1. Sir Issac Newton (1642-1727) Mathematician Physicist Astrologer Alchemist Knight

2. The year is 1642; What can we describe? Free fall and Projectile Motion Planetary Orbits Inclined Planes, Levers, Simple Machines The Tides A Few Others (Buoyancy, Optics, etc.)

3. What can we fully explain? Essentially, NOTHING!! Well, maybe it’s not quite that bad... Two properties: Inertia and acceleration First attempt: Rene Descartes; had lots of good math, mostly lousy physics

4. Newton: the early years Born on Christmas Eve, father died before birth, Mother moved away, raised by grandparents Newton tries to run the family farm – inept Enters Trinity college (Cambridge) in 1661 “Work study student” in the mess hall.

5. Making his bones: the binomial theorem Some calculations very hard to do, in particular, division and roots. Approximation procedure: (1 + x) N ≈ 1 + x N for small N √(1.02) = (1 + 0.02) 0.5 ≈ 1 +.5(.02) = 1.01 calculator says 1.00995 Made him relatively famous

6. A great year 1665 Plague hits London; Newton moves to farm for a year and a half. Is bored; invents:  Dynamics  Calculus  Optics  Discovers Gravity