2)

     Quiz:    What  do  you  know  about  Newton  (1642  –  1727)?  

 
Look  at  the  following  facts.  In  English,  discuss  them  with  your  partner(s)  and  decide  whether  you  
think  they  are  true  or  false.    Correct  the  answers  you  think  are  wrong  with  elements  from  the  text.    If  
there  are  any  questions  you  can’t  answer,  find  someone  who  can!!  
 
i)      Newton  once  stuck  a  needle  in  his  eye  ‘just  to  see  what  would  happen’!         T    F  
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Newton stuck the thing between his eyeball and the socket in such a way that he could press the eyeball from behind with the tip of the
 F  
needle.
ii)    Newton  once  stared  directly  at  the  sun  ‘just  to  see  what  would  happen’!         T  
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Newton once stared at the sun with one eye until he could hardly see anything besides reds and blues. His eyes later recovered.
T   F  
wasn't just his eyes that were sensitive.
iii)  The  astronomer,  Dr  Edmund  Halley,  is  famous  for  discovering  Halley’s  Comet.      
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iv)  Newton’s  Principia  were  written  as  the  result  of  a  bet.             T   F   
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v)    Robert  Hooke  (1635  -­‐  1703)  was  the  first  person  to  describe  a  cell.         T   F  
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vi)  Robert  Hooke  had  a  reputation  for  plagiarism.                 T   F  
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vii)  Newton  was  a  professor  of  Mathematics  at  Oxford  University.           T   F  
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He was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669, on Barrow's recommendation. During that time, any Fellow of a college at
Cambridge or Oxford was required to take holy orders and become an ordained Anglican priest.
viii)  Newton  invented  calculus  when  he  was  a  student,  but  forgot  to  tell  anyone  about  it  for  nearly  3  
decades!                          T   F  
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Although he remained at Cambridge for nearly 30 years, Newton showed little interest in teaching or in his students, and his lectures were sparsely attended; frequently, no one showed up at all;;;

T   F  
Today it is generally believed that calculus was discovered independently in the late 17th century by two great mathematicians: Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.
ix)    Sir  Christopher  Wren  (1632-­‐1723)  is  famous  today  as  an  astronomer.        
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Sir Christopher Wren was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and

T   F  
mathematician-physicist.
x)    Newton’s  first  name  was  Isaac.                    
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xi)    It  took  Newton  only  5  years  to  produce  his  masterwork;  the  Principia.         T   F  
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xii)  Halley  proved  by  calculation  that  the  trajectory  of  a  planet  in  orbit  around  another  planet  would  
be  an  ellipse,  and  then  lost  the  calculation!                 T   F  
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xiii)  Newton’s  3  laws  of  motion  state:    
-­‐ That  a  thing  moves  in  the  direction  it  is  pushed.              T   F   
The first law states that an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by a net external force.
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-­‐ That  it  will  gradually  slow  down  unless  more  force  is  eventually  applied  to  it.      T   F   
The second -­‐ .....................................................................................................................................................................................................  
law states that the rate of change of momentum of a body over time is directly proportional to the force applied, and occurs in the

 T   F  
same direction as the applied force.
-­‐ That  every  action  has  an  equal  and  opposite  reaction.          
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The third law states that all forces between two objects exist in equal magnitude and opposite direction.

xiv)  F  =  G  Mm      :    is  the  formula  for  Newton’s  universal  law  of  gravitation.          T   F  
                           𝑟 !  
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xv)    Newton  only  became  famous  long  after  his  death,  he  received  no  recognition  for  his  work  from  his  
contemporaries.                        T   F  
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Sir Isaac Newton was one who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific
revolution.