Sir Isaac

Newton

The Father of Modern

Physics
 Childhood
• Born on Christmas Day, 1642
• Father died 3 months before
birth
• Was born poor
• Did poorly in Grammar School
• Lived with Grandmother,
didn’t encourage
speculation or learning,
so he barely got into college
 Trinity College
• Entered Trinity College
in Cambridge in 1661
• Entered as Sizar,
cleaned other stud-
ents’ dormitories
• Got Scholarship the year school
closed down because of plague
• Invented most mathematical
work outside of school
 Experiments in Light
Newton also was the
person who discovered
most things about light.
Most experts of
the day said that white
light is always white
light, until it hits a
spectrum, which
changes it into
something new.
 Light Cont.
Newton disproved this by
passing
white light through a spectrum.
He then passed only the blue
light into another spectrum
According to the experts
&philosophers of that
time, the light would have
changed again.
 More Light
Only pure blue light passed out of the
spectrum. His experiments proved that
white light was all other types of light put
together, and not the purest form of light.
 Newton’s Rings
Newton’s rings are
a way to create interrupted
refraction, which causes
rings of separate
color to appear.
 Professor Newton
•Taught from 1668 to
1691
•Held Lucasian
Mathematics
Professor-
ship for over 30 yrs.
•Wrote Principia
during professorship
 Newton’s Laws of Motion
• Newton created and verified three laws
of motion
• 1st law: Law of Inertia
• 2nd law: Law of proportional force to
motion
• 3rd Law: Law of Action-Reaction forces

Newton’s 2nd Law equation Newton’s 3rd Law Equation

 Newton’s First Law

• Newton’s first law states that any

body in motion will continue in
motion unless acted upon by
another force
• Also true for a
body at rest
Newton’s Second Law

•Newton’s second law

states that force is
proportional to motion.
 Newton’s Third Law

• Newton’s third law states that

for every action, there is an
equal and opposite reaction
 Books
Newton wrote three books:
Principia, Opticks, and
Fluxions as well as many
treatise