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On the Shoulders of Sir Isaac Newton and Arthur Storer.

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 80; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

1943-4871

Helen Elaine. Martin, Bonita Evans-Gondo,

History and Developments in Astronomy

In December 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders became the first men to orbit the Moon. On the fifth day of the mission, as the exhausted crew headed home, Mission Control in Houston asked who was piloting the spacecraft. Astronaut Anders replied, I think Isaac Newton is doing most of the driving. How so? reason for the comment lies in Newton's most famous work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Newton 1999 translation). In the Principia, Newton (1642-1727) set out his three laws of motion and the formula for universal gravitation. Newton's explanation of motion ultimately made the space program possible. Principia might never have been published if it weren't for astronomer Edmund Halley. In August 1684, Halley, who was studying comets, visited Newton in Cambridge. Halley asked Newton about the laws of planetary motion and what the orbit of a heavenly body would be if it followed certain parameters. Newton responded that it would be ellipse and explained why. Halley then told Newton he must publish. Newton responded that he had lost his notes and wasn't interested in publishing. Halley persisted and offered to pay the publication costs. So Newton recreated his notes from years earlier and wrote the Principia. Newton was born on a farm in Woolsthorpe, a village a hundred miles north of London. At age 12, he left Woolsthorpe to live in Grantham, about eight miles away, to attend King's School. Newton lived with his mother's friend Catherine Storer Clarke; Catherine's second husband, William Clarke; and children from their first and second marriages. During the next six years, Newton formed a friendship with Catherine's youngest child by her first marriage, Arthur Newton and Storer lived in the same household and studied the same school. One morning, during their walk to school, Storer kicked Newton in the stomach. At day's end, with other schoolboys urging them on, the two had a fight in the schoolyard. Newton, though smaller than Storer, triumphed. next morning, Newton entered the schoolroom to realize that boys were seated according to how well they had done on their previous schoolwork. Newton sat near the lowest rank in class. Storer, even though he was younger than Newton, ranked higher. Newton determined this would never happen again. From that day on, Newton focused on schoolwork and progressed to the highest rank in class, carving his name on each desk as he moved up. Later, Newton made a list of his sins, and one was beating Arthur Storer. Newton and Storer had a wonderful surrogate father in William Clarke, an apothecary who kept shop in Grantham. Clarke took a genuine interest not only in his own children but also Catherine's children and While living with Clarke, Storer and Newton learned the importance of precise measurement of medications and how these measurements affected the ill. They observed the work of a 17th-century apothecary collecting herbs, making lotions and potions, selling the medications in the apothecary shop, and treating the sick in their homes. boys learned how to grow and collect herbs, make detailed drawings of the herbs, and color those drawings. boys had the added support of the assistant teacher the school, who was Clarke's brother. Both boys benefited from the outstanding education they received from their extraordinary schoolmaster, Henry Stokes, King's School. A contemporary of Newton wrote, The world is entirely indebted to Mr. Stokes for Sir Isaac Newton. In 1672, while Newton was Cambridge, Storer, his sister, and her husband emigrated to the New World. Later, Storer returned to England and corresponded with Newton, asking him to verify some calculations before he returned to Maryland. Storer sailed for Maryland in 1678 and settled with his sister and her family at the river Patuxent near Hunting Creek in what is today Prince Frederick, Calvert County, Maryland. …