Posted on 06/06/2015 7:25:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Sir Isaac Newton...came to the realization that the math that had been used thus far to describe physical motion of massive bodies, simply would not suffice... Newton developed the Calculus in which this way of approaching moving bodies, he was able to accurately model the motion of not only Halley’s comet, but also any other heavenly body that moved across the sky.
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Newton recognized that Kepler’s mathematical equation for planetary motion, Kepler’s 3rd Law ( P2=A3 ), was purely based on empirical observation, and was only meant to measure what we observed within our solar system. Newton’s mathematical brilliance was in realizing that this basic equation could be made universal by applying a gravitational constant to the equation, in which gave birth to perhaps one of the most important equations to ever be derived by mankind; Newton’s Version of Kepler’s Third Law.
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All at once, the motions of planets and other objects that orbit the sun became more accurately measurable, and thus we gained the ability to understand the universe a little deeper. Referring back to Netwon’s Version of Kepler’s Third Law, we were now able to apply (and still do) this incredible physics equation to almost anything that is orbiting something else. From this equation, we can determine the mass of either of the objects, the distance apart they are from each other, the force of gravity that is exerted between the two, and other physical qualities built from these simple calculations.
With his understanding of mathematics, Newton was able to derive the aforementioned gravitational constant for all objects in the universe ( G = 6.672×10-11 N m2 kg-2 ). This constant allowed him to unify astronomy and physics which then permitted predictions about how things moved in the universe.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
do you know of any good biographies of Newton?
It would be a long drive...like, start 2 days ahead. lol
I’ve read several in my life, don’t remember which ones... but here’s a good documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n3RWAIlzAI
Richard Westfall's Never At Rest seems to be the definitive version. I have the abridged Canto version entitled The Life of Isaac Newton, which has served me well, although I have consulted the original for its discussion of some mathematical details.
I also have James Gleick's ISAAC NEWTON, which is comparatively a breezy read, but not without merit, and I would certainly recommend it as a starting point.
Have you read up on Tesla too? He was unbelievable.
I wish he was alive today to see what he made happen- and just imagine what he could do with modern computers at his disposal.
Both force and acceleration are vector quantities. Mass is not. So any force (and, correspondingly, any acceleration) may be expressed as any number of vectors, summed.
To some degree. I guess it was the Wikipedia biography, maybe, which was more than I had known about him. The thing is that Tesla was essentially a "crank", i.e. outside the mainstream of scientific thought. Of course, he enjoys substantial recognition today ( speaking abstractly ) for his achievements and contributions, but he was nevertheless out of the mainstream, as he did not accept many established premises, Einsteinian special and general relativity, for example. So for this reason, he is not comparable to Newton.
Tesla was not comparable to Newton??? YOU TAKE THAT BACK!
yes but worth it to finally meet someone krunky enough
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