Is Newton a mathematician?

When people try to comment that Newton is a pure mathematician, they really think that Newton's work is not the most original in mathematics compared with the most original mathematicians like Galois and Riemann. But we really shouldn't judge Newton with today's eyes, we must consider the historical process.

Regardless of binomial formula or steepest descent line, it looks great, but it is not worth mentioning for Newton's real contribution to mathematics. Let's talk about calculus

The simple concept of calculus appeared as early as BC. Archimedes used an integral-like method to find the geometric volume. The simple idea of calculus appears in the literature of all countries in the world. For example, we are familiar with China and Zu Chongzhi.

We can think: In that case, why is Newton still considered as the inventor of calculus? To say originality, scholars much earlier than them have already had many ideas of calculus; To be strict, we have to wait until 19 century when the great physical education teachers have the basic limit theory of calculus. What did these two do to win the honor of inventors of calculus?

In fact, the reason why they set up this honor really has to be explained from a career other than mathematicians. Leibniz is a philosopher by profession. His research on symbolic system and algebraic form of calculus has to be influenced by his own research and profound understanding of rationalism philosophy. We still use Leibniz's symbol system, and most mathematicians in the world are descendants of Leibniz, all of which stems from his understanding of the importance of symbol system to mathematics. In addition, it seems that philosophers attach great importance to algebraic methods, such as Descartes.

And what is Newton's main business outside mathematicians? A physicist. Newton's most important contribution is to realize that calculus can be used to study physics. This is a natural thing today, but what was physics like in Newton's time?

Galileo, the greatest physicist in Europe, died in the year when Newton was born and was called the father of modern science. One of his important achievements is to introduce mathematical methods into physics, and he is also the first scholar to put forward that the laws of nature are mathematical. Therefore, in Newton's time, mathematical tools can be used to describe the laws of physics, which is only a nascent bud. Scholars know that many physical laws can be described by quantitative analysis, but how mathematics participates in them is still a mystery. Barrow and others realize the importance of geometry to physics, but they also stay on the simple belief that geometry is used to describe the trajectory of motion. This is not difficult to understand: The Elements of Geometry is so great that it also laid a solid belief for later mathematicians to demonstrate geometry. Barrow is like this: he described calculus by geometric methods, so he failed to find the relationship between calculus and physics.

Newton's revolutionary work was to abandon the pure geometric method and thus describe calculus by algebraic method. Like Leibniz, he got an effective calculus tool. More importantly, Newton realized that differential equations are the core language to describe the laws of physics, which is also the source of his basic laws of physics. The name of Newton's masterpiece Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy also comes from this, although Newton compromised the mainstream mathematical physics at that time and hid the language of calculus. Until today, algebraic language and differential equations are still the language of most physical laws, which can be traced back to Newton's work.

The three geniuses of mathematics recognized by the world.

The three famous mathematicians recognized in the world are Archimedes, isaac newton and Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss. They all made great contributions to the development of mathematics and science.

Archimedes made great contributions to the development of mathematics and physics, and exerted an indelible influence on social progress and human development. Even Newton and Einstein drew wisdom and inspiration from him. He is "the ideal embodiment of theoretical genius and experimental genius", and Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo in the Renaissance followed his example.

Newton wrote Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and Optics. Newton described gravity and Newton's laws of motion in his paper Laws of Nature published in 1687. These descriptions laid the scientific view of the physical world in the next three centuries and became the basis of modern engineering.

Gauss not only made far-reaching contributions to pure mathematics, but also made important contributions to the practical application of astronomy, geodesy and electromagnetism in the 20th century. Gauss opened up many new fields of mathematics, from the most abstract algebraic number theory to intrinsic geometry, leaving his footprints. Judging from the research style, methods and even concrete achievements, he is the backbone of 18─ 19 century.

Mathematical research

Early mathematicians were either rich at home or attached to rich and powerful people who were interested in research. Learning mathematics is more out of hobbies. In modern times, the profession of mathematicians has gradually formed. Their jobs include teaching mathematics courses in schools at all levels, guiding graduate students, conducting research in specific fields, and publishing papers and reports.

Mathematical research is not only the understanding and arrangement of known results, but also the creation of new mathematical achievements and theories. Many people misunderstand that mathematics is a studied field. In fact, there are still many unknown fields and problems to be solved in mathematics, and a large number of new mathematical achievements have been published. Some of these mathematical achievements are new mathematical knowledge and some are new application methods.

The above content source: Baidu Encyclopedia-the world's three major mathematicians

Newton's contribution to mathematics

Newton's contribution to mathematics is extremely extensive. Generalized binomial theorem, Newton identity, Newton method, cubic curve classification, finite difference theory, Diophantine equation. He used logarithm to approximate the partial sum of harmonic series, and used power series and inverse power series for the first time.

A video of Newton's entire death.

Newton suffered from bladder stones, rheumatism and other diseases in his later years. 1727 On March 20th, Newton died in London. At the age of 84.

Because of his outstanding contribution to science, he was buried in the cemetery of Westminster Abbey.

Newton1642 65438+February 25th. Newton showed his ability to make precision machinery by hand when he was young. In the Costa Cathedral in England, there is still a sun clock, which is similar to the "sundial" in China. Although it is still rough, it has shown Newton's cleverness and ideals when he was young.

Because of poverty, his mother asked Newton to drop out of school and go home to farm, but he still focused on his studies. My uncle found that he didn't learn to work to support his family, so he said to him, "Go back to your book! Either you are an idle big waste, or you are a great genius! " So Newton came to Trinity College, Cambridge to study.

He vowed to devote his life to science. He assiduously studied mathematics, physics, astronomy and other courses, and accepted the natural science theories and research methods of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Descartes, which laid a solid theoretical foundation for his future scientific research.

Newton received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Cambridge University, and then stayed there as a professor of mathematics. Since then, he has been engaged in teaching and research at Cambridge University for 30 years. All his brilliant scientific achievements were made here. Newton studied hard, forgot to eat and sleep, and worked in the laboratory for 17- 18 hours every day, so that the librarian at Cambridge University called Newton "a guy with abnormal nerves".

It is because of his dedication that he has made new achievements and gained a higher and higher position in the scientific community. His first sensational achievement was to discover the essence of light, that is, he found that ordinary white light is composed of seven colors of light. The first reflecting telescope he built is still in use at the Observatory. Another great invention of his was the creation of calculus in mathematics.

His greatest discovery was in the field of mechanics. Newton published the book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687. This epoch-making masterpiece expounds the three laws of object motion: the law of inertia, the law of the relationship between force and motion, and the law of action and reaction. The book also describes the law of gravity.

Newton studied the laws of motion of planets of the solar system, satellites and comets according to the law of universal gravitation. Newton was therefore regarded as the greatest astronomer. The book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" caused a sensation in the society and made Newton famous at one fell swoop. But not many people really understand this book.

In order to understand the complicated mathematical problems in the book, a philosopher asked Newton to make a "must-read list". When the philosopher saw this list, he said, "Just reading these books will kill me."

The story of Newton and Apple

In England, there was a young man named isaac newton who studied physics. Newton was very good at thinking and often thought deeply about some very common phenomena.

One day, he was sitting under an apple tree to rest when a ripe apple fell and hit him on the head. When Newton touched his injured place, he thought of a question: When he threw the ball into the air, why didn't it keep rising, but kept falling?

Newton picked up the apple and suddenly had a strange idea. Is there an invisible force at work, dragging the apple to the ground? After a long time, Newton finally solved this problem and deduced a formula, that is, the law of universal gravitation.

He thinks that every object in the world has an invisible attraction to attract other objects. Heavy objects are more attractive than light objects. The earth on which we live is much bigger and heavier than anything on it. So all objects thrown up will eventually fall to the ground. This is the result of gravity of the earth.

Newton's discovery can not only explain the physical phenomena on the earth, but also explain the phenomena between the universe and celestial bodies. There are many other planets besides the earth, such as the sun, the moon, Mars and Jupiter. They are all attracted by gravity, so the moon goes around the earth and the earth goes around the sun.

It is this gravity that fixes them in their respective positions, so that although they move under the same sky, they will not collide.

The little apple gave Newton great inspiration. In fact, the same phenomenon has long been commonplace in the eyes of others, but others don't take it seriously. Only Newton discovered the law of gravity through his own thinking.

Extended data

Newton's apple tree was inspired by Newton, a great British scientist, because the apple fell from the tree. This apple tree is very famous and is considered as a symbol of the spirit of scientific exploration. In fact, this is a legendary story in the history of science. The apple tree, which made Newton understand the law of gravity, is famous and regarded as a symbol of the spirit of scientific exploration.

Isaac newton is a great British mathematician, physicist, astronomer and natural philosopher. His research fields include physics, mathematics, astronomy, theology, natural philosophy and alchemy.

Newton's main contributions include inventing calculus, discovering the law of universal gravitation and classical mechanics, designing and actually manufacturing the first reflective telescope, and so on. He is regarded as the greatest and most influential scientist in human history. In order to commemorate Newton's outstanding achievements in classical mechanics, "Newton" later became a physical unit to measure the size of force.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Newton Apple Tree