Fifteen years into the new millennium, perhaps it’s time to acknowledge the person who had the greatest impact on the old one. That would be Isaac Newton, born on Christmas Day in 1642 (Julian calendar). Science and religion being two phenomena that have greatly affected our history, it seems fitting that our greatest scientist was born on the same date that we celebrate the birthday of the Christian world’s greatest religious figure.
Briefly, Newton’s legacy comprises the following: He built the first reflecting telescope (its type is still used in observatories today). He did pioneer work in the field of optics (behavior and properties of light) and analytical geometry. Together with Gottfried Leibniz, he invented integral calculus (earning the everlasting hatred of high school math students everywhere), which is the foundation of modern scientific theory. And building on the work of the great Galileo with respect to celestial mechanics — how planets move — he paved new ground in the field of classical mechanics — how material objects move. Thus he gave us four “laws” of motion, including the first (inert objects remain inert unless acted upon by force), the second (how objects move when subjected to exterior forces), the third (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction), and the famous fourth (gravity).
Then he got serious. He, and the army of followers who put his ideas into practice, showed us how to solve actual scientific problems.
Here we come to the crux of Newton’s historic importance. Before him, science was deemed an idle diversion; it was a smorgasbord of theories, isolated facts and magic tricks — capable of describing certain phenomena, but mostly unable to apply what was learned in ways that caused tangible progress and therefore benefited humanity. Newton changed that. He left the world with a system of scientific laws that helped us interact with nature. He made science a science.
Newton’s effect on history is summed up very easily. In the four centuries before him, humans lived much the same as they had always lived. Fire still provided heat and light, horseback and the sailing ship were the primary transportation, farming was the main occupation. But in the four centuries after Newton, progress hit warp speed so that today we eat, sleep, work, play, travel, communicate and live completely differently.
Someone once said that science reduces the number of unexplained occurrences we can blame on God. Born on Christmas day, Isaac Newton has absolved God of more blame than anyone before him or since — and don’t think God doesn’t appreciate it. Or as the poet Alexander Pope nicely put it:
Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night.
God said “Let Newton be” and all was light.
Interesting column,but I must point out one inaccuracy-we are only 14 years into the new millenium-year 15 is about to begin,unless you are mistakingly including the year 2000,which was actually the final year of the second millennium(common mistake)as there was no year 0,every century must begin with 1 (2001) and end with 0 (2000) -that’s why it was called the 20th century-20×100=2000,see?And it doesn’t count as a year until it has passed,(just as 99 cents doesn’t count as a dollar)so anyway,that’s your history lesson for the day,and have a happy holiday season!