1 calculus

Most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz independently developed calculus and created their own unique symbols for it. According to people around Newton, Newton came up with his method several years earlier than Leibniz, but he hardly published anything before 1693, and didn't give his complete explanation until 1704. At the same time, Leibniz published a complete description of his method in 1684. In addition, Leibniz's symbol and "differential method" were completely adopted in continental Europe, and this method was also adopted in Britain about 1820 years later.

2. Binomial Theorem

1665, Newton, who was only 22 years old, discovered the binomial theorem, which is an essential step for the all-round development of calculus. Binomial theorem is widely used in combinatorial theory, higher power, higher arithmetic progression summation and difference methods.

Binomial series expansion is a powerful tool to study series theory, function theory, mathematical analysis and equation theory. Today, we will find that this method is only applicable to the case where n is a positive integer. When n is a positive integer of 1, 2, 3, ..., the series ends at n+ 1 If n is not a positive integer, the series will not end, and this method is not applicable. But you know, Leibniz introduced the word function in 1694. In the early stage of calculus, it is the most effective method to treat transcendental function with the level of transcendental function.

3. Hot achievements

Newton established the law of cooling, that is, when there is a temperature difference between the surface of an object and its surroundings, the heat lost per unit area per unit time is directly proportional to this temperature difference.

4. Astronomical achievements

Newton made reflecting telescope in 1672. He used the universal gravitation between particles to prove that the external gravitation of a spherically symmetric sphere can be replaced by particles with the same mass in the center. He also explained various phenomena of tides with the principle of universal gravitation, pointing out that the magnitude of tides is not only related to the phase of the moon, but also related to the orientation of the sun. Newton predicted that the earth was not a right sphere. Precession is caused by the disturbance of the equator by the sun.

5. Philosophical achievements

Newton's philosophy basically belongs to spontaneous materialism, and he admits the objective existence of time and space. Like all the great figures in history, Newton made great contributions to mankind, but he was inevitably limited by the times. For example, he regarded time and space as things separated from moving matter and put forward the concepts of so-called absolute time and absolute space; He attributed the temporarily unexplained natural phenomena to God's arrangement, and proposed that all the planets started to move under the action of some foreign "first driving force".

Newton's most important work, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, was published in 1687. The book summarizes many important discoveries and research achievements in his life, including the above-mentioned laws about the movement of objects. He said that this book "mainly studies the resistance of heavy and light fluids and other forces that attract motion, so we study the mathematical principles of natural philosophy." After the book was introduced into China, Li, a mathematician from China, partially translated it, but it was not published and the translation was lost. The existing Chinese version is Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy translated by mathematician Zheng Taipu, which was first published by the Commercial Press 193 1 and reprinted three times in 1957, 1958 and 2006.

Extended data

Personality assessment

In the book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy published in 1688, he described gravity and three laws of motion. These descriptions laid the scientific view of the physical world in the next three centuries and became the basis of modern engineering. By demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's law of planetary motion and his theory of gravity, he showed that the movements of ground objects and celestial bodies all follow the same natural law; Thus, the last doubt about the sun center was eliminated and the scientific revolution was promoted.

In mechanics, Newton expounded the principle of conservation of angular momentum. In optics, he invented reflecting telescope, and developed the color theory based on the observation that a prism diverges white light into a visible spectrum. He also systematically expressed the law of cooling and studied the speed of sound. In mathematics, Newton and gottfried leibniz shared the honor of developing calculus. He also proved the generalized binomial theorem and put forward Newton's method to approximate the zero point of function, which contributed to the study of power series.

Principles of Mathematics, a masterpiece of natural philosophy from 65438 to 0687, opened a great scientific era. Newton is the most influential scientist and is known as the "father of physics". He is the founder of Newton's law of motion based on classical mechanics. The discovery of his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation laid the foundation of modern physics and mechanics, and his law of universal gravitation and Heliocentrism of Copernicus laid the theoretical foundation of modern astronomy.

Until today, the launch of artificial earth satellites, rockets and spaceships and the calculation of their orbits are still based on this theory. In 2005, the Royal Society conducted a poll entitled "Who is the most influential person in the history of science", and Newton was considered to be more influential than Albert Einstein. The genetic analysis of Newton's hair shows that Newton is a carrier of Asperger's syndrome and has the expression of XQ28 gene, which increases Newton's mystery, but does not affect his image as a giant.

Reference Baidu Encyclopedia Newton