Nickey Crowe, age 13, of Owens Cross Roads, Alabama, for his question:
Who was Isaac Newton?
Some people think that a brilliant brain is the greatest of all human qualities. If this were so, Isaac Newton rates as one of history's greatest men. In the 1600s, he solved the basic problems on which modern science is founded just by pondering and figuring. However, he did not think that his brilliant mind was all that important. He set a much higher value on qualities such as generosity, kindness, and modesty.
In the year 1642, the great Galileo died in Italy and Isaac Newton was born in the English village of Woolsthorpe. Together, they turned perhaps the most important page in the history of science. Galileo discredited previous concepts by insisting that the earth is round and not the center of the universe. Newton discovered the laws of motion that govern the universe and opened the door that, 300 years later, led to the space age. "If I have seen farther than most men," he said, "it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." We can assume that this brilliant and modest man intended his remark as a tribute to Galileo, Copernicus and other great thinkers before him.
Newton went to grade school until he was 14, but he was not too interested in classroom studies. He was fascinated with making gadgets. He made a small windmill that ground grains of wheat, a water clock and a sun dial, an assortment of dolls and doll furniture, and a tiny carriage that was self propelled. His young friends and relatives, girls and boys, were plentifully supplied with mechanical toys.
In later years, Newton was more interested in books than in working on the family farm. So he was sent to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. There his life long interest in mathematics was aroused. But the Black Death was raging through England and in 1665, the University was closed for 1 1/2 years. Newton, then 22, went home to his village his mind bursting with unanswered mathematical problems. How far is the moon and how big? How fast does it move and why does it orbit the earth? He was a great one for concentrating on a problem until he solved it. In later years he told how the answer to his moon questions popped into his head. Yes, he saw a ripe apple fall to the ground. At the time he was sipping tea in the garden.
Young Newton saw at once that the same force that makes things fall to the ground also keeps the moon in orbit. He used his mathematical genius to figure out these same laws of gravity that govern the motions and positions of all the heavenly bodies. He invented the reflector telescope to check his facts. He worked out the calculus, a brilliant new field of math, to cope with the ratios of motion, time and space. In that 1 1/2 years, he also found time to experiment with light. Using a glass prism, he concluded that white light is a blend of spectrum colors traveling in straight lines. He also suggested the corpuscular theory that light travels in invisibly small particles. Twenty years later, Edmund Halley while tracking comets discovered that Newton had solved all these problems and urged him to publish his works. Finally, in 1687 at the age of 45, Newton stated his laws of gravitation, his math and other theories in the astounding book known to the world of science as Principia.
Somehow one suspects that Newton did his greatest thinking about the secrets of living. Through 84 contented years, his personal life was brimful of fond friendships as a math professor, a member of Parliament and as Master of the Mint. Without being stuffy or opinionated, he was deeply interested in religious and social issues. Though he never married, he was surrounded by nephews and nieces, always devoted to their Uncle Isaac. Without a doubt, the brilliant Newton considered his own greatest achievements to be these warm human relationships.