Ask a Teacher

Search



what are the theory of issac neuton

Newton

Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England in the same year that Galileo died. Newton, an English mathematician and physicist, was one of the greatest and most influential scientists in history. His accomplishments in optics, mathematics and physics have laid the foundations for modern science and revolutionized the entire world.

 

How Newton's Theories Came About

Legend has it that Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell and hit him on the head causing him to come up with the idea of gravity. Actually the apple missed him and made a soft thud on the ground, but that was enough to attract Newton's attention (Voigt 4). The apple's fall triggered the important realization that a force, gravity, attracts all bodies in the universe to each other, pulling apples to the ground and holding the Moon and the planets in their orbits (Voigt 4). In 1729, about two years after his death, a book containing Newton's theories was published. In it, Newton showed how an artificial satellite could be launched from the earth. He pictured the earth with a high mountain and a cannon on top of the mountain firing shots parallel to the ground. Each time the cannon was fired, more gunpowder was used and the shot went farther before striking the ground. Because the earth is round, the shots curved around it. According to Newton's theory, with enough gunpowder, a shot could eventually go fast enough to circle the earth completely and come back to the mountain top.

 

The Soviet Scientists

The Soviets were responsible for putting Newton's theory into practice. They did this by using a powerful rocket to raise a satellite high above the earth and put it in an orbit parallel to the ground at a high speed. Back then scientists knew very little about the region of outer space. The orbit of Sputnik 1 helped scientists to learn about the density of the atmosphere. Although Sputnik 1 only proved Newton's idea, it was responsible for beginning the space race. Since then many satellites have been launched and they have increased scientific knowledge and improved communications.

 

Kinetics and Force

To understand how satellites are launched, let's take a look at how force and kinetics work. A force is just a push or a pull, it can either twist something out of shape such as a spring, or accelerate (speed up) an object. Kinetics, is the description of motion without relation to what causes the motion. Velocity is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time interval.

 

Newton's Three laws

Newton's first law of motion states that an object remains at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Therefore without any forces acting on it a satellite launched into motion would continue to travel at constant velocity. Newton's second law states that an unbalanced force acting on an object causes an acceleration, this law is represented by the equation F = ma. Newton's third law of motion states that an object experiences a force because it is interacting with some other object.


Conclusion

Because of Newton's theories and the Soviets who applied them artificial satellites are now in common use. These satellites have vastly increased our knowledge of the earth, the sun, the planets and the universe.

 


comments powered by Disqus