Ep. 122: Newton’s Three Laws of Motion
Intro
Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.
I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on the brilliant and perplexing Isaac Newton. Widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists in history Isaac Newton was gifted in mathematics, physics, and astronomy as well as, but not as well-known alchemy and theology.
His laws of motion are ubiquitous and lay the foundation for classical mechanics, while his masterpiece the Principia which was published in 1687 is still relevant today some 337 years later.
Along with his scientific brilliance Newton also served as a member of parliament for two brief terms, Warden and Master of the Royal Mint, and president of the Royal Society. This was all capped off in 1705 when he was knighted.
Today’s mnemonic is on Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion.
So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Sir_Isaac_Newton,_1689_(brightened).jpg
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Wikipedia Summary
Sir Isaac Newton FRS (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27[a]) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author who was described in his time as a natural philosopher.[7] He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His pioneering book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, consolidated many previous results and established classical mechanics.[8][9] Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing infinitesimal calculus, though he developed calculus years before Leibniz.[10][11] He is considered one of the greatest and most influential scientists in history.[7][12][13][14][15]
In the Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was superseded by the theory of relativity. Newton used his mathematical description of gravity to derive Kepler's laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the Solar System's heliocentricity.[16] He demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton's inference that the Earth is an oblate spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colours of the visible spectrum. His work on light was collected in his highly influential book Opticks, published in 1704. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid. In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of the cubic plane curves.
Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian who privately rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. He refused to take holy orders in the Church of England, unlike most members of the Cambridge faculty of the day. Beyond his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. Politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–1690 and 1701–1702. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden (1696–1699) and Master (1699–1727) of the Royal Mint, as well as president of the Royal Society (1703–1727).
Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Isaac_Newton_in_IUCAA.jpg
Mnemonic
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion Mnemonic - ETF
(Picture Isaac Newton trading Exchange Traded Funds on Gold and going short as he believed through alchemy he could make it)
1. First Law – Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force.
2. Second Law – The amount of acceleration of a body is proportional to the acting force and inversely proportional to the mass of the body.
3. Third Law – For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
Now it is worth noting that this third law has been argued against for centuries by certain men who say, “For every male action, there is an unequal but opposite female overreaction!”
Explanation & Visualisation – Now picture a bike. The first law states that the bike will remain in a state of rest if the bike is just sitting there, or if rolling down the hill, a uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force. i.e. a rock.
Now let’s picture you riding that bike, pedaling as hard as you can. The amount of acceleration of a body is proportional to the acting force and inversely proportional to the mass of the body. That force is coming from your legs and the mass is how much you and the bike weigh.
Now as you are riding that bike, the bicycle pushes down on the road and the road pushes back with an equal and opposite force. Hence, for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
Five Fun Facts
1. Isaac Newton was born on the 4th of January 1643. That is according to the Gregorian calendar, which we use today. However, back in the 1600’s they used the Julian calendar, and according to that calendar, he was born on Christmas day in 1642.
2. Newton actually left school at the age of 12. He was forced to leave school by his mum to help look after the family farm. He disliked work on the farm and luckily for him, his uncle convinced his mother to allow him to go back to school and pursue his education.
3. Apart from all of Newton’s scientific work he was also the Master of the Royal Mint in 1699. The Royal Mint at this stage was having great difficulty with forged money with one in every ten coins circulating counterfeit. Newton’s clever thinking and ingenious solutions made British money extremely hard to forge and as a result, he was awarded a unique 50p coin in his honour in 2017 which was about 290 years after his death!
4. Newton never married and did not have many friends. While, the friends he did have, found him to be unstable towards the end of his life, which can be attributed to mercury poisoning which was found in trace amounts in his hair after death.
5. A summary of Isaac Newton’s schooling is as follows. Between the age of 12 and 17, he went to King’s School at Grantham, then onto Trinity College where his uncle had helped him get into. He then won a four-year scholarship to Cambridge after which he became a mathematics professor at Cambridge University at the age of 27.
Three Question Quiz
Q.1. What was the name of Isaac Newton’s most well-known book which most found exceedingly difficult to understand?
Q.2. Newton wrote more about religion and alchemy than he did about science. Is that True or False
Q.3. Newton lost over 1 million dollars in today’s money in an investment. True or False
Bonus Q. Under whose reign was Newton honoured with a knighthood?
Bonus Q. Newton retreated to his mother's home to escape what in 1666?
Mnemonic Recap
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion Mnemonic - ETF
(Picture Isaac Newton trading Exchange Traded Funds on Gold and going short as he believed he could make it)
1. First Law – Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force.
2. Second Law – The amount of acceleration of a body is proportional to the acting force and inversely proportional to the mass of the body.
3. Third Law – For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
Three Question Quiz Answers
Q.1. What was the name of Isaac Newton’s most well-known book which most found exceedingly difficult to understand?
A. Principia, otherwise known as Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)
Q.2. Newton wrote more about religion and alchemy than he did about science. Is that True or False
A. True
Q.3. Newton lost over 1 million dollars in today’s money in an investment. True or False
A. False. He actually lost over 3 million dollars in today’s money investing in the South Sea Company
Bonus Q. Under whose reign was Newton honoured with a knighthood?
A. Queen Anne in 1705
Bonus Q. Newton retreated to his mother's home to escape what in 1666?
A. The plague. Most may have thought the Great Fire of London the same year in 1666
Word of the Week
nonplussed
[ non-pluhst ]
adjective
completely puzzled or perplexed by something unexpected.
Example
Hearing that Isaac Newton stuck a bodkin, which is a long sewing needle with a blunt point, into his eye socket, between the eye and the bone to learn more about light, leaves me totally nonplussed.
Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]
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References
http://www.physics4kids.com/files/motion_laws.html
https://www.twinkl.com.au/blog/isaac-newton-facts-for-kids