Development Of Mechanics: The Contribution Of Merton College.

The general and widespread acceptance of Sir Isaac Newton’s models and laws may often be taken for granted, but this has not always been so. Throughout history, scientists and philosophers have built on each other’s theories to create improved and often revolutionary models. Although Newton was neither the first nor the last to bring major innovations to society, he was one of the most notable ones; many of his contributions are still in use today. With the formulation of his laws of motion, Sir Isaac Newton contributed to the downfall of Aristotelianism and provided a universal quantitative system for approximating and explaining a wide range of phenomena of space and the physics of motion, revolutionizing the study and understanding

This will lead to an explanation of motion, the development of the calculus, and the establishment of basic laws of modern physics.

This concept particularly stood out to me because when we started learning how to do this, I didn’t quite understand. As I got more and more help from Yenmin, I started to see where these ideas are coming from even though I still struggle. However, a concept that made me really think is when it came down to kinematic equation. Although the idea of kinematic equation seem easy when it was being taught in class, it still took a while for me to grasp on where each and every part of the equation came from and to understand the true meaning and importance. In the end of this though, I learned that it wasn’t that hard than I thought it was. In physics, I struggle a lot. Even though the idea of drawing and describing acceleration arrows, motion maps, x, and v, and graphs based on the given scenario stood out to me, I still struggle with that. Now that I am 2 months smarter, the advice that I would have given to my past self to be successful in physics is to try harder and to not be afraid to ask for help because Physics is not an easy concept. It is hard to expect that you’ll understand physics right when you learn it. It takes time and patient. In the next unit, my plan for success is to put more effort in Physics and to not give up

Newton was the Englishmen who formulated the modern laws of motion and mechanics. It remained unchallenged until the twentieth century. The core of his thinking was the concept of the universe. He declared that all bodies whatsoever are endowed with the principle of mutual gravitation. He was the grand unifying idea of early modern science. (Ways of the World, 557)

In kinematics, he studied the mathematical theory of

In Europe, the second half of the 17th century was a time of major innovation. Calculus provided a new opportunity in mathematical physics to solve long-standing problems. Several mathematicians contributed to these breakthroughs, notably John Wallis and Isaac Barrow. James Gregory proved a special case of the second fundamental theorem of calculus in AD 1668.

At its climax the scientific revolution would bring enormous change with the revolutionary contributions made by Isaac Newton. Newton, building on previous works produced the concepts of gravity, and he developed the three laws of motion which could be accurately proved through mathematical calculations. These discoveries about the natural world would serve to mend past uncertainties which in turn gave people real hope. It was the beginning of an end of Europe’s dark times and the birth of many new innovations and developments that were to come in the eighteenth century. It was truly a new age where through reason one could become fully become enlightened.

Prior to Galileo’s time, the Greek and medieval mind, science was a kind of formalism, a means of coordinating data, which had no bearing on the ultimate reality of things. The point was to give order to complicated data, and all that mattered was the hypothesis that was simplest to understand and most convenient. Astronomy and mathematics were regarded as the playthings of intellectuals. They were accounted as having neither philosophical nor theological relevance. There was genuine puzzlement among Churchmen that they had to get involved in a quarrel over planetary orbits.

The discovery of these laws, laid down a basic foundation for the physics of motion. Newton's three laws of gravity changed the way in which the world was perceived, because of their accuracy in describing many unexplained phenomenons.3 They explained what happens as a result of different variables, but most importantly, they explained why and how these actions happen. Like many of Isaac Newtons ideas and theories, the three laws of motion had a profound impact on the scientific community. The three laws of motions provided an explanation for almost everything in macro physics. Macro Physics is the branch of physics that deals with physical objects large enough to be observed and treated directly.4 This allowed for many new advancements in physics because the foundation had been build for others to develop upon. Isaac Newton published these findings in his revolutionary book “The Principa”. The Principa was revolutionary book because it organized the bulk of his life’s work, More importantly the

as “physics,” we must begin with the origin of the term itself. Taken from the Greek

     From the period of 1145AD – the late 16th century, many mathematicians developed on algebraic concepts. However, it was not until the 1680’s that the most remarkable discoveries were made using algebra. Sir Isaac Newton was a very famous mathematician, English physicist, astronomer, philosopher, and alchemist. During his period of study, he used algebra to describe universal gravitation, develop the laws of motion, found orbits of the planets to be elliptical, discovered that light was made of particles, discovered the rate of cooling objects, and the binomial theorem. His most important works were the development of calculus. However, Newton did not work alone on creating the

“I calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people” – Sir Isaac Newton (The Church of England Quarterly Review (1850), p. 142)

Euclid’s assumptions about his postulates have set the groundwork for geometry today. He provided society with definitions of a circle, a point, and line, etc and for 2000 was considered “the father of geometry.” His postulates proved to be a framework from which mathematics was able to grow and evolve, from two thousand years ago, till Newton and even to all our classrooms today.

In order for Newton to have discovered the mathematical genius of calculus, he first tried to understand the world around him through physical science. As a result he formulated the famous and well-known Three Laws of Motion, which looked to explain the effect of gravity on falling objects and how objects react with each other. To explain his theories of motion and gravity, Newton came up with calculus, which provided a method to find the change in an objects position and velocity with respect to time. Furthermore, Newton studied a vast amount of work by past prominent mathematicians. Through his extensive research and brilliance he realized that the earlier approaches to finding tangents to curves and to find the area under curves were actually inverse operations of each other and through seeing this relation, he formed the basis of calculus to answer his thoughts about the natural world. Differential calculus was one of his most important findings and is described by the Funk & Wagnall’s New World Encyclopedia as providing a, “method of finding the slope of the tangent to a curve at a certain point; related rates of change, such as the rate at which the area of a circle increases (in square feet per minute) in terms of the radius (in feet) and the rate at which the

Mathematics has contributed to the alteration of technology over many years. The most noticeable mathematical technology is the evolution of the abacus to the many variations of the calculator. Some people argue that the changes in technology have been for the better while others argue they have been for the worse. While this paper does not address specifically technology, this paper rather addresses influential persons in philosophy to the field of mathematics. In order to understand the impact of mathematics, this paper will delve into the three philosophers of the past who have contributed to this academic. In this paper, I will cover the views of three philosophers of mathematics encompassing their