Sir. Issac Newton Beyond Gravity
“Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.” — Sir. Issac Newton
Arguably one of the greatest scientists of all time, Let’s see some interesting facts about Sir. Issac Newton beyond his theories and findings about Universal Gravity, Optics and Laws of Motion.
No Apple fell on Newton’s head:
We all have heard this story that young Newton was sitting under an apple tree and the ‘eureka moment’ where the apple fell on his head triggered him to come up with the idea of gravity. However, there is no proof that it ever happened. In his biography “Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life”, William Stukeley wrote that during a conversation with Sir. Issac Newton, the legend mentioned that the memory of an apple falling sparked the idea of gravity in his mind. But anyway, whether the apple story is a myth or not, it has provided humanity with a fundamental understanding of gravity.
In search of Philosopher’s stone:
It is clear from his manuscripts found in his personally library in 17th century that he used to practice Alchemy which was the forerunner of chemistry. The ultimate goal of alchemy was to find out the precise proportion of mercury, Sulphur and salt which will yield a mythical substance called ‘philosopher’s stone’, gifted with supernatural powers like transforming base metals to gold, cure illness, providing rejuvenation and immortality.
It has been said that Newton had more interest towards alchemy, as he wrote and spent more time on this than physics and mathematics. Also, he never published his writings about Alchemy since he feared that they might undergo scrutiny and criticism.
Unconventional Devotee:
Even though Sir. Issac Newton was a devoted Christian his views were far from the orthodox, particularly in the doctrine of the Trinity. Newton’s inclination towards Arianism and the rejection of doctrine of trinity, have led scholars to categorize him as a Non-Trinitarian Arian.
Project ‘Temple of Solomon:
Newton believed that the key to God’s Design of Universe is held by Solomon’s Temple. In this project he did detail study and analysis of the temple to measure the dimensions of each room [1] with an intuition that Bible is filled with hidden codes than can be cracked only by wise.
Apart from these, Newton has extreme affinity towards Mercury which might have arisen from the idea of Alchemy. His habit of intaking mercury vapor and even drinking it is well documented during the exhumation of his body. There was high level of mercury present in his hair which is even considered as the potential cause of his mental illness and death in later stage of his life [2].
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