Sir Isaac Newton (25th December 1642 - 20th March 1726) was an English mathematician, astronomer, theologian, author and physicist. Widely recognized as one of the most “influential” scientists of all time, he also played an instrumental role in the scientific revolution. Newton was the first scientist to be knighted, an honor by which he obtained the title "Sir" preceding his name. Best known for his work on gravity, he also practiced and discovered many scientific wonders in his lifetime. The three laws of motion which form the basic principles of modern physics was developed by him. Newton’s discovery of calculus paved way for solving mathematical problems efficiently. His book, the Principia has been called "a book dense with the theory …show more content…
This is also known as Newton’s theory of color. In addition, he stated that “The lens of any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colors”, also known as chromatic aberration. To prove the concept, he constructed a telescope using a mirror as the object to enable bypassing the problem. This was the first known “functional reflecting telescope” in existence, the design of which is now known as a Newtonian telescope. Isaac Newton developed the reflector around 1680 as a response to the issues arising due to chromatic aberration. Instead of using a standard lens to gather light; Newton used a curved, metal mirror to accumulate the light as mirrors don’t possess the chromatic aberration problems that lenses do. The accumulated light was then reflected onto a “focus”. He placed the primary mirror towards the back of the tube and used a small, flat mirror in the focal path of the primary mirror to “deflect the image out” through the side of the tube going to the eyepiece. Hence, the strategic placement proved helpful in keeping the way of incoming light …show more content…
The story is considered “apocryphal” by modern sources who argue that he came to his conclusions over time. However, Newton himself described the incident; a result why a lot of contemporaries defend this assertion. His theory was that planetary orbits were a result of some kind of a “centripetal” force. Pursuing his hypothesis Newton proved as a theory and then published his observations in ‘Philosophiae, Natrualis, Principia Mathematica’(A comprehensive account of his theory of gravitation and mechanics) Continuing his extensive work in the field of mechanics, Newton expanded the scope of gravitational force eventually developing the theory three laws of motion. The prevalent theory has cause a ripple in perspective of understanding physics. Although there were plagiarism allegations against Newton posed by Robert Hooke, the scientists of the time ruled in favor of Newton as the “proofs furnished were entirely original” and Hooke “had not made any progress to theorize his ideas”. Sir Isaac Newton has inspired innumerable scientists over the centuries and is one of the greatest icons of all