Show STUDENT LIFE signed the ignominious recantation and abjuration which had been drawn up for him But though he publicly denied what he had published he never changed in his beliefs lie lived nine years longer in sadness during which time he discovered the laws of motion before mentioned and on December 25 1642 his great spirit passed from earth A strange coincidence it is that on this very day was born one of the greatest men the science of the world has ever seen Sir Isaac Newton In the realm of mathematics — of mathematics applied to science — he stands alone in the wrorld His genius in this field is incomparable “His reputation is like a sun When it is seen no other luminary is visible” He conclusively demonstrated the laws of motion which Galileo had discovered and enunciated His greatest work was his discovery and proof of the laws of gravitation When twenty-fou- r years old he was looking toward an apple tree and saw an apple fall of its An inspiration then own weight came to him “This same force which drew the apple toward the earth might draw the moon toward the earth And if the moon toward the earth why not the earth toward the moon ? Why not the earth toward the sun? And what was the measure of this force? How did it operate ? What effects would it produce? Would the motions of the planets be circular? or elliptical ? or of some other figure ? What would the shape of the earth 107 be? What effect would the force have upon the waters of the earth? Would it account for the tides?” These and many other such were the questions he asked himself They led him to the ideas of gravitation and the establishment of his law But it took years of work of experimentation and demonstration before he was satisfied his explanation was the true one “His law somewhat wordily expressed is this ‘Every particle of matter in the universe is attracted by every other particle of matter in the universe with a force that is proportional to the mass of the attracting particle and also proportional to the inverse square of the distance between the particles’ This law is an elementary principle that pervades all nature and is as applicable to explain the motion of a stone thrown from a boy’s hand or the motion of a ball projected from the mouth of a cannon as the motion of a planet or a comet whirled around the sun” This and much more Newton did He improved on Galileo’s telescope inventing the “reflecting” telescope which is far superior to Galileo’s “refracting” one Newton’s life was one of goodness and greatness and his genius as a physicist has not been His worth to science surpassed and the growth of the race cannot be overestimated He died March 20th 1727 at the age of 85 and was buried in Westminster Abbey “Dukes and Earls were proud to be his Besides these pall-bearer- s” there are many |