Book Review #1 Some Apple Dude

     The most important thing I learned from this book is that no apple ever fell on Newton's head. Instead, it is written that he was 'occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood.' One might say that if a pie graph mapping human achievement were created, there's a good chance that Newton would be given a pretty big slice. From a historical perspective, he is responsible for more than one paradigm shift in our understanding of the world around us, and if you haven't memorized his three laws of motion, then you fail.

      In contrast to the glory of his later discoveries, Newton's early childhood was marked by rejection and hatred. Three months before he was born in 1643, his father died, and his birth was premature. Hannah Ayscough (Newton's mother) claimed that he could fit into a 1.1 L mug, and she did not expect him to live very long. Following that, his mother remarried when he was two years of age, and his stepfather refused to incorporate the child into the new family. Isaac was forced to live with his grandmother, where he developed resentment towards his stepfather. When he was 19, Newton recorded in his list of sins: "Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them."

      During his school years he endured harsh, vindictive attacks from opponents as well as friends and family. In isolation, he would spend hours tinkering with mechanical models and making detailed drawings. His natural curiosity for such things aided in his scientific endeavours later on in life. However, during his early school years, he was considered one of the worst students. According to his teachers, this was due to his inattentiveness.

       Throughout school, he was considered somewhat of a dunce, and was far from achieving academic success, and he was also bullied at times. On the plus side, when Newton was challenged to fight a schoolyard bully (who, compared to Newton, was a 'building with feet'), he actually won. Unfortunately, his capacity to remain spaced-out and idle in his studies caused him to be removed from school in October, 1659, and he was put him to work on the family farm, which he detested very much.

        Newton's uncle William decided that it would be best for him to return to school, and Henry Stokes, the master at the King's School, convinced Hannah to let Newton complete his education. Here, Newton sought revenge against a bully by getting superior grades, and it was not long before he became a top-ranking student. It was here that some flicker of intellectual aptitude began to develop.

        In 1661 he got accepted to Cambridge, where his Uncle William had gone. He joined the school as a subsizer, so he had to basically do janitorial work to cover his tuition. Luckily, he was granted scholar status in 1664, which freed him of financial burdens. But a year later, everything changed. He left school in August 1665 to avoid the Bubonic Plague- a virulent, flea-borne disease which killed about 100,000 people (20% of London's population at the time). Hannah, who was again widowed, allowed Newton to stay with her at this time. The next 18 months were among the most significant in Newton's life. "I was in the prime of my age for invention... and minded Mathematicks and Philosophy more than at any time since" he would say later on in life. It was here that he devoted himself gravitation, mathematics, mechanics, and optics- studies which would eventually allow him to push back nearly every boundary of scientific knowledge.

      Upon returning to school, Newton's newfound interest could not be blocked. He immersed himself in the works of Aristotle, Descartes, Hobbes, Boyle, Copernicus, Galileo, Euclid, and Kepler. Since Galileo's work explained that the earth is not the center of the universe (geocentric model < heliocentric model), astronomy was a very controversial and exciting topic, and it is interesting to note that he died only 4 days after Newton was born.

      And as an afterthought he invented calculus and the theory of gravitation, and wrote the Principia Mathematica. He had a huge feud with Robert Hooke, another English scientist, and refused to publish work that Hooke had helped him with until after Hooke had died. He also had a dispute with German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz with regard to the priority on the invention of calculus. Leibniz wrote to the Royal Society and explained that he had invented calculus first. Unfortunately for him, Newton was the president of the Royal Society. Strangely enough, anonymous letters mocking Leibniz began to appear in Royal Society publications, and Leibniz was left disgraced and impoverished (and in reality Newton had invented calculus first, but waited many years before publishing his work).

      A few years after his prime, Newton was given a comfortable job at the Royal mint, where one of his duties was to prosecute counterfeiters. He performed his job with much enthusiasm, and sent many a counterfeiter to the gallows to be executed. Newton died in March 31, 1727.

     This is Isaac Newton's official coat of arms: