Giants And Seashores Explain Isaac Newton example essay topic

'Giants and Seashores' - Explain Isaac Newton, a great mathematician and scientist, said several famous quotes. Two of them go as follows: - Quote One: 'If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. ' Quote Two: - 'I do not know how I appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy, playing on the seashore, diverting myself now and then; finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay before me' (full version). I am going to analyse these quotes, finding out what I think he meant by them, and I am going to try to find why I think he said it. Isaac Newton was born on Christmas day, 1842, in Wools thorpe; a village in Lincolnshire. He had a difficult childhood; his father died three months before his birth, and his mother remarried to a vicar about 30 years older than her when Isaac was only three years old, leaving him in the care of his grandparents.

His mother did not go back to their home again for eight years. When her husband had died, she returned with three new children from her marriage. Isaac was now eleven years old. He went to school at 13, where he was bullied until he fought back and won. Following this, he went to Trinity college, Cambridge, and in his life he went on to be a professor of mathematics, president of The Royal Society, he was knighted, and he published two famous scientific books; one on light, and one on planetary movement in space. Despite all of these achievements, Newton came across as a slightly disturbed child and teenager, probably mainly due to the tragedies and hardship he encountered in his childhood.

A diary of his has been found: Isaac Newton had written a code, and used it to write a list of sinful things he had done, or sinful things he had thought. One example, would be 'wishing death upon his family and upon himself. ' At school, he was an outcast; bullied, making himself antisocial with hardly any friends, however when he discovered his talent in science, and found a hobby; making things such as small windmills, he also became arrogant and cocky. He was also a loner. During his time in Cambridge, he would walk in the grounds alone; just him with his thoughts. As an adult, he liked to keep things to himself.

He didn't publish his findings on light, until quite a while after he'd found them. He also kept secret, for more obvious reasons, the fact that he was an Arian: A follower of a secret forbidden religion that didn't believe in the Holy Trinity. His other secret, was that he practised alchemy'; the banned science that claimed that it could turn metals into gold. Slightly later on in his life, he sad this: ' If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. ' What I think he was trying to say, was that he builds up his theories on top od those of others.

He says he 'stands on the shoulders of giants', who I think are the famous scientists, possibly like Galileo and Copernicus, and the shoulders are the base that he works on for his theories. A question that came to mind when I read this quote, and looked at his upbringing and personality, is 'why does he seem to be so modest, when, when you look back, you see that he is in fact an arrogant person?' One possibility, is that in fact, he wasn't arrogant, or he didn't mean this to be modest, but I believe that he was arrogant with most people, but humbled, having lots of respect for the 'giants' of science. The second quote that I am going to look at, is this: 'I do not know how I appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself now and then; finding a a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay out before me. ' This quote is harder to decipher that the first. I think it is trying to say that he is a person who is still young, with lots more tin life to achieve, or maybe that he is young in the sense that he is young in his career.

'Occasionally, he finds a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary... ' I think that this represents his findings, such as the colours in white light. He has '... the great ocean of truth' lying before him. I think that the ocean represents knowledge and things waiting to be discovered. All in all, I think that these quotes show, that even if he was know to be a very arrogant man, he didn't think that he was the best scientist in the world at that time, and that some of his glory should be given to the scientists before him.

He also recognises that there is a lot more to be discovered. However, he was still arrogant, and possibly thought of himself as above some others. I think that Isaac Newton is probably the 'father of modern science'. His work on calculus, gravity and planetary motion, and light, was quite revolutionary. The thing about Isaac Newton's work, that was different to that of the other scientists, was that he relied on proof, and always tested his theories. He believed that there was a mathematical explanation for everything (ie. everything can be explained through an equation).

Isaac Newton's work lead on to scientist's work such as Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which couldn't have been written without Newton's work on gravity. THE EXPERIMENT THAT LET NEWTON PROVE HIS THEORY ON LIGHT: THAT PRISMS SHOW THAT WHITE LIGHT IS MADE UP OF THE SPECTRUM, NOT THAT THEY CHANGE THE LIGHT..