图书序言
1-5 Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion (1) 牛顿运动定律(1)
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Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion (1)
Sir Isaac Newton possessed one of the keenest scientific intellects of his time. In spite of his brilliance, he was a humble person who always tried to depreciate his contributions to science, preferring instead to honor the scientists who had preceded him. He once remarked, "If I have seen further [than others], it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants."
Newton is famous primarily for his laws describing motion. When the plague forced Cambridge University to shut down temporarily, Newton left the university and stayed for a time at his mother's farm. It was during this period that Newton formulated the three laws of motion, which reduce nearly all the motion we observe to concepts that are relatively simple, considering the complexities of physics. While there is no evidence to support the popular, but no doubt apocryphal, story that Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head as he sat under a tree, it seems certain that observing falling objects caused Newton to think about the forces at work in the universe.
牛顿运动定律(1)
牛顿拥有他那时代最犀利的科学天分。尽管成就斐然,他这人却很谦虚,总是贬低自己在科学上的贡献,反而喜欢彰显比他出道更早的科学家。他曾经说过:「如果说我看得[比别人]更远,那是因为我站在巨人的肩膀上。」
牛顿主要以阐述运动的定律闻名于世。当剑桥大学因黑死病不得不暂时停课时,牛顿离开大学在妈妈农场里待了一段时间。就是在这期间,牛顿构想出运动三大定律,将我们所观察到的所有运动简化为相当简单的概念,没有物理学惯有的繁复。有个虚构却广为人知的故事说,牛顿坐在树下时,一颗苹果砸到他的头,因而发现地心引力。虽然没有证据足以为证,但是似乎可以肯定的是观察掉落的物体让牛顿想到宇宙中运作的力量。