I. Biography Newton (1643-1727) was a famous British physicist, mathematician and astronomer, and was the greatest scientific giant of the seventeenth century.

Newton was born on January 4, 1643 (December 25, 1642 in the Julian calendar) to a family of farmers in the small town of Ullesthorpe in Lincolnshire, England, and at the age of twelve he entered Grantham High School, which was not far from his home. Newton entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1661 as a fee-reducing student, became a scholarship holder in 1664, and received his bachelor's degree in 1665.

The Great London Epidemic of 1665-1666. Cambridge was not far from London, and schools were closed for fear of the spread. In June 1665, Newton returned to his hometown of Ullesthorpe.

Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667, and on October 1, he was elected to Trinity College as a midshipman, and on March 16 of the following year, he was elected to the House of Lords. Barrow was fully aware of Newton's talents, and on October 27, 1669, Barrow made the 26-year-old Newton his successor as Lucasian Professor.

He was admitted to the Royal Society from 1672 and was elected President of the Royal Society in 1703

Newton secured the post of Superintendent of the Mint in 1696, was promoted to Master of the Mint in 1699, and resigned from the University of Cambridge in 1701. he was knighted in 1705.

Newton suffered from bladder stones, rheumatism and other ailments in his later years, and died in London late at night on March 30, 1727, and was buried in Westminster Abbey at the age of 84 years. In honor of Newton, people used his name to name the unit of force, referred to as "Newton".

Scientific Achievements

Newton's lifetime contribution to the cause of science, across the fields of physics, mathematics and astronomy.

1. Newton's most important achievement in physics, is the creation of the basic system of classical mechanics, thus light into the history of physics for the first time in the synthesis.

2￡? For optics, Newton devoted to the study of the color of light and the nature of light, also made significant contributions.

3￡? In mathematics, Newton summarized and developed the work of his predecessors, put forward the "flow of numbers", established the binomial theorem, and created the calculus.

4￡? In astronomy, Newton discovered the law of gravity, created the reflecting telescope, and used it to initially observe the laws of planetary motion.

Newton designed the telescope in the 1770s. It is generally known as a reflecting telescope and was far more effective than the famous refracting telescope designed by Galileo.

3. Anecdotes

1￡? The story about the apple falling to the ground

A serendipitous event can often trigger a flash of a scientist's mind.

It was a warm evening in the late summer of 1666, in Ullesthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, when a young man with a book under his armpit went into the garden of his mother's house, sat down under a tree, and began to bury his head in his book. As he turned the pages, something bobbed in the branches above his head. One of history's most famous apples fell and struck 23-year-old Isaac Newton on the head

Accidentally, on that day, Newton was struggling with the question: what are the forces that keep the moon in its orbit around the Earth and the planets in their orbits around the sun? Why did the apple that hit his head fall to the ground? It was from pondering this question that he found the answer to all this - the theory of gravity.

Because Newton's book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" used the presentation of Euclidean geometry, which is a rigorous and perfect system, the book did not recount the story of the apple falling to the ground, resulting in many people's reservations about the apple falling to the ground theory.

In fact, Newton's relatives and friends repeatedly confirmed the story of the falling apple. Voltaire, the French writer and scientist, once recalled that when he went to England in 1726, a year before Newton's death, he heard Newton's stepsister say that one day Newton was lying under an apple tree and suddenly saw an apple fall to the ground, which caused him to think. Newton had a flash of inspiration and suddenly formed an opinion in his mind: could the apple falling to the ground and the planets going around the sun be governed by the same cosmic law? The law of gravity was realized.

A close friend of Newton's in his later years, Stokely, also explicitly mentioned that one day in April 1726, after lunch with Newton ***, he came to the back garden of Newton's house and drank tea under the apple tree. During the conversation "he (meaning Newton) told me that it was under the same circumstances in the past that the idea of noticing gravitation came into his mind, and that it happened by chance under an apple tree, when he was in a state of contemplative meditation."

And then there is the story of Pemberton, another close friend of Newton's in his later years, who, in his writings about memorializing Newton, talks about verifying the inverse relationship of the square of gravity as a result of an apple falling to the ground.

Newton in his later years again recounted the story of the apple, that is, from the apple fell to the ground is already 60 years past, why an old man on this matter so deep memory, I think there are two reasons: first, because the law of gravity is a world-renowned brilliant results, the person concerned on the trigger of the inspiration of the event of course, is a deep excitement and nostalgia; and secondly, and Hooker's dispute also left a deep memory. Deep memory, Newton on a side to clarify the truth, should be considered the facts of the apple falling to the ground that the facts are established.

2. Scientific research obsession

Newton for scientific research dedicated to the point of obsession. It is said that once Newton boiled an egg, he was reading a book while working, confusedly threw a pocket watch into the pot, and when the water boiled, uncovered a look, only to realize that the pocket watch as an egg boiled by mistake. On another occasion, a visitor asked him to value a prism. Newton was immediately attracted by the prism, which could be used for scientific research, and replied without hesitation, "It is a priceless treasure!" The customer, seeing Newton drooling over the prism, offered to sell it to him and deliberately asked a high price. Newton immediately bought it with delight, and when the old lady housekeeper found out about it, she said angrily, "Ahem, you fool, you only had to discount the price by the weight of the glass!"

3. Like to keep cats

Legend has it that Newton, when building his house, insisted on leaving two cat holes of different sizes, so that the big cats could walk through the big holes, and the little cats could walk through the small holes. Of course, this is just a legend, not based on evidence. But Newton likes to keep cats is true. As Newton was unmarried for life, the cat became an indispensable partner in his life, but the cat also gave him a lot of trouble, Newton's mother died in 1692, making him extremely painful. One morning, in order to calm down, he went to the chapel of the University of Bridge to worship, he forgot to extinguish the candle, probably because the cat got into trouble, the candle overturned and turned the optics, chemistry manuscripts and other papers on the table into ashes.

4. Lifelong Unmarried Mystery

Newton, as a teenager, confessed his ambition in a poem:

O worldly crown, I despise it as the dust of my feet,

It is heavy, and the best of it is but an emptiness;

But now I cheerfully welcome the top crown of thorns,

Though the thorns sting,

The taste is chiefly sweet;

The taste is chiefly sweet, and the taste is chiefly sweet. But the taste is chiefly sweet;

I see the crown of glory present before me,

It is full of bliss, and eternity knows no bounds.

It may be said that every great scientist is a poet rich in passion and ideals, but Newton was a poet of a special type who sought to explain his ideals in terms of the spectrum of light in science. He let his mind spread its wings and fly, using the whole universe as a fence. In his whole heartland he filled nature, the universe. Perhaps this was the most fundamental reason why he remained unmarried all his life.

However, Newton was not completely insulated from love. He even fell in love twice in his life. When Newton was studying at Cambridge University at the age of 23, the school was on vacation because of the plague in Cambridge. Newton returned to the countryside and stayed at his uncle's house. There, he fell in love with his beautiful, intelligent, studious and thoughtful cousin once. The cousin also loved this learned and insightful university student. They often took walks together. Newton liked to make long impromptu speeches, and his speeches were mostly about the problems he was studying and researching. Although my cousin did not understand, but she still listened patiently and seemed to find it very interesting. Newton thought to himself: "I must be very good for such a lovely woman to find what I am saying so interesting. Surely she must have a good brain as well, an extraordinary woman. How wonderful it would be to have her help in solving my many difficult problems and working **** with me!"

But Newton was shy by nature and did not confess the love of his heart to his cousin in time. When he returned to Cambridge University, and gathered to immerse himself in scientific research. He had long forgotten that there was a beautiful girl waiting for him in the distant countryside. He paid no attention to his personal life, and her cousin, mistaking Newton's indifference to her, married another man. Newton's obsession with scientific research delayed a great opportunity for love.

Newton is too busy, he even do dream is the universe, the world. He tended to walk into the university cafeteria with his tie untied, his shoes untied and his breeches unbuttoned. Nevertheless, Newton was after all a young man, and a romantic heart. On one occasion, the "impatient passion of youth" prompted him to propose to a young girl. He gently held her hand, looking at the beauty with affection. At this critical juncture, his mind suddenly slipped away to another world. All that remained in his mind was the Binomial Theorem of Infinite Quantities. As if in a dream, he subconsciously grabbed one of his lover's fingers, treated it as if it were a pass-through bar to a pipe, and shoved it hard into the pipe. He came to his senses when the girl screamed out in pain. Facing the surprised girl, he hastened to apologize softly like a sheep: "Ah, my dear, forgive me! I know, I can't do it. It seems that I should be a bachelor for the rest of my life!"

The girl forgave Newton, but could not understand him, and love was lost again. Many new problems in science were constantly coming to Newton's mind, and his whole passion was centered on scientific endeavors. Thereafter, that "youthful enthusiasm" never emerged again. "Colorful Melody"

5. Quotations

(1) "I don't know what the world thinks of me, but I myself think that I am nothing more than a child playing on the seashore, who from time to time dips his head in the water for a pebble or a shell that is more beautiful than usual. a pebble or a shell more beautiful than usual, and as for the vast ocean of truth that unfolded before me, it was all but undiscovered."

(2) "If I have looked a little farther than Descartes, it is because of standing on the shoulders of giants."

6. The spread of Newton's doctrines in China and their influence

The spread of Newton's doctrines in China

Newton lived in an era equivalent to one year before the fall of the Ming Dynasty to the 5th year of the Qing Dynasty, and the publication of his book, "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy," was published in a time equivalent to the 25th year of the Kangxi Dynasty. In the more than 150 years from 1687 to 1840, when Newton's Principles was published, the knowledge of Newtonian physics and astronomy was hardly introduced to China. The basic content of the Principia was not disseminated in China until after the Opium War.

Influence of Newton's Doctrine on China

Copernicus's theory of the center of the sun, Kepler's elliptical orbit, and Newton's universal gravitation were introduced to China one after another, and they were related to the "heavenly motion and earthly stillness", "heavenly roundness", "Yin and Yang", and "Yin and Yang", which were regarded as the guiding principles by China. They are very different from the Chinese tradition of "heavenly motion and earthly stillness", "heavenly circle and earthly place", and "yin and yang". This has caused a huge reaction from the Chinese people.

The spread of Newton's teachings in China did not only influence the academic world and awaken people's awareness of scientific truth. More importantly, it also provided a kind of public opinion preparation for the Hundred Days' Reform (1898) initiated by the Chinese bourgeois reformists. The main generals of this movement, such as Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Tan Sitong, without exception, looked to Newton's teachings for the basis of the new law, and in particular, Newton's spirit of scientific reform inspired all the aspirants of the Qing dynasty who wished to change society.