Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities
Up there it was perfect Down here things were messy Never were Earth and the heavens to work as One But as Isaac Newton grew to manhood he dared to question Aristotle's worldview Newton studied the writings of Greek Islamic and medieval thinkers He pondered the celestial patterns described by Renaissance astronomers such as Nicolaus Coperni cus Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei He asked why things like apples always fall down when they fall out of trees Then Isaac Newton became the first person to pull this thinking into one elegant pattern and make sense of it all Isaac Newton was a natural philosopher what we generally call a scientist or physicist As Newton studied the system of the world his physics became the crown jewel of the Scientific Revolution During this era of change from about 1500 to 1700 people learned to make observations do experiments and develop a formal method to test why things are the way they are Isaac Newton detected a set of laws simple but elegant that linked up there with down here Of that discovery was born one of the most influential books of all time Newton's Principia Mathematical or the Mathematical Principles of the Natural Philosophy Yes Isaac Newton was curious and a curiosity to
others There was a lot to admire about him and much to despise Many downright disliked him In truth England's most brilliant natural philoso pher was a very odd man Newton's enormous ability to concentrate kept him working for months with nearly no food and next to no sleep In a few short years he made astounding discoveries in physics astronomy optics and mathematics and never told a soul The inner life of Sir Isaac Newton is still puzzling Only Isaac Newton truly knew what orbited in his own head Isolated snobbish and jealous Newton could hold a grudge for a lifetime and he did Until later in life he had few friends At times he resented his mother hated his stepfather and even thought about ways to destroy their house With such a bitter attitude Newton could have failed at everything Instead Isaac Newton went fur ther in his thinking than anyone else in his genera tion He asked How can I explain that the heavens and the earth move according to the same simple plan Isaac Newton asked the big questions And he found the
f x dx Ja OF diedlaw APUNTA Holland E A 1646 map of Lincolnshire England The villages of Woolsthorpe where Isaac Newton grew up and Grantham where he attended school are in the south west part of the county Woolsthorpe was so small it did not appear on the
CHAPTER 1 A BOY LIKE NO OTHER N A DARK September day in 1658 15 year old Isaac Newton was sitting on his bench in school when the wind began to blow all across Eng land Within hours an enormous storm raged throughout the small country As the boys at Isaac's school would soon learn another storm this one a political crisis was unfolding in London Oliver Cromwell England's Lord Protector was dead Who would rule England now But Isaac Newton wasn't worried about the rain nor was he thinking about England's troubles The storm brought something else a chance for Isaac to perform an experiment As soon as he could Isaac dashed outdoors to be with the wind First he jumped into it and then he jumped with it Against the wind with the wind over and over all the while marking the length of his jumps Later Isaac compared these jumps with others he
