Updated: Never — Philip's Blog

Tomorrow is Newtonmas. Our hero, Sir Isaac Newton was born on 25 December 1642. Around that time, people started fiddling with the calendar -- again -- so his date of birth is often given as 4 January 1643. To Newton's mother, it was 25 December though, and that's all that really matters.

Today is a good time for geekdom to remind ourselves what great things this man has done for us, and why he deserves to be celebrated while non-geeks find other excuses for celebration (something to do with cows and asses, if I'm not mistaken, and biologically unlikely reproductive processes).

Alexander Pope did a very good job, without going into much detail, with his epitaph:

Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.
   -- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

I don't know this "God" person, but Pope was certainly right.

Some details are probably in order though.

Aged 23 (1665), young Isaac generalized the binomial theorem, which fascinated our other hero Blaise Pascal and started working on inventing calculus, which he needed to prove his theories about gravity. Most people would consider two fields, mathematics and astrophysics, to be enough, but like a true geek, Newton didn't stop at two and also looked into optics around this time.

In 1672 he published his New Theory about Light and Colours. Nearly blinding himself in the name of science by staring at the sun and poking his eyeballs. Unhappy with the hardware at his disposal, he also made his own reflecting telescopes which were far superior to the refracting ones others made.

Unavoidably, Newton bumped into the wave-particle duality of light, which today is still keeping scientists awake at night. Instead of spending his nights unproductively worrying about waves and particles, Newton spent time studying the occult and wrote some more about light. In particular, he wrote his Hypothesis explaining the Properties of Light and later Opticks.

All fascinating stuff!

While writing Opticks (1704), Newton also came into contact with the wonders of static electricity.

Besides being a great scientist, Newton was also a very capable engineer and economist. Most people seem to forget that during much of his life (1700-1727), Newton was Master of the Mint and most of his scientific work was done after hours. Geeks with numismatic tendencies will enjoy reading Sir Isaac Newton: Master and Warden of the Mint.

At the Mint, Newton is best remembered for the invention of the milled edge coin. Until the 1690s, silver coinage were tendered by number (whereas gold passed by weight). Enterprising individuals often shaved or clipped a little silver off the edges of the silver pennies or shillings, reducing their value without reducing their status as legal tender.

Newton came up with a clever way of 'hammering' the motto decus et tutamen ("a decoration and a defence") into the edges of the coins and then came up with a sensible way of collecting the old currency and replacing it with the new. The European Central Bank used a similar mechanism to roll out the Euro three hundred years later.

Also often forgotten (and disputed) is that Newton came up with recursion. He is, in fact, attributed with the invention of the cat flap: a door within a door.

I could go on, but I recommend everyone read one or more of the many excellent biographies of this great historical geek.

Tomorrow morning, find yourself a plastic apple tree-like structure and exchange gifts of wisdom with your friends. Perhaps print out some of Newton's papers (on recycled paper) or better yet, put them on a USB stick. The Newton Project is a great source for these.

Happy Newtonmas!