From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newton may refer to:

Physics

• Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Sir Isaac Newton
• Newton scale, temperature scale devised by Sir Isaac Newton
• Classical mechanics, sometimes referred to as Newtonian mechanics

People

• Newton (surname), lists notable people with the surname or last name (most illustriously Isaac Newton)

Given name

• Newton (Billy Myers) (born 1967), British pop singer
• Newton Faulkner (born 1985), British singer-songwriter
• Newton Newt Gingrich (born 1943), American politician and author
• Newton Lee, nonprofit entrepreneur and magazine editor
• Newton N. Minow (born 1926), American attorney, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1961–1963)

Places

Australia

• Newton, South Australia

Canada

• Newton, Edmonton, a neighborhood in Edmonton, Alberta
• Newton Town Centre, a town center in Surrey, British Columbia
• Newton Mills, Nova Scotia

England

• Newton, Cambridgeshire
• Newton, Cheshire
• Newton, Cumbria
• Newton, Derbyshire
• Newton, Doncaster in South Yorkshire
• Newton, Dorset
• Newton, Greater Manchester
• Newton, Golden Valley in Herefordshire
• Newton, Hampton Court in Herefordshire
• Newton, Fylde in Lancashire
• Newton, Lancaster in Lancashire
• Newton, Lincolnshire
• Newton, Merseyside
• Newton, Nottinghamshire
• Newton, Shropshire
• Newton, Suffolk (also known as Newton Green)
• Newton, Warwickshire
• Archdeacon Newton in County Durham
• Hardhorn with Newton in Lancashire
• Newton Abbot in Devon
• Newton Aycliffe in County Durham
• Newton Blossomville in Buckinghamshire
• Newton Bromswold in Northamptonshire
• Newton by Malpas in Cheshire
• Newton by Tattenhall in Cheshire
• Newton-by-the-Sea in Northumberland
• Newton Harcourt in Leicestershire
• Newton-in-Bowland in Lancashire
• Newton-in-Furness in Cumbria
• Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside
• Newton-le-Willows, North Yorkshire
• Newton Longville in Buckinghamshire
• Newton Regis in Warwickshire
• Newton under Roseberry in North Yorkshire
• Newton with Scales in Lancashire
• RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire
• Walford, Letton and Newton in Herefordshire

New Zealand

• Newton, New Zealand

Scotland

• Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire
• Newton (South Lanarkshire) railway station
• Newton Stewart in Dumfries and Galloway
• Newton in North Uist
• Newton, West Lothian in West Lothian

Singapore

• Newton, Singapore
• Newton Food Centre, Singapore
• Newton MRT Station, Singapore

United States

• Newton, Alabama
• Newton, Georgia
• Newton, Illinois
• Newton, Iowa
• Newton, Kansas
• Newton, Massachusetts
• Newton, Mississippi
• Newton, New Hampshire
• Newton, New Jersey
• Newton, North Carolina
• Newton, Texas
• Newton, Utah
• Newton, Wisconsin

Wales

• Newton, Brecknockshire
• Newton, Bridgend
• Newton, Swansea

Other

• Newton (band), Spanish electronic music group best known for the track "Streamline"
• Newton (lunar crater)
• Newton (Martian crater)
• Newton (platform), a hardware/software platform developed by Apple, Inc., intended for use in PDAs and embedded devices
• Newton (TV), a Norwegian science television program for children
• Fig Newton, fruit-filled cookie
• The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
• Newton, Chambers & Company, former Sheffield based Engineering company
• Newton Game Dynamics
• Newton Vineyard, Californian wine estate partially owned by LVMH
• Newton's method, an iterative method for solving equations.
• XMM-Newton, orbiting X-ray observatory (named after Sir Isaac Newton)
• Newton (Blake) is a print by William Blake
• Newton, a centaur sidekick to Hercules in The Mighty Hercules animated series from the 1960s

See also

• Newtown (disambiguation)
• New Town (disambiguation)
• Newtonville (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

From Wikiquote

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Sir Isaac Newton (January 4, 1643 – March 31, 1727 or in Old Style: December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, inventor and natural philosopher. He is often regarded as the most influential scientist in history and is best known for discovering the Laws of Gravity.

Sourced

Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but my greatest friend is truth.

I frame no hypotheses

• Amicus Plato — amicus Aristoteles — magis amica veritas
  • Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but my greatest friend is truth.
  • These are notes in Latin that Newton wrote to himself that he titled: Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae [Certain Philosophical Questions] (c. 1664)
  • Variant translations: Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth.
    Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — truth is a greater friend.

• If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.
  • Modernized variants: If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
    If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
  • Letter to Robert Hooke (15 February 1676) [dated as 5 February 1675 using the Julian calendar with March 25th rather than January 1st as New Years Day, equivalent to 15 February 1676 by Gregorian reckonings]
  • variant of mathematician Peter Winkler: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Hungarians."
  • Origin: Pigmaei gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident.

• I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses;' for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called a hypothesis, and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.
  • Letter to Robert Hooke (15 February 1676) [5 February 1675 (O.S.)]

• The 2300 years do not end before the year 2132 nor after 2370.
  The time times & half time do not end before 2060. .... It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons wch God hath put into his own breast.
  • An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1704), regarding his calculations "Of the End of the World" based upon the prophecies of Daniel, quoted in Look at the Moon! the Revelation Chronology (2007) by John A. Abrams, p. 141
  • Modern typographical and spelling variant:
  • This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.
    • As quoted in "The world will end in 2060, according to Newton" in the London Evening Standard (19 June 2007)

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age...

• To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, & leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.
  • Statement from unpublished notes for the Preface to Opticks (1704) quoted in Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (1983) by Richard S. Westfall, p. 643

The design of God was much otherwise... not to gratify mens curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.

• The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt.
  The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify mens curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.
  • Observations Upon The Apocalypse Of St. John (published posthumously 1733)

• I have studied these things — you have not.
  • Reported as Newton's response, whenever Edmond Halley would say anything disrespectful of religion, by Sir David Brewster in The Life of Sir Isaac Newton (1831). This has often been quoted in recent years as having been a statement specifically defending Astrology. Newton wrote extensively on the importance of Prophecy, and studied Alchemy, but there is little evidence that he took favourable notice of Astrology. Brewster attributes the anecdote to the astronomer Nevil Maskelyne who passed it on to Oxford professor Stephen Peter Rigaud.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

• I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
  • Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27). Compare: "As children gath'ring pebbles on the shore", John Milton, Paradise Regained, Book iv. Line 330.
    • Recently the statement "I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with." has been attributed to Plato, but the earliest published occurrence of this seems to be in The Mindful Coach: Seven Roles for Helping People Grow (2004) by Douglas K. Silsbee, p. 13, where it is attributed to Plato without a sourced citation.

• Oh, Diamond! Diamond! thou little knowest what mischief thou hast done!
  • This is from an anecdote found in St. Nicholas magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4, (February 1878) :

Sir Isaac Newton had on his table a pile of papers upon which were written calculations that had taken him twenty years to make. One evening, he left the room for a few minutes, and when he came back he found that his little dog "Diamond" had overturned a candle and set fire to the precious papers, of which nothing was left but a heap of ashes.

God created everything by number, weight and measure.

• God created everything by number, weight and measure.
  • As quoted in Symmetry in Plants (1998) by Roger V. Jean and Denis Barabé, p. xxxvii, a translation of a Latin phrase he wrote in a student's notebook, elsewhere given as Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia condidit. This is similar to Latin statements by Thomas Aquinas, and even more ancient statements of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras.

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)

The errors are not in the art, but in the artificers.

• The ancients considered mechanics in a twofold respect; as rational, which proceeds accurately by demonstration, and practical. To practical mechanics all the manual arts belong, from which mechanics took its name. But as artificers do not work with perfect accuracy, it comes to pass that mechanics is so distinguished from geometry, that what is perfectly accurate is called geometrical; what is less so is called mechanical. But the errors are not in the art, but in the artificers. He that works with less accuracy is an imperfect mechanic: and if any could work with perfect accuracy, he would be the most perfect mechanic of all; for the description of right lines and circles, upon which geometry is founded, belongs to mechanics. Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn; for it requires that the learner should first be taught to describe these accurately, before he enters upon geometry; then it shows how by these operations problems may be solved.
  • Preface (8 May 1686)

Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn...

• Our design, not respecting arts, but philosophy, and our subject, not manual, but natural powers, we consider chiefly those things which relate to gravity, levity, elastic force, the resistance of fluids, and the like forces, whether attractive or impulsive; and therefore we offer this work as mathematical principles of philosophy; for all the difficulty of philosophy seems to consist in this — from the phenomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature, and then from these forces to demonstrate the other phenomena...
  • Preface

• I wish we could derive the rest of the phenomena of nature by the same kind of reasoning from mechanical principles; for I am induced by many reasons to suspect that they may all depend upon certain forces by which the particles of bodies, by some causes hitherto unknown, are either mutually impelled towards each other, and cohere in regular figures, or are repelled and recede from each other; which forces being unknown, philosophers have hitherto attempted the search of nature in vain; but I hope the principles here laid down will afford some light either to that or some truer method of philosophy.
  • Preface

• I do not define time, space, place, and motion, as being well known to all. Only I must observe, that the common people conceive those quantities under no other notions but from the relation they bear to sensible objects. And thence arise certain prejudices, for the removing of which it will be convenient to distinguish them into absolute and relative, true and apparent, mathematical and common.
  • Definitions - Scholium

We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.

• It is indeed a matter of great difficulty to discover, and effectually to distinguish, the true motions of particular bodies from the apparent; because the parts of that immovable space, in which those motions are performed, do by no means come under the observation of our senses. Yet the thing is not altogether desperate; for we have some arguments to guide us, partly from the apparent motions, which are the differences of the true motions; partly from the forces, which are the causes and effects of the true motions.
  • Definitions - Scholium

• We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.
  • "Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy" : Rule I

• Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.
  • Laws of Motion, I

• The alternation of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed.
  • Laws of Motion, II

• To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.
  • Laws of Motion, III

• Hypotheses non fingo.
  • I frame no hypotheses.
    • A famous statement in the "General Scholium" of the third edition, indicating his belief that the law of universal gravitation was a fundamental empirical law, and that he proposed no hypotheses on how gravity could propagate.
  • Variant translation: I feign no hypotheses.
    • As translated by Alexandre Koyré (1956)
  • I have not as yet been able to discover the reason for these properties of gravity from phenomena, and I do not feign hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena must be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular propositions are inferred from the phenomena, and afterwards rendered general by induction.
    • As translated by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman (1999)

Opticks (1704)

There were several editions of Opticks in English and in Latin made in Newtons lifetime, including expansions of the original 16 "Queries" to eventually number 31.

The main Business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects, till we come to the very first Cause, which certainly is not mechanical.

What is there in places empty of matter?

• To make way for the regular and lasting Motions of the Planets and Comets, it's necessary to empty the Heavens of all Matter, except perhaps some very thin Vapours, Steams or Effluvia, arising from the Atmospheres of the Earth, Planets and Comets, and from such an exceedingly rare Æthereal Medium ... A dense Fluid can be of no use for explaining the Phænomena of Nature, the Motions of the Planets and Comets being better explain'd without it. It serves only to disturb and retard the Motions of those great Bodies, and make the frame of Nature languish: And in the Pores of Bodies, it serves only to stop the vibrating Motions of their Parts, wherein their Heat and Activity consists. And as it is of no use, and hinders the Operations of Nature, and makes her languish, so there is no evidence for its Existence, and therefore it ought to be rejected. And if it be rejected, the Hypotheses that Light consists in Pression or Motion propagated through such a Medium, are rejected with it.
  And for rejecting such a Medium, we have the authority of those the oldest and most celebrated philosophers of ancient Greece and Phoenicia, who made a vacuum and atoms and the gravity of atoms the first principles of their philosophy, tacitly attributing Gravity to some other Cause than dense Matter. Later Philosophers banish the Consideration of such a Cause out of natural Philosophy, feigning Hypotheses for explaining all things mechanically, and referring other Causes to Metaphysicks: Whereas the main Business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects, till we come to the very first Cause, which certainly is not mechanical.
  • Query 28 : Are not all Hypotheses erroneous in which Light is supposed to consist of Pression or Motion propagated through a fluid medium?

• What is there in places empty of matter? and Whence is it that the sun and planets gravitate toward one another without dense matter between them? Whence is it that Nature doth nothing in vain? and Whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world? To what end are comets? and Whence is it that planets move all one and the same way in orbs concentrick, while comets move all manner of ways in orbs very excentrick? and What hinders the fixed stars from falling upon one another?
  • Query 28 : Are not all Hypotheses erroneous in which Light is supposed to consist of Pression or Motion propagated through a fluid medium?

• The changing of bodies into light, and light into bodies, is very conformable to the course of Nature, which seems delighted with transmutations.
  • Query 30 : Are not gross bodies and light convertible into one another, and may not bodies receive much of their activity from the particles of light which enter into their composition?

• It seems probable to me that God, in the beginning, formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportions to space, as most conduced to the end for which He formed them; and that these primitive particles, being solids, are incomparably harder than any porous bodies compounded of them, even so very hard as never to wear or break in pieces; no ordinary power being able to divide what God had made one in the first creation. While the particles continue entire, they may compose bodies of one and the same nature and texture in all ages: but should they wear away or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them would be changed.
  • Query 31 : Have not the small particles of bodies certain powers, virtues, or forces, by which they act at a distance, not only upon the rays of light for reflecting, refracting, and inflecting them, but also upon one another for producing a great part of the Phenomena of nature?

Board of Longitude

• One [method] is by a Watch to keep time exactly. But, by reason of the motion of the Ship, the Variation of Heat and Cold, Wet and Dry, and the Difference of Gravity in different Latitudes, such a watch hath not yet been made.
  • Written in remarks to the 1714 Longitude committee; quoted in Longitude (1995) by Dava Sobel, p. 52 (i998 edition) ISBN 1-85702-571-7),

• A good watch may serve to keep a recconing at Sea for some days and to know the time of a Celestial Observ[at]ion: and for this end a good Jewel watch may suffice till a better sort of Watch can be found out. But when the Longitude at sea is once lost, it cannot be found again by any watch.
  • Letter to Josiah Burchett (1721), quoted in Longitude (1995) by Dava Sobel, p. 60

A short Schem of the true Religion

Religion is partly fundamental & immutable partly circumstantial & mutable.

We must be righteous & do to all men as we would they should do to us.

Undated manuscript : Keynes Ms. 7: '"A short Schem of the true Religion'"

• Religion is partly fundamental & immutable partly circumstantial & mutable. The first was the Religion of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham Moses Christ & all the saints & consists of two parts our duty towards God & our duty towards man or piety & righteousness, piety which I will here call Godliness & Humanity.

• Godliness consists in the knowledge love & worship of God, Humanity in love, righteousness & good offices towards man.
  • Of Godliness

• Atheism is so senseless & odious to mankind that it never had many professors. Can it be by accident that all birds beasts & men have their right side & left side alike shaped (except in their bowells) & just two eyes & no more on either side the face & just two ears on either side the head & a nose with two holes & no more between the eyes & one mouth under the nose & either two fore leggs or two wings or two arms on the sholders & two leggs on the hipps one on either side & no more? Whence arises this uniformity in all their outward shapes but from the counsel & contrivance of an Author? Whence is it that the eyes of all sorts of living creatures are transparent to the very bottom & the only transparent members in the body, having on the outside an hard transparent skin, & within transparent juyces with a crystalline Lens in the middle & a pupil before the Lens all of them so truly shaped & fitted for vision, that no Artist can mend them? Did blind chance know that there was light & what was its refraction & fit the eys of all creatures after the most curious manner to make use of it? These & such like considerations always have & ever will prevail with man kind to believe that there is a being who made all things & has all things in his power & who is therfore to be feared.
  • Of Atheism

• Idolatry is a more dangerous crime because it is apt by the authority of Kings & under very specious pretenses to insinuate it self into mankind. Kings being apt to enjoyn the honour of their dead ancestors: & it seeming very plausible to honour the souls of Heroes & Saints & to believe that they can heare us & help us & are mediators between God & man & reside & act principally in the temples & statues dedicated to their honour & memory? And yet this being against the principal part of religion is in scripture condemned & detested above all other crimes. The sin consists first in omitting the service of the true God.
  • Of Idolatry

• The other part of the true religion is our duty to man. We must love our neighbour as our selves, we must be charitable to all men for charity is the greatest of graces, greater then even faith or hope & covers a multitude of sins. We must be righteous & do to all men as we would they should do to us.
  • Of Humanity

• No man hath seen God at any time, if we love one another God dwelleth in us. — If a man say I love God & hateth his brother he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
  • Of Humanity

Disputed

• I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
  • This first appears in Henry Richard Fox Bourne's 1876 The Romance of Trade as "I can calculate the motions of erratic stars, but not the madness of the multitude" (claimed to be Newton's view on the outcome of the South Sea Bubble).^[1]
  • Variants: I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies but not the madness of men.
    I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.

• It is the perfection of God's works that they are all done with the greatest simplicity. He is the God of order and not of confusion. And therefore as they would understand the frame of the world must endeavor to reduce their knowledge to all possible simplicity, so must it be in seeking to understand these visions.
  • Cited in Rules for methodizing the Apocalypse, Rule 9, from a manuscript published in The Religion of Isaac Newton (1974) by Frank E. Manuel, p. 120, quoted in Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (1983) by Richard S. Westfall, p. 326, in Fables of Mind: An Inquiry Into Poe's Fiction (1987) by Joan Dayan, p. 240, and in Everything Connects: In Conference with Richard H. Popkin (1999) by Richard H. Popkin, James E. Force, and David S. Katz, p. 124

• Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.
  • Cited in Rules for methodizing the Apocalypse, Rule 9, from a manuscript published in The Religion of Isaac Newton (1974) by Frank E. Manuel, p. 120, as quoted in Socinianism And Arminianism : Antitrinitarians, Calvinists, And Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century Europe (2005) by Martin Mulsow, Jan Rohls, p. 273.
  • Variant: Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.
    • As quoted in God in the Equation : How Einstein Transformed Religion (2002) by Corey S. Powell, p. 29

• By always thinking unto them. ... I keep the subject constantly before me and wait till the first dawnings open little by little into the full light.
  • No known citation to Newton. First appears, attributed to him as a reply upon being asked how he made his discoveries, in an anecdote told at the Newton Tercentenary Celebrations: 15-19 July 1946 (1947) by The Royal Society; also in Nature (4 September 1965)

• Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.
  • As quoted in What If Jesus Had Never Been Born (1994) by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, p. 100; also in Lord Of All : Developing a Christian World-and-life View (2005) by the same authors.
  • "Atheism is so senseless" is a portion of a statement Newton is known to have made (which is posted above in "A short Schem of the true Religion"), but there have been no occurrences of the rest of this statement yet located prior to 1994. Newton is known to have been profoundly religious, but the tone, style and arguments simply do not seem to match any which Newton is likely to have used. The argument that Earth is the "right distance from the sun" and even the idea that its placement might have possibly been "by chance" are rather modern in tone, and strongly imply some evolutionary assumptions which Newton would not likely have even considered.

• If I had stayed for other people to make my tools and things for me, I had never made anything.
  • Not directly attributable to Newton. First appears in the 1934 Isaac Newton: a biography, citing unpublished papers by John Conduitt reporting an anecdote when Conduitt asked where he got the tools to make his reflecting telescope. Newton is said to have laughed and replied, "If I had stayed for other people to make my tools and things for me I had never made anything of it." ^[2]

Misattributed

• Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
  • Actually a statement by American advertising executive and author Howard W. Newton (1903 - 1951)

• In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.
  • No findable citation to a Newton work. It first appears around 1980, and has since been widely propagated, for instance via the book Fearfully and Wonderfully Made ^[3]

Quotes about Newton

His peculiar gift was the power of holding continuously in his mind a purely mental problem until he had seen it through. ~ John Maynard Keynes

• He bought a book of Iudicial Astrology out of a curiosity to see what there was in that science & read in it till he came to a figure of the heavens which he could not understand for want of being acquainted with Trigonometry, & to understand the ground of that bought an English Euclid with an Index of all the problems at the end of it & only turned to two or three which he thought necessary for his purpose & read nothing but the titles of them finding them so easy & self evident that he wondered any body would be at the pains of writing a demonstration of them & laid Euclid aside as a trifling book, & was soon convinced of the vanity & emptiness of the pretended science of Iudicial astrology.
  • An account by John Conduitt, Newton's assistant and his niece's husband, of Newton saying that, as a young student, he had read a book on astrology and was not impressed with it. Also quoted in The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton (1967) by D.T. Whiteside, M.A. Hoskin and A. Prag, Vol. 1, pp. 15-19.

• His peculiar gift was the power of holding continuously in his mind a purely mental problem until he had seen it through.
  • John Maynard Keynes, in Essays in Biography (1933)

• Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind that looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10 000 years ago.
  • John Maynard Keynes, Address to the Royal Society Club (1942), as quoted in A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1977) by Alan L. MacKay, p.140

• Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
  God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.
  • Alexander Pope

• There is a traditional story about Newton: as a young student, he began the study of geometry, as was usual in his time, with the reading of the Elements of Euclid. He read the theorems, saw that they were true, and omitted the proofs. He wondered why anybody should take pains to prove things so evident. Many years later, however, he changed his opinion and praised Euclid. The story may be authentic or not, ...
  • George Pólya, How to Solve It (1945); Page 215 in the Expanded Princeton Science Library Edition (2004), ISBN 0-691-11966-X

References

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Isaac Newton

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Isaac Newton

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Isaac Newton

• The Newton Project
• Brief biography at the University of St Andrews
• "All Was Light : Isaac Newton's Revolutions" exhibit at Huntington Library
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Newton's views on space, time, and motion
• Newton and Astrology
• Works by Isaac Newton at Project Gutenberg
• Newton's Reports as Master of the Royal Mint
• "Newton Reconsidered"
• "Sir Isaac Newton", a brief biography
• "Newton's line in a circumscribed quadrilateral"

From Wikitravel

Newton is a city in Massachusetts and a western suburb of Boston. Newton is nicknamed "The Garden City" and is one of Boston's oldest suburbs, settled in 1630.

Understand

Newton is made up of 13 "villages" or neighborhoods, including Auburndale, Chestnut Hill, Lower Falls, Newton Centre, Newton Corner, Newton Highlands, Newtonville, Nonantum, Oak Hill, Thompsonville, Upper Falls, Waban, and West Newton. While mainly a suburb of Boston, it is a sizable city in its own right, boasting a population of over 80,000. Each village has its own historical and architectural character. Many of the villages grew up around railroad stations after the Boston & Worcester Railroad opened up through the north side of Newton in 1833. Another railroad line opened up across the south side of Newton in 1851 and is the "D" Branch of the MBTA's Green Line today. Walking tours of most villages are available through the website of the Newton City Planning Department[1].

Striking enclaves of Victorian houses and Gothic Revival churches can be seen in Auburndale, Chestnut Hill, Newton Centre, Newton Corner, Newton Highlands, and Newtonville, and West Newton Hill. Newton's grandest boulevard is Commonwealth Avenue, which winds through the entire city and is lined with historic mansions. "Comm Ave," as it is known to Bostonians, connects Boston to Weston and serves as the route of the Boston Marathon (Patriot's Day, third Monday of April). Heartbreak Hill begins just east of Newton City Hall. Divided down the middle by a landscaped mall that runs throughout the city, the street was designed by celebrated landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead, who also designed Central Park in New York City and the Emerald Necklace in Boston.

For trivia buffs: in 1886, Nabisco's Fig Newton cookie was named after the City of Newton.

Get in

By plane

Logan International Airport in Boston is the most convenient and has various ground transportation alternatives available.

• Mass Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), [2]. Newton is connected to Boston and surrounding communities by light rail/streetcar, commuter rail, and busses. The Green Line "D" Branch (Riverside line) is a light rail line running into downtown Boston, about 30 minutes away. It runs frequently throughout the day. The commuter rail line, which originates at Boston's South Station, has stops at Newtonville, West Newton, and Auburndale villages and travels west to Framingham and Worcester. It operates frequently at the rush hours and less often the rest of the day. Express busses travel from Washington Street to the Massachusetts Turnpike and on to downtown Boston.

By car

Newton is on the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90) and Interstate 95 (also called Route 128). Routes 9 and 16 also pass through the city. From Boston, you can also reach Newton via city streets: both Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue run directly to and throughout Newton, and provide a more scenic drive (particularly Beacon Street).

Get around

By car

Cars are generally the most convenient means of transportation, but sometimes impractical due to traffic.

By train or bus

Newton is well-served by the MBTA bus, light rail, and commuter rail lines. The D line of the T's Green Line provides the best access throughout Newton, with 7 stops located in the city. Otherwise, there are 3 commuter rail stops in the city, and several bus lines.

By bike

Drivers are not considerate to bikers, so only an experienced biker could bike in Newton on the street. However, there are numerous parks and school yards to bike in.

By taxi

Taxis are exorbitantly expensive in Newton and in Boston in general; try to avoid them if you can.

• Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead, 527 Washington Street, Phone: +1 617 796-1450, [3]. Tu-Sa 11AM-5PM, Su 2PM-5PM. A Federal-style farmhouse built in 1809. The museum offers an intriguing introduction to Newton's history with exhibits of paintings, photographs, costumes, and historic objects. The house was a station on the Underground Railroad hiding escaped slaves. $5/$3.

• Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, [4]. See the original Neo-Gothic campus with buildings designed by Maginnis & Walsh. The McMullen Museum of Art shows changing art exhibits. Alumni Stadium and the Conte Forum showcase BC's football, basketball, and hockey teams.

• Newton Free Library, 330 Homer Street, Phone: +1 617 796-1360, [5]. Airy contemporary library with extensive collection, Newton History Room, and auditorium with constant concerts and lectures.

• Newton Centre, Intersection of Centre Street and Beacon Street. The largest and most bustling of the city's village centers. Boasts a number of high-end clothing stores, salons and spas, restaurants of various cuisines, coffee shops, ice cream shops, and banks. Abuts Newton's largest public park. Only a short stroll from beautiful Crystal Lake.

• Newton Highlands, Intersection of Walnut Street and Lincoln Street. Perhaps the most quaint of Newton's village centers. Mostly a daytime destination for locals, but has some of the best restaurants in the city, and one of the best independent coffee shops, Lincoln Street Cafe.

• In the warmer months, rent a canoe or kayak at the Charles River Boathouse off Commonwealth Avenue at the Weston Bridge (Route 30).

• West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, Phone: +1 617 964-6060, [6]. See a foreign or independent film at one of the region's top cinemas.

• In Newtonville, view annual Independence Day firework at Albemarle Field along the banks of Cheesecake Brook (corner of Albemarle Rd. and Crafts St.).

• Go for a swim at scenic Crystal Lake in Newton Highlands, and enjoy the beautiful houses abutting the lake.

• Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill. Located between Boston College campus and Cleveland Circle. A beautiful reservoir with biking and walking trails surrounding it. Very popular during warm weather months. Like Commonwealth Avenue in Newton, the reservoir was also designed by renowned landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead.

• Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut Street, Newtonville--Independent bookstore noted for contemporary fiction, children's books, and frequent author readings.
• Chestnut Hill Mall, Route 9, Chestnut Hill--A very expensive, high-fashion mall. Houses the only Bloomingdale's in New England and, until recently, the only Barney's New York (a second store opened in 2006 in Copley Mall in downtown Boston).
• Atrium at Chestnut Hill, Route 9, Chestnut Hill--Another very expensive mall. Glitzier than the Chestnut Hill Mall. Includes the Cheesecake Factory, Tiffany's, Borders, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware.
• Simon and Sons, 210 Needham Street. Friendly, helpful, family run store selling mainly boy's suits but with men's also.

• Baker's Best, 27 Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands. Tasty breakfast, lunch, baked goods, takeout.
• O'Hara's, 1185 Walnut Street, Newton Highlands. Irish pub with full menu.
• 51 Lincoln, 51 Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands. A contemporary American restaurant featuring globally influenced food and wine.
• Blue Ribbon BBQ, 1375 Wasington Street, West Newton. Authentic barbecue with all the fixings.
• Keltic Krust Bakery, 1371 Washington Street, West Newton. Irish wheat soda bread, petit fours, sandwiches, and coffee.
• Lumiere, 1293 Washington Street, Washington Street, West Newton. Top-rated French restaurant.
• Cabot's Ice Cream, 743 Washington Street, Newtonville. Classic ice cream parlor with full menu and all-day breakfast. Largest selection of sundaes around.
• Lam's, 825 Washington Street, Newtonville. Top-notch Vietnamese kitchen.
• Taste, 311 Walnut Street, Newtonville. Independent cafe featuring crepes and specialty sandwiches.
• Cafe Saint Petersburg, 57 Union Street, Newton Centre. Lively Russian restaurant.
• Johnny's Luncheonette, 30 Longley Road, Newton Centre. Contemporary diner-style breakfasts and sandwiches.
• Sol Azteca, 75 Union Street, Newton Centre. Full-scale Mexican restaurant with outdoor terrace.
• Antoine's Bakery, 317 Watertown Street, Nonantum. Old-fashioned bakery with cakes, cinnamon bread, and cookies.
• Legal Seafoods, Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill. The most famous of Boston's seafood restaurants. The clam chowder has been served at the U.S. president's inaugural ball for years. Very pricey.
• Skipjack's, Needham Street, Newton Upper Falls. Another great, if pricey, seafood restaurant.
• Pava, Centre Street, Newton Centre. An upscale bistro; attached to the very upscale Tess/Carlos clothing store. A bit pretentious, but has an excellent chef.
• Lincoln Street Cafe, Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands. One of the best independent coffee shops in the city, with excellent espresso and a very laid back atmosphere. Has live music some nights of the week. A welcome change from the ubiquitous Starbucks shops that fill the rest of the village centers.
• Karoun, 839 Washington Street, Newtonville. Armenian and Middle Eastern cuisine, plus featuring live music and belly dancing.
• Coconut Cafe, 759 Beacon Street, Newton Centre. Great Thai food. Seating is limited.
• Amarin of Thailand, 287 Centre Street, Newton Corner. Another great Thai restaurant with an authentic ambiance.
• Tartufo, 22 Union Street, Newton Centre. Very popular Italian restaurant overlooking Newton Centre.
• Kouzina, 1649 Beacon St., Waban. Greek and Mediterranean style restaurant; great food and great wine.
• Tango Mango, Centre Street, Newton Centre. Small taco joint, not nearly as good as Annas Tacqueria in Brookline
• Village Cafe, 719 Washington Street, Newton. Great place for breakfast and lunch.

• Union Street, 107R Union Street, Newton Centre. An older, more local crowd. A popular after-work place, with a very pleasant terrace designed to feel like a roof deck.
• Buff's Pub, 317 Washington Street, Newton Corner. After work place. Good bar food.

• Hotel Indigo Boston Newton Riverside, 399 Grove Street (From Downtown Boston:Take I-90 West to I-95 South to Exit 22, Grove Street.), ☎ +1 617 969-5300, [7]. Contemporary boutique hotel with free internet, outdoor pool, and on-site restaurant.  edit

• Boston Marriott Newton, 2345 Commonwealth Avenue, +1 617 969-1000, (Fax: +1 617 527-6914), [8]. Indoor pool, onsite restaurant.

• Sheraton Newton, 320 Washington Street, +1 617 969-3010 (Fax: +1 617 630-2976, [9]. Built above the Massachusetts Turnpike at Exit 17.

• Holiday Inn, 399 Grove Street, +1 617 969-5300, [10].

• Best Western Terrace Inn, 1650 Commonwealth Avenue, +1 617 566-6260,[11]. Free continental breakfast and free parking.

• Mount Ida College, Located in the more suburban south side of the city.
• Boston College, Originally located in Boston's South End, the campus moved to the Boston/Newton border in the 19th Century. The Boston campus (which is actually located in Newton) is filled with stunning Collegiate Gothic architecture, while the Newton campus boasts more modern buildings.
• Lassell College, Located in Auburndale. Lovely campus, some of which overlooks Woodlands Country Club golf course.
• Andover Theological Seminary, Located right next to Newton Centre.

• Newton North High School and Newton South High School are among the best public high schools in the country. There are several elementary schools which feed into four middle schools and ultimately the two high schools.

Contact

Greater Boston uses 10-digit dialing. This means you need to include the area code whenever you are making a call. The standard area code is 617, but some phone numbers, especially cell phones, use the new 857 overlay.

• Boston proper is a 10- to 20-minute train ride on the Green Line of the T, and only a 5-minute car ride on the Mass Pike (I-90).
• Cape Cod is home to some of New England's best beaches, seafood, and sightseeing. The Sagamore and Bourne Bridges are about 1 hour by car from Newton. The Cape is also accessible by bus.

From LoveToKnow 1911

There is more than one meaning of Newton discussed in the 1911 Encyclopedia. We are planning to let all links go to the correct meaning directly, but for now you will have to search it out from the list below by yourself. If you want to change the link that led you here yourself, it would be appreciated.

• Newton, Kansas
• Newton, Massachusetts
• Newton-in-Makerfield
• Sir Isaac Newton

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

English

Proper noun

Newton

1. The name of many English places, from the Old English new town
2. An English habitational surname for someone from any of these places
3. Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher

Anagrams

• Anagrams of ennotw
• went on

German

Noun

Newton, m. (plural: Newton)

1. newton (unit of measure)

From Wikispecies

Alfred F. Newton, entomologist

External links

• Home page at the Chicago Field Museum