Isaac Newton - 04Jan2010

Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 [OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726]) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential men in human history. His 1687 publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (usually called the Principia) is considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.

Newton also built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours that form the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.
In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the generalised binomial theorem, developed the so-called "Newton's method" for approximating the roots of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.

Newton remains influential to scientists, as demonstrated by a 2005 survey of members of Britain's Royal Society asking who had the greater effect on the history of science and had the greater contribution to humankind, Newton or Albert Einstein. Royal Society scientists deemed Newton to have made the greater overall contribution on both.

Newton was also highly religious, though an unorthodox Christian, writing more on Biblical hermeneutics and occult studies than the natural science for which he is remembered today. In spite of this, The 100 by Michael H. Hart ranks Newton as the second most influential person in history (below Muhammad and above Jesus).
艾薩克·牛頓爵士(Sir Isaac Newton,FRS,1643年1月4日-1727年3月31日,英語發音[ˈaɪzək ˈnjuːtṇ])[ 儒略曆:1642年12月25日-1727年3月20日]是一位英格蘭物理學家、數學家、天文學家、自然哲學家和鍊金術士。他在1687年發表的論文《自然哲學的數學原理》裡,對萬有引力和三大運動定律進行了描述。這些描述奠定了此後三個世紀裡物理世界的科學觀點,並成為了現代工程學的基礎。他通過論證克卜勒行星運動定律與他的重力理論間的一致性,展示了地面物體與天體的運動都遵循著相同的自然定律;為太陽中心說提供了強有力的理論支持,並推動了科學革命。

在力學上,牛頓闡明了動量和角動量守恆的原理。在光學上,他發明了反射式望遠鏡,並基於對三稜鏡將白光發散成可見光譜的觀察,發展出了顏色理論。他還系統地表述了冷卻定律,並研究了音速。

在數學上,牛頓與戈特弗里德·萊布尼茨分享了發展出微積分學的榮譽。他也證明了廣義二項式定理,提出了「牛頓法」以趨近函數的零點,並為冪級數的研究作出了貢獻。

在2005年,牛頓曾擔任會長的英國皇家學會進行了一場「誰是科學史上最有影響力的人」的民意調查,在被調查的皇家學會會員和網民投票中,牛頓被認為比阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦更具影響力。

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