Isaac Newton
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A calculus fit to compute on, |
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Really smart groundbreaking scientist who looked like Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin.
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 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 extreme 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."[1]) He also inadvertently switched Great Britain from a bimetallic system to the gold standard by setting the ratio of the value of the gold guinea (and other gold coins) to the value of the silver penny in a way that heavily favoured gold, leading to a mass exodus of silver from the country.[2] His tomb in Westminster Abbey references this financial career rather than his scientific one.
He is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space. Also the inventor of the cat flap. No, really.
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.
Anime and Manga
- It turns out that Newton himself is the Big Bad Emperor in Vision of Escaflowne.
Comic Books
- He is the main character - sort of - of Gotlib's Rubrique-à-Brac, in what could be the longest Running Gag ever.
- Monica's Gang: He appeared at the end of a Pitheco story, centuries after Pitheco failed to pitch the famous discovery.
Film
- Mentioned very briefly in Apollo 13. When Jim Lovel powers down the LEM's reaction-control thrusters to save battery power, he remarks, "And that's it. We just put Sir Isaac Newton in the driver's seat."
Literature
- He is an important character in Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, which posited that he took the job at the mint and moved England to the gold standard because he was trying find the Solomonic gold (the raw material for making the Philosopher's stone). He made it such that all the gold in the world will circulate through England at some point where he can test them. After all, historians did refer to Newton as the last alchemist.
- Robert Langdon visits his tomb in The Da Vinci Code.
- Is the codifier of all (European) Magic in the Rivers of London books, and the reason all spells are in Gratuitous Latin.
- Missed meeting wizards from the Unseen University in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe having just stepped out for some fresh air when they pop in. It was probably for the best.
- Major character in the Age of Unreason series, not surprising when the first book is called Newton's Cannon. The book opens with Newton successfully making alchemy work, and goes from there.
Live-Action TV
- Newton turns up twice in Star Trek. The first time in Star Trek: The Next Generation as hologram, playing cards against Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and (non-holographic) Data. The second time, he is briefly transported onto the Voyager by a Q.
Video Games
- As mentioned in the intro, referenced in Mass Effect 2 as the reason one does not "eyeball" the firing of a kinetic kill munition.
Web Comics
- Plays the Only Sane Man in Frederick the Great, where he is literal math wizard. Notably, he once held a symposium to discover the secret of time travel- a symposium where every member was an alternate version of himself.