this biography about Isaac Newton, there was one part where I liked and disliked the most about Isaac Newton. My favorite part about Newton is his enthusiasm and curiosity about nature. Newton created the three laws of motion; the law of inertia, acceleration, and action-reaction, all because he got inspired by the idea that the apple and the earth's moon might both be governed by the same force. It's crazy how one little moment of his life made what he had become. However, there was one thing I disliked about him; Newton didn't have a strong personality, he was always scared about other people's critics, and what people must've thought about him. This is what resulted from him into his second mental breakdown. To conclude, I would recommend this book to everyone who is interested in who created the three laws of motion and later became a famous scientist, physicist, and mathematician.