Lecture 11 - Newtonian Synthesis Flashcards
Newton’s Legacy
Mainly, Theology, Alchemy, but today he’s known as hero of Scientific Movement, physics
Born year Gal died
->succeedor in mathematics + nature
Killed Aristotelean thought
->his model becomes it
Early Life
Premature farmer baby
->disliked family, no social skills
Studies at King’s College Cambridge
->learns in Scholastic
Comes home, Plague
->but eventually returns
Transitions to Arts
- > becomes Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
- > must lecture weekly - chose Optics!
Opticks
(Actual publication comes much later)
Light, not vision is the question
->Newton asks how white light gets colour on material
Prevailing theory: White light = pure light
->not yet altered, impressed by colours
Knows objects have refractive indices, Snell
- > suggests each colour has own refractive index
- > and each material reflects different amounts each col
- > key step is in splitting, THEN RECOMBINING light
So it’s the light joining and splitting, not the prism impressing qualities
Also worked on telescopes
- > solved Chromatic Abberation with mirrors > glass
- > telescope makes it to King, who wants Newton in RS
- > encourages him to publish
Hooke criticises him ->"derivative" of his own microscopes ->disagrees with light being a constitution Newton withdraws, since he's a recluse ->swears to never publish ->continues theology, alchemy
Alchemy
Experiment to make substances more valuable
- > chemists are experimental, not concerned with origin
- > chemist = pharmacist, follow recipes to make products
Newton was an alchemist
- > reads obscure works (really strange wording)
- > understand true nature of world & reality
- > not so much about making gold
Alchemists:
1) Wrote in flowery vague language with strange terminology
2) Though ancients had ultimate alchemical knowledge
- >Greek, Roman poems were actually encoded formulae
- >they went deeeep into their mythology
- >seek Phil Stone in their writing
- >Ancients had “true philosophy, true theology”
His work was not “good science” or following good principles as we know today
Theology
Jesus was not divine
- > unsupported by 1st testament
- > a heretic! Kept it to himself
Widely disagreed with views, but he kept them
SACRED/TRUE THEOLOGY
- > “The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended”
- > tried to correct dates of prophecies
- > concerned with end of world
- > 2016, comet hits sun, giant solar flare
- > like humanism, glorify the Ancients
- > MODERN CHURCH IS CORRUPTION OF FAITH
- > true faith is found back in Adam & Eve’s time
He really thought he could reconstruct the Ancient’s sacred, perfect knowledge
- > but Fermat, Keppler too…
- > just speculatively reconstructing them
Physics
Principia?
- > Halley asks him what orbits would look like, if inverse squared to distance
- > Why ellipses? Wanted to show from inverse square law
- > Newton sends short write up to Halley, who pushes him to publish
Principia - Begins with the 3 Laws
1) Inertia (EZ)
2) F = ma (EZ)
3) equal and opposite force (NEW shocker)
Then goes on to show Universal Gravitation
->holds for any pair!!!!!
->same motion in heaven and earth!!!! No realms!
Literally a rock star after Principia
Newton’s Reception
Elevates to head of RS, King of Science
->only legit if you’re with Newton
Hooke goes off again, derivative
->Newton just slaps him down, doesn’t even respond
Publishes Opticks after Hooke dies
->includes Calc
->another rivalry with Leibniz, who disagrees with Grav too
Newton thought Calculus was Ancient Knowledge though
->no big deal, neither of us invented it
->thought the ancients just preferred geometric proofs, so he used it too for Principia
Creates a committee to investigate, then clears his name himself.
Occult Properties in Newton?
Revised Principia to say he “feigns no hypotheses”
- > though includes 31 questions at the end
- > 31: but don’t bodies have action at a distance though?
Newton’s Legacy
It’s important to say how, before why.
->1st priority is describe events
Recall: Only efficient causes for Descartes!
Allows subsequent scientists to only worry about how
- > And Faraday, Einstein can go describe
- > Others can go later and find why
- > like Pythagoreans, finding math comes first
