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The Life and Times of Sir Isaac Newton Essay

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Sir Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 (based on the Gregorian calendar) in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Growing up, he was never really close to his parents because his biological father died three months before he was born. Then, his mother remarried and left him to be raised by his grandparents. It was not until 1661, when Newton started studying at Cambridge University, that Newton took an interest in math and science. Then, in 1665, Newton was forced to go home because of an epidemic outbreak. During his time away from school, Newton started studying optics, math, and gravity. In addition, he started to create Calculus. Newton was allowed to return to Cambridge in 1667, and in 1669, he became a math professor. In …show more content…

A few scientists who lived just before Newton’s life were Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Robert Hooke. Copernicus discovered the heliocentric theory. This idea was revolutionary because before his theory, people believed that the sun revolved around the earth (geocentric theory). However, Copernicus presented the theory that the earth revolved around the sun (heliocentric theory). Another scientist, Galileo Galilei, created the first telescope. Thus, with his new invention, he was able to see the Milky Way, features of the Moon, and Jupiter’s moons. While observing Jupiter’s moons, he saw that the moons orbited around Jupiter, not earth. With this new information, he was able to disprove the geocentric theory because Jupiter’s moons did not orbit around Earth, but rather Jupiter. Galileo also found that everything fell at the same speed. He tested this theory by dropping two balls (one heavier and one lighter) off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They both hit the ground at the same time (“Astronomy and Space for Kids”). In addition, Galileo proposed the idea of inertia (“The Scientific Revolution”). Robert Hooke was another notable scientist of that time. Hooke created the law of elasticity. This law states that, “the stretching of a solid body (e.g., metal, wood) is proportional to the force applied to it” (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Hooke also invented the Gregorian reflecting telescope. Through this invention

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