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Isaac Newton: Difference between revisions
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To elaborate, Isaac Newton is the originator of the Three Laws of Motion. Born 1643 (not very long after Galileo died), the British physicist was a [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|Jack Of All Trades]] and dabbled in astronomy, mathematics, alchemy and theology. His work on gravity would lead to further credibility for to heliocentrism (the belief that the Sun, and not the Earth, is the centre of the universe). To derive the equations for motion in his ''Principia Mathematica'', he had to invent integral calculus out of whole cloth(!). While he was a very influential scientist in his era, further work on the [[Useful Notes/Relativity|extreme]] [[Useful Notes/Quantum Physics|scales]] of the universe restricts his ideas to everyday living.
Ironically in his lifetime he was better known for heading the Royal Mint, where he introduced the practice of milling coins--putting a decorative border on them so it would be obvious if pieces had been clipped off. This was important because of a practice at the time where criminals would clip coins, keep the bits of precious metal to melt down, and pass off the clipped coin as its full value, weakening the currency. This is remembered in the edge inscription of the modern British pound, ''DECUS ET TUTAMEN'' ("an ornament and a safeguard"). Newton is also commemorated in the edge description of the two pound coin (whose tail side bears a representation of scientific and technological progress) with his relevant quote ''STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS''. (On being praised for his scientific insight: "If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants."<ref>although this may actually have been a [[Take That]] to his rival Robert Hooke, with whom he had the type of relationship that Edison would later have with Tesla, who was rather short</ref>) He also inadvertently switched Great Britain from a [
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpgxry542M He is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space]. Also the inventor of the [
He had a lonely, unhappy childhood, which may have been due to the fact that he was about a billion times smarter than anyone else around him. Even after he became a professor at Cambridge he frequently lectured to an empty classroom. It was only when he began corresponding with Christopher Wren and the other members of the Royal Society in London that he began to blossom as England's leading scientist.
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