Newton's research stopped in 1679 when he had a nervous breakdown. It all led to his seminal work, published in 1687, called the "Principia" - considered by many as the greatest science book ever written. Urged by astronomer Edmond Halley (who was studying his now-famous comet), Newton continued to study his notion of gravity and apply it to the motions of the Earth, sun and moon. This was not something Newton actually imagined building, but rather a way to think about his theories. He also conceived of an "orbital cannon" that would poke out of a huge mountain, up in space, and with just the right amount of gunpowder could put a cannonball into orbit. It's said that Newton invented a cat door so his cats would stop scratching to get in, but the truth of that one is a bit sketchy. Mere math and algebra weren't enough to explain the ideas in his head, so he helped invent calculus (German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz is typically credited with developing it independently at about the same time). In his later years, he developed anti-counterfeiting measures for coins, including the ridges you see on quarters today.Īmong his biggest " inventions" was calculus. He did invent reflecting lenses for telescopes, which produced clearer images in a smaller telescope compared with the refracting models of the time. While he's best known for his work on gravity, Newton was a tinkerer, too, but more with ideas than physical inventions. A couple of centuries later, Albert Einstein puzzled over how to reconcile Newton's law of gravity with special relativity, which after several years led to Einstein's theory of general relativity. Newton once said that if he had achieved anything in his research, it was "by standing on the shoulders of giants." The quote was prophetic. "To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me."."I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.".
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