Isaac Newton

Vocabulary of the text

Groundwork – фундамент, основа, фон

Celestial motion – небесное движение

Substantiation – доказательство, доказывание

Elliptic - эллиптический

Spectrum of colours – цветовой спектр

Binomial theorem – бином Ньютона

Angular momentum – угловая скорость движения, кинетическая энергия

Hamlet – деревня, деревушка

Child prodigy – одарённый ребёнок, вундеркинд

Lens – линза, чечевица, оптическое стекло, лупа, объектив, хрусталик глаза

Dispersion of light – рассеивание света

To bypass – обходить, не принимать во внимание, пренебрегать

Prophecies – пророчества

Alongside – бок о бок, рядом

Sir Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727 by the Julian calendar in use in England at the time; or January 4, 1643 – March 31, 1727 by the Gregorian calendar) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and alchemist; who wrote the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (published July 5, 1687)1, where he described universal gravitation and, via his laws of motion, laid the groundwork for classical mechanics. Newton also shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for the development of differential calculus.

Newton was the first to demonstrate that the same natural laws govern both earthly motion and celestial motion.

He is associated with the scientific revolution and the advancement of heliocentrism. Newton is also credited with providing mathematical substantiation for Kepler's laws of planetary motion. He would expand these laws by arguing that orbits (such as those of comets) were not only elliptic; but could also be hyperbolic and parabolic. He is also notable for his arguments that light was composed of particles. He was the first to realise that the spectrum of colours observed when white light was passed through a prism was inherent in the white light, and not added by the prism as Roger Bacon had claimed 400 years earlier.

Newton also developed Newton's law of cooling, describing the rate of cooling of objects when exposed to air; the binomial theorem in its entirety; and the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. Finally, he studied the speed of sound in air, and voiced a theory of the origin of stars.

Newton was born in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire. His father had died three months before Newton's birth, and two years later his mother went to live with her new husband, leaving her son in the care of his grandmother. Newton was a child prodigy.

From 1670 to 1672 he lectured on optics. During this period he investigated the refraction of light, demonstrating that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum of colours, and that a lens and a second prism could recompose the multicoloured spectrum into white light. From his work he concluded that any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colours, and invented the reflecting telescope to bypass that problem. (Later, when glasses with a variety of refractive properties became available, achromatic lenses became possible.) Newton argued that light is composed of particles. Later physicists instead favored a wave explanation of light because of certain experimental findings. Today's quantum mechanics recognizes a "wave-particle duality" however photons bear very little semblance to Newton's corpuscles.

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (now known as the Principia) was published in 1687 with encouragement and financial help from Edmond Halley. In this work Newton stated the three universal laws of motion that were not to be improved upon for the next three hundred years. He used the Latin word gravitas (weight) for the force that would become known as gravity, and defined the law of universal gravitation. In the same work he presented the first analytical determination, based on Boyle's Law, of the speed of sound in air.

In the 1690s Newton wrote a number of religious tracts dealing with the literal interpretation of the Bible. A manuscript he sent to John Locke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published. Later works - The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) and Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) - were published after his death. He also devoted a great deal of time to alchemy.

Newton's laws of motion and gravity provided a basis for predicting a wide variety of different scientific or engineering situations, especially the motion of celestial bodies. His calculus proved vital to the development of further scientific theory. Finally, he unified many of the isolated physics facts that had been discovered earlier into a satisfying system of laws. For this reason, he is generally considered one of history's greatest scientists, ranking alongside such figures as Einstein and Gauss.

Exercise 6. Answer the questions:

1. When was Newton born?

2. How is Newton’s book on classical mechanics called?

3. With whom did Newton share credit for the development of differential calculus?

4. Enumerate all the discoveries Newton made.

5. Where was Newton born?

6. Who brought up Newton?

7. Describe the main ides of Newton’s book “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica”.

8. Do you know any other written works by Newton?

9. Can you evaluate Newton’s role in the development of different fields of science?

Exercise 7. Give the English equivalents to the following expressions:

Алхимик, всемирное тяготение, через законы движения, дифференциальное исчисление, ассоциироваться с, научная революция, планетарное движение, скорость звука в воздухе, теория происхождения звёзд, преломление света, разноцветный спектр, обойти проблему, призма, волновое объяснение света, финансовая помощь, ободрение, универсальные законы движения, религиозные тракты, литературное толкование, апокалипсис, манускрипт, графство.

Exercise 8. Give the Russian equivalents to the following expressions:

By the Julian calendar in use, to share credit, earthly motion, advancement of heliocentrism, to expand the laws, to be notable, to be composed of, to be inherent, the rate of cooling, in the care of, to decompose, achromatic lenses, experimental findings, wave-particle duality, to bear resemblance to, analytical determination, existence of the Trinity, further scientific theory, isolated facts, satisfying system of laws, to rank alongside.

Exercise 9. Give the summary of the text.