[PatrickHenry]

Hot debate topic.

[Prost1]

Why is not Nicolai Tesla considered?

Science, mathematics, electricity, lightening....

[MilleniumBug]

My poll says Newton could have been replaced by a number of other people. However, his wealth allowed him to discover what a lot of other people couldn't afford to. If he was a member of the Order of Knights Templar as some report that could explain his secrecy.

Einstein received a Nobel prize for the photoelectric effect which is used in a tremendous amount of todays technology. His advocacy for the atomic bomb project in WWII makes him a very formidable scientist. The world would be very different if he hadn't been born but apples would still fall if Newton had been aborted.

[Melas]

Ah come on, the nationalism here is plainly evident. A bunch of Brit scientists picked the Brit guy over the naturalized German American.

[TexasTransplant]

>>>More than 1,300 members of the public and 345 Royal Society scientists were asked separately which famous scientist made a bigger overall contribution to science, given the state of knowledge during his time, and which made a bigger positive contribution to humankind<<<

Leonardo da Vinci, if all things are considered, should at least rank in the top 20?

TT

[MarkL]

And don't forget Newton's development of the calculus, though some say that he "borrowed" from Leibnitz, while others say he developed it independantly.

His work in mathematics was a major part of defining the "language" of science.

Mark

[Blind Eye Jones]

"...the huge amount that both these physicists achieved, and that their impact on the world stretched far beyond the laboratory and the equation," said Royal Society president Lord Peter May.

The Great Frankenstein Einstein Debate at Princeton

Little known fact: the Frankenstein Einstein debate at Princeton in the late 30s. Frankenstein was coming off a few hit horror films with Dracula and bought his way into Princeton. The high point was a math debate at the student union hall where Einstein said, "pi r2" and Frankenstein rebutted with, "No! Pie are round!" It caused a big stir amongst the faculty and they chased Frankenstein back to the dorm with pitchforks and torches.

[bert]

Newton was wrong.

[R. Scott]

From a purely practical, day to day standpoint Newtonian physics is more important than Einstein’s relativistic physics.

[RightWhale]

Newton, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had 100 men hung for counterfeiting. Einstein, dilettante, wrote a letter advocating development of the A-bomb. For character, Newton wins.

[spinestein]

[His greatest work, the "Principia Mathematica", showed that gravity was a universal force that applied to all objects in the universe, finally ruling out the belief that the laws of motion were different for objects on Earth and in the heavens.]



Remember, the ultimate cause of gravity is still a matter of intense controversy among scientists. We need to provide alternatives to the discredited theory of "Universal Gravitation" and teach "Intelligent Motivation" in our public schools.

[LibWhacker]

Newton did not invent the infinitesimal. Archimedes himself probably came up with that idea, and many people worked on them before Newton came along; in fact, it was a hot topic in Newton's day.

So, while neither he nor Leibnitz can be credited with coming up with that idea, without which calculus would've gone nowhere, Newton systemized it all and took it much further than anyone else had in the Principia.

Imagine if, instead of two people like Newton and Einstein coming along every thousand years, we had billions of them. I hope genetic engineering can give us that someday!

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Newton gave us the refractive telescope the theory of relativity the word Gravity but wasted most of his time trying to turn simple minerals into gold through alchemy tha vast part of his life in later years he was an alchemist !

[TruthWillWin]

I like fig-Newtons. I'd vote for Newton too.