Newtonian physicist name. The great mathematician Isaac Newton: biography of the inventor of the principles of natural philosophy

In many higher educational institutions you can see a portrait of Isaac Newton, a famous mathematician and physicist (this scientist also studied alchemy). The scientist's father was a farmer. Isaac was often sick, shunned by his peers, and was raised by his grandmother. The future scientist studied at Grantham School, and in 1661 he entered Holy Trinity College (now Trinity College) of the well-known Cambridge University. In 1665 Newton became a bachelor, and three years later a master. During his studies, Isaac conducted experiments and designed a reflecting telescope.

In 1687, Isaac published his work devoted to the mathematical principles of natural philosophy, in which the laws of dynamics and the fundamentals of the study of resistance of gases and liquids were described. For more than thirty years, Isaac was the head of the physics and mathematics department at Cambridge, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Queen Anne granted Newton a knighthood. For many decades, Isaac experienced serious financial difficulties, and only in 1695 did his financial situation improve after taking the vacancy of the caretaker of the Mint.

For more than two centuries, Isaac Newton has been considered one of the most famous scientists. During his life, he managed to make significant contributions to many modern sciences. He formulated the most important laws of classical mechanics and explained the mechanism of movement of celestial bodies. In 1692, the scientist suffered from a mental disorder caused by a fire that destroyed a significant number of his manuscripts. After the illness subsided, Newton continued to study science, but with less intensity.

Newton lived to be more than eighty years old. In the final years of his life, Isaac devoted many hours to theology, as well as biblical history. The remains of the great scientist were buried in Westminster Abbey.

Achievement and personal life

Biography of Isaac Newton about the main thing

The name of Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is inscribed in golden letters in the history of world science; it was he who made the greatest discoveries in physics, astronomy, mechanics, mathematics - the formulation of the basic postulates of mechanics, the discovery of the phenomenon of universal gravity, the English scientist also laid the foundation for subsequent scientific developments in the field of optics and acoustics. Newton, in addition to physical experiments, was also an expert in alchemy and history. The scientist’s activities were often poorly appreciated by his contemporaries, but today it is clear to the naked eye that his scientific views significantly exceeded the level of medieval science.

Isaac was born in 1642 in the English village of Woolsthorpe (Lincolnshire) into the family of a poor farmer. The boy was quite frail and sickly, physically weak, was raised by his grandmother, and was very withdrawn and unsociable. At the age of 12, the boy entered school in Grantham, six years later, after graduating, he entered the University of Cambridge, where he was taught by I. Barrow himself, a famous scientist and mathematician.

In 1665, Newton received a bachelor's degree and until 1667 was in his native Woolsthorpe: it was during this period that the scientist was actively engaged in scientific developments - experiments on the decomposition of light, the invention of the reflecting telescope, the discovery of the law of universal gravitation, etc. In 1668, the scientist returned to his native university, received a master's degree there and, with the support of I. Barrow, headed the physics and mathematics department of his native university (until 1701).

Some time later, in 1672, the young inventor became a member of one of the world's largest scientific communities in London. In 1687, his most ambitious work was published entitled “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, where the scientist generalized the scientific experience accumulated by previous scientists (Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Christian Huygens, etc.), as well as independent scientific conclusions and created a unified system mechanics, which to this day is the foundation of physics as a science.

Also, I. Newton formulated the famous 3 postulates, axioms, which today are known as “Newton’s three laws”: the law of inertia, the basic law of dynamics, the law of equality in the interaction of two material bodies. “Mathematical principles of natural philosophy” played a huge role in the development of physics, gave impetus to the further study of mathematics, mechanics, optics. In 1689, Isaac Newton’s mother died, in 1692 there was a fire that destroyed a large number of the scientist’s scientific developments - these events became the cause of the great intellectual disorder of the inventor, during this period his scientific activity declined.

In 1695, Newton was invited to public service, became superintendent of the state Mint and supervised the minting of coins in the kingdom. For his services to the crown, in 1699 the scientist was presented with the honorary title of director of the Mint, and also became a member of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. At the beginning of the 18th century, Isaac Newton was at the peak of his fame, headed the Royal Society of London, and in 1705 he was awarded a knighthood, that is, he received a title of nobility.

At the end of his life, the scientist retired from scientific activity and was in public service until 1725. The scientist’s health deteriorated every year: in the spring of 1727, in the town of Kensington, near London, the brilliant scientist Isaac Newton died in his sleep. After his death, the scientist was awarded great honors and was buried in Westminster Abbey next to the English kings and prominent political leaders of the state. Newton's contribution to the development of science remains invaluable to this day; his works are a fundamental basis for modern researchers.

His great discovery for children

Interesting facts and dates from life

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England. The boy was born in a small village into the family of a small farmer who died three months before the birth of his son. The boy was born prematurely and turned out to be sickly, so they did not dare to baptize him for a long time. And yet he survived, was baptized, and was named Isaac in memory of his father. Newton considered the fact of being born on Christmas a special sign of fate. Despite poor health in infancy, he lived eighty-four years.

When the child was three years old, his mother remarried and left, leaving him in the care of his grandmother. Newton grew up unsociable and prone to daydreaming. He was attracted to poetry and painting. Away from his peers, he made paper kites, invented a windmill, a water clock, and a pedal carriage.

Interest in technology forced Newton to think about natural phenomena and study mathematics in depth. After serious preparation, Isaac Newton entered Cambridge in 1660 as a Subsizzfr, the so-called poor students who were obliged to serve members of the college, which could not but burden Newton.

In six years, Isaac Newton completed all the college degrees and prepared all his further great discoveries. In 1665, Newton became a Master of Arts. In the same year, when the plague epidemic was raging in England, he decided to temporarily settle in Woolsthorpe.

It was there that the scientist began to actively study optics; the search for ways to eliminate chromatic aberration in lens telescopes led Newton to research into what is now called dispersion, that is, the dependence of the refractive index on frequency. Many of the experiments he conducted, and there are more than a thousand of them, have become classics and are repeated to this day in schools and institutes.

The leitmotif of all research was the desire to understand the physical nature of light. At first, Newton was inclined to think that light was a wave in the all-pervading ether, but later abandoned this idea, deciding that the resistance from the ether should noticeably slow down the movement of celestial bodies. These arguments led Newton to the idea that light is a stream of special particles, corpuscles, emitted from a source and moving in a straight line until they encounter obstacles.

The corpuscular model explained not only the straightness of light propagation, but also the law of reflection. This assumption was that light corpuscles, approaching the surface of water, for example, should be attracted by it and therefore experience acceleration. According to this theory, the speed of light in water should be greater than in air, which conflicted with later experimental data.

The formation of corpuscular ideas about light was clearly influenced by the fact that at that time the work that was destined to become the main great result of Newton’s work had already been largely completed: the creation of a unified physical picture of the World based on the laws of mechanics formulated by him.

This picture was based on the idea of material points, physically infinitesimal particles of matter and the laws governing their movement. It was the clear formulation of these laws that gave Newtonian mechanics completeness. The first of these laws was, in fact, the definition of inertial reference systems: it is in such systems that material points that do not experience any influences move uniformly and rectilinearly.

The second law of mechanics plays a central role. It states that the change in quantity, motion of the product of mass and speed per unit time is equal to the force acting on a material point. The mass of each of these points is a constant value. In general, all these points “do not wear out,” as Newton put it, each of them is eternal, that is, it can neither arise nor be destroyed. Material points interact, and the quantitative measure of the impact on each of them is force. The problem of figuring out what these forces are is the root problem of mechanics.

Finally, the third law, the law of “equality of action and reaction,” explained why the total momentum of any body that does not experience external influences remains unchanged, no matter how its constituent parts interact with each other.

Having posed the problem of studying various forces, Isaac Newton himself gave the first brilliant example of its solution, formulating the law of universal gravitation: the force of gravitational attraction between bodies whose dimensions are significantly smaller than the distance between them is directly proportional to their masses, inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them and directed along connecting them with a straight line. The law of universal gravitation allowed Newton to give a quantitative explanation of the movement of the planets around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth, and to understand the nature of sea tides.

This could not fail to make a huge impression on the minds of researchers. The program for a unified mechanical description of all natural phenomena: both “earthly” and “heavenly” was established in physics for many years. Moreover, for many physicists over the course of two centuries, the very question of the limits of applicability of Newton's laws seemed unjustified.

In 1668, Isaac Newton returned to Cambridge and soon received the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics. This chair was previously occupied by his teacher Isaac Barrow, who gave the chair to his favorite student in order to provide for him financially. By that time, Newton was already the author of the binomial and the creator of the fluxion method, what is now called differential and integral calculus.

In general, this period became the most fruitful in Newton’s work: in seven years, from 1660 to 1667, his main ideas were formed, including the idea of the law of universal gravitation. Not limiting himself to theoretical research alone, Isaac Newton in the same years designed and began to create a reflecting telescope.

This work led to the discovery of what were later called interference "lines of equal thickness". Newton, realizing that the “quenching of light by light” was manifested here, which did not fit into the corpuscular model, tried to overcome the difficulties that arose here by introducing the assumption that corpuscles in light move in waves, “tides.”

The second of the telescopes made served as the occasion for Newton's presentation as a member of the Royal Society of London. When a scientist refused membership, citing a lack of funds to pay membership fees, it was considered possible, given his scientific merits, to make an exception for him, exempting him from paying them.

Being a very cautious person by nature, Isaac Newton, against his will, sometimes found himself drawn into discussions and conflicts that were painful for him. Thus, his theory of light and colors, outlined in 1675, caused such attacks that Newton decided not to publish anything on optics while Hooke, his most bitter opponent, was alive.

Newton also had to take part in political events. From 1688 to 1694, the scientist was a member of parliament. By that time, his main work, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” was published, the basis of the mechanics of all physical phenomena, from the movement of celestial bodies to the propagation of sound. For several centuries to come, this program determined the development of physics, and its significance has not been exhausted to this day.

Constant enormous nervous and mental stress led to the fact that in 1692 Newton fell ill with a mental disorder. The immediate impetus for this was a fire in which all the manuscripts he prepared were lost.

The constant oppressive feeling of material insecurity was undoubtedly one of the reasons for Newton’s illness. Therefore, the position of Warden of the Mint, while retaining his professorship at Cambridge, was of great importance to him. Zealously starting work and quickly achieving noticeable success, in 1699 he was appointed director. It remained impossible to combine this with teaching, and Newton moved to London.

At the end of 1703, Isaac Newton was elected president of the Royal Society. By that time, Newton had reached the pinnacle of fame. In 1705, he was elevated to knighthood, but, having a large apartment, six servants and a wealthy family, the scientist remains lonely. The time of active creativity is over, and Newton limits himself to preparing the edition of “Optics”, the republication of “Principles” and the interpretation of “Holy Scripture”. He owns the interpretation of the Apocalypse, an essay about the prophet Daniel.

Isaac Newton died on March 31, 1727 at his home in London. Buried in Westminster Abbey. The inscription on his grave ends with the words: “Let mortals rejoice that such an adornment of the human race lived in their midst.” Every year, on the birthday of the great Englishman, the scientific community celebrates Newton Day.

Works of Isaac Newton

"A New Theory of Light and Colors", 1672 (communication to the Royal Society)
“Motion of Bodies in Orbit” (lat. De Motu Corporum in Gyrum), 1684
“Mathematical principles of natural philosophy” (lat. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica), 1687
“Optics or a treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections and colors of light,” 1704
“On the quadrature of curves” (lat. Tractatus de quadratura curvarum), appendix to “Optics”
“Enumeration of lines of the third order” (lat. Enumeratio linearum tertii ordinis), appendix to “Optics”
“Universal Arithmetic” (lat. Arithmetica Universalis), 1707
“Analysis by means of equations with an infinite number of terms” (lat. De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas), 1711
"Method of Differences", 1711

"Lectures on Optics" (eng. Optical Lectures), 1728
“The System of the World” (Latin: De mundi systemate), 1728
“A Short Chronicle” (eng. A Short Chronicle from the First Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great), 1728 (this is a summary of the “Chronology of the Ancient Kingdoms”, a French translation of the draft version was published even earlier, in 1725)
The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, 1728
“Notes on the Book of the Prophet Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John" (eng. Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John), 1733, written around 1690
“Method of Fluxions” (Latin Methodus fluxionum, English Method of Fluxions), 1736, written in 1671
An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, 1754, written 1690

Canonical editions

Classic complete edition of Newton's works in 5 volumes in the original language:

Isaac Newtoni. Opera quae existant omnia. - Commentariis illustravit Samuel Horsley. - Londini, 1779-1785.

Selected correspondence in 7 volumes:

Turnbull, H. W. (Ed.),. The Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton. - Cambridge: Cambr. Univ. Press, 1959-1977.

Translations into Russian

Newton I. General Arithmetic or Book on Arithmetic Synthesis and Analysis. - M.: Publishing house. USSR Academy of Sciences, 1948. - 442 p. - (Classics of science).
Newton I. Notes on the book of the prophet Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. - Petrograd: New Time, 1915.
Newton I. Corrected chronology of ancient kingdoms. - M.: RIMIS, 2007. - 656 p.
Newton I. Lectures on optics. - M.: Publishing house. USSR Academy of Sciences, 1946. - 298 p.
Newton I. Mathematical principles of natural philosophy / Translation from Latin and notes by A.N. Krylova. - M.: Nauka, 1989. - 688 p.
Newton I. Mathematical works. - M.-L.: ONTI, 1937.
Newton I. Optics or treatise on reflections, refractions, bendings and colors of light. - M.: Gostekhizdat, 1954.
Danilov Yu. A. Newton and Bentley // Questions of the history of natural science and technology. - M., 1993. - No. 1. This is a translation of four letters from Newton from the collection of his correspondence: “The Correspondence of Isaac Newton”, Cambridge, 1961. Vol. 3 (1688-1694).

Newton proposed his own version of biblical chronology, leaving behind a significant number of manuscripts on these issues. In addition, he wrote a commentary on the Apocalypse. Newton's theological manuscripts are now kept in Jerusalem, in the National Library.

Amazing coincidences

The gravitational constant is 6.67∙10 -11 N∙m 2 /kg 2 and its order of numbers coincides with the time when an apple allegedly fell on Newton around 1666 - 1667.

Quotes

“If I saw further than others, it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”
“How did these discrepancies come together?”
"Genius is the patience of thought concentrated in a certain direction."
“I don’t invent hypotheses.”
“Be courageous and loyal to the laws, and then the melon will be able to suffer defeat.”
“I look upon myself as a child who, playing on the seashore, found a few smoother pebbles and more colorful shells than others could manage, while the immeasurable ocean of truth lay unexplored before my eyes.”

He is considered one of the greatest luminaries that science has known. Mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton formed theories of motion, gravity, and calculus, among a number of other topics he studied. The son of an illiterate peasant, Isaac was also a loner, very secretive in everything that related to his work. Want to know more about this smartest man of his time? Read the following facts about him.

1. His secretive nature was influenced by an unhappy childhood.

Isaac Newton was born premature on Christmas Day 1642. This happened in the house where the family of an illiterate farmer lived. The father died a few months before the birth of his son. When Isaac was three years old, his mother married a wealthy priest - Barnabas Smith - who did not love his stepson. The boy's mother went to live in another village with her new husband, leaving her son in the care of his grandparents. This greatly traumatized the boy, who felt abandoned, and played a role in the formation of his character. Isaac could be called a secretive loner. As a teenager, he made a list of his sins, among which was the entry: “Threatened to Father Smith and Mother to burn down their house with them.” As an adult, Newton devoted himself to work. He didn't even have a hobby, and he never married. For many years he hid some of his scientific discoveries.

2. Newton's mother wanted him to become a farmer.

At the age of 12, Newton was enrolled in a school in Grantham. He began to live in the house of a local pharmacist, since it would be a very long time to walk to his village every day. At first he could not be called a good student. But the story tells that one day he had a conflict with a local bully, and after that Isaac turned into an exemplary student. However, at the age of 15 or 16, he left school and returned to his home village with his mother, who by then was widowed for the second time. He was supposed to become a farmer. But the teenager was not interested in work and coped with it very poorly. Eventually, Isaac's mother convinced the school principal to allow the boy to continue his studies. After completing the required course, Newton entered Trinity College at the University of Cambridge (in 1661), leaving agriculture forever.

3. The Black Death unexpectedly inspired one of his most famous ideas.

In 1665, following an outbreak of bubonic plague, Cambridge University was closed and Isaac was forced to return home. Sitting in his own garden one day after returning, he saw an apple fall from a tree. This inspired him to a new idea, which later developed into the law of universal gravitation. A little later, Newton told the story of the apple to William Stukeley, who included it in the book Memoirs of the Life of Sir Isaac Newton, published in 1751.

4. Few people came to his lectures at the University of Cambridge.

In 1669, 26-year-old Newton was appointed professor of mathematics at Cambridge (one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1209). Although Newton remained at the university for 30 years, he had little interest in teaching or his students, so his lectures were attended by very few students, and often no one came to them at all. Newton's entire attention was focused on his own research.

5. Newton worked for the Royal Mint and fought counterfeiters

In 1696, Newton was appointed master of the Royal Mint, which was responsible for the production of currency in England. He left Cambridge, which had long been his second home, and moved to the capital. The mint at that time was located in the Tower of London. Three years later, Newton was transferred to a more profitable position as a master, which he held until his death in 1727. He led a major project to replace the old coins then in use in England with more reliable currency. He also caught counterfeiters, as a result of which he became acquainted with the very “lower classes” of London society. He personally searched for criminals, despite the risk to his life.

6. He was seriously interested in alchemy

In addition to the scientific work for which he became famous, Newton spent much of his adult life pursuing another interest: alchemy. As you know, the goal of this pseudoscience is to search for the philosopher's stone. It was believed that this substance was capable of turning any base metal into gold. However, Newton hid his alchemical research and encoded its results.

Among other research projects, Newton analyzed the Bible in an attempt to answer the question of how the universe worked.

7. Newton was a Member of Parliament

From 1689 to 1690 Newton was a member of Parliament, in which he represented the University of Cambridge. During this time, the Bill of Rights was passed, which limited the power of the monarchy and gave more rights to Parliament. Newton's contribution to Parliament was limited. They remember that he spoke only once, when he asked the bailiff to close the window because it was cool. However, it was then that Newton met many of the influential people of the time, from King William III to the philosopher John Locke. Newton served his second term in Parliament from 1701 to 1702, but again contributed little to its work.

8. Fierce feuds were no stranger to the scientist

When it came to intellectual competition, Newton could be jealous and vindictive. For example, he was at enmity with the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. The men fought a bitter battle over which of them invented calculus. Newton developed the system in the 1660s but did not publish it. Leibniz formulated his own system and published it ten years later. To resolve this dispute, a committee was assembled under the Royal Community, to which Leibniz turned. However, Newton served as president of this organization, so he was able to assemble a committee with his supporters. As a result, he was publicly recognized as the author of this invention. Nevertheless, today it is Leibniz’s system that is used.

9. Newton was knighted

In 1705, Queen Anne knighted the scientist. By that time he was already rich, having inherited his mother’s property after her death, and had also published two major works: “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” (1687) and “Optics” (in 1704).

The famous scientist died in 1727 at the age of 84. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, which is the final resting place of English monarchs, as well as such famous people (who are not members of the royal family) as Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, David Livingstone.

Sir Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727) was the most famous English mathematician, physicist and astronomer throughout the world. He is considered the founder and ancestor of classical physics, since in one of his works - “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” - Newton outlined the three laws of mechanics and proved the law of universal gravitation, which helped classical mechanics advance far forward.

Childhood

Isaac Newton was born on December 25 in the small town of Woolsthorpe, located in the county of Lincolnshire. His father was an average but very successful farmer who did not live to see the birth of his own son and died a couple of months before this event from a severe form of consumption.

It was in honor of the father that the child was named Isaac Newton. This was the decision of the mother, who mourned her deceased husband for a long time and hoped that her son would not repeat his tragic fate.

Despite the fact that Isaac was born at his due date, the boy was very sick and weak. According to some records, it was precisely because of this that they did not dare to baptize him, but when the child grew a little older and stronger, the baptism still took place.

There were two versions about the origin of Newton. Previously, bibliographers were sure that his ancestors were nobles who lived in England in those distant times.

However, the theory was refuted later when manuscripts were found in one of the local settlements, from which the following conclusion was drawn: Newton had absolutely no aristocratic roots; rather, on the contrary, he came from the poorest part of the peasants.

The manuscripts said that his ancestors worked for wealthy landowners and later, having accumulated enough money, bought a small plot of land, becoming yeomen (full landowners). Therefore, by the time Newton's father was born, the position of his ancestors was slightly better than before.

In the winter of 1646, Newton's mother, Anna Ayscough, marries a widower for the second time, and three more children are born. Since the stepfather communicates little with Isaac and practically does not notice him, after a month a similar attitude towards the child can already be discerned in his mother.

She also becomes cold towards her own son, which is why the already sullen and closed boy becomes even more alienated, not only in the family, but also with the classmates and friends around him.

In 1653, Isaac's stepfather dies, leaving his entire fortune to his newfound family and children. It would seem that now the mother should begin to devote much more time to the child, but this does not happen. Rather, on the contrary, now her husband’s entire household is in her hands, as well as children who require care. And despite the fact that part of the fortune still goes to Newton, he, as before, does not receive attention.

Youth

In 1655, Isaac Newton goes to Grantham School, located near his home. Since he has virtually no relationship with his mother during this period, he becomes close to the local pharmacist Clark and moves in with him. But he is not allowed to calmly study and tinker with various mechanisms in his free time (by the way, this was Isaac’s only passion). Six months later, his mother forcibly takes him from school, returns him to the estate and tries to transfer to him some of her own responsibilities for managing the household.

She believed that this way she could not only provide her son with a decent future, but also make her own life much easier. But the attempt was a failure - management was not interesting to the young man. On the estate, he only read, invented new mechanisms and tried to compose poems, showing with all his appearance that he was not going to interfere with the farm. Realizing that she won’t have to wait for help from her son, the mother allows him to continue his studies.

In 1661, after graduating from Grantham School, Newton entered Cambridge and successfully passed the entrance exams, after which he was enrolled in Trinity College as a “sizer” (a student who does not pay for his education, but earns it by providing services the institution itself or its wealthier students).

Quite little is known about Isaac’s university education, so it has been extremely difficult for scientists to reconstruct this period of his life. What is known is that the unstable political situation had a negative impact on the university: teachers were fired, student payments were delayed, and the educational process was partially absent.

Beginning of scientific activity

Until 1664, Newton, according to his own notes in his workbooks and personal diary, did not see any benefit or prospects in his university education. However, it was 1664 that became a turning point for him. First, Isaac compiles a list of problems of the surrounding world, consisting of 45 points (by the way, similar lists will appear more than once in the future on the pages of his manuscripts).

Then he meets a new mathematics teacher (and subsequently best friend) Isaac Barrow, thanks to whom he develops a special love for mathematical science. At the same time, he makes his first discovery - he creates a binomial expansion for an arbitrary rational exponent, with the help of which he proves the existence of an expansion of a function in an infinite series.

In 1686, Newton created the theory of universal gravitation, which later, thanks to Voltaire, acquired a certain mysterious and slightly humorous character. Isaac was on friendly terms with Voltaire and shared almost all his theories with him. One day they were sitting after lunch in the park under a tree, talking about the essence of the universe. And at this very moment, Newton suddenly admits to a friend that the theory of universal gravitation came to him at exactly the same moment - during rest.

“The afternoon weather was so warm and good that I definitely wanted to go out into the fresh air, under the apple trees. And at that moment, when I was sitting, completely immersed in my thoughts, a large apple fell from one of the branches. And I wondered why all the objects fall vertically downwards?.

Isaac Newton's further scientific work was more than just fruitful. He was in constant correspondence with many famous scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, biologists and physicists. He authored such works as “A New Theory of Light and Colors” (1672), “Motion of Bodies in Orbit” (1684), “Optics or a Treatise on Reflections, Refractions, Bendings and Colors of Light” (1704), “Enumeration of the Lines of the Third order" (1707), "Analysis by means of equations with an infinite number of terms" (1711), "Method of differences" (1711) and many others.