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Stephen Hawking
Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica 1689, in which he outlined his theories about the celestial bodies, how they move in space and time, and the math to back it all up. He came up with the idea of gravity, a force that is stronger the bigger and closer an object is. He said the image of a falling apple prompted the idea and showed that gravity caused the planets’ elongated orbits. Given this new idea of gravity, which all objects produced, Newton wondered why all the stars didn’t fall in on each other; he did not realize that the universe must be expanding. Working from Galileo’s measurements, Newton produced his laws of motion and gravity. He was troubled by the idea of non-absolute space that his theories prompted, however, as they did not agree with his idea of an absolute God. Newton also believed in absolute time; neither space nor time are now considered as absolute. Though Einstein’s later general theory of relativity was shown to be more accurate at predicting the exact movements of the stars, Newton’s laws are simpler and still accurate enough for daily applications. Newton was also Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, as was Stephen Hawking much later.
Sir Isaac Newton Quotes in A Brief History of Time
The A Brief History of Time quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Isaac Newton or refer to Sir Isaac Newton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
As far as Kepler was concerned, elliptical orbits were merely an ad hoc hypothesis, and a rather repugnant one at that, because ellipses were clearly less perfect than circles. […] he could not reconcile them with his idea that the planets were made to orbit the sun by magnetic forces.
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It is an interesting reflection on the general climate of thought before the twentieth century that no one had suggested that the universe was expanding or contracting. [...] this may have been due to people’s tendency to believe in eternal truths, as well as the comfort they found in the thought that even though they may grow old and die, the universe is eternal and unchanging.
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Chapter 2
Quotes
The Aristotelian tradition also held that one could work out all the laws that govern the universe by pure thought: it was not necessary to check by observation. So no one until Galileo bothered to see whether bodies of different weight did in fact fall at different speeds.
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Newton was very worried by this lack of absolute position, or absolute space, as it was called, because it did not accord with his idea of an absolute God. In fact, he refused to accept lack of absolute space, even though it was implied by his laws.
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Sir Isaac Newton Quotes in A Brief History of Time
The A Brief History of Time quotes below are all either spoken by Sir Isaac Newton or refer to Sir Isaac Newton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
As far as Kepler was concerned, elliptical orbits were merely an ad hoc hypothesis, and a rather repugnant one at that, because ellipses were clearly less perfect than circles. […] he could not reconcile them with his idea that the planets were made to orbit the sun by magnetic forces.
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Explanation and Analysis:
It is an interesting reflection on the general climate of thought before the twentieth century that no one had suggested that the universe was expanding or contracting. [...] this may have been due to people’s tendency to believe in eternal truths, as well as the comfort they found in the thought that even though they may grow old and die, the universe is eternal and unchanging.
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Chapter 2
Quotes
The Aristotelian tradition also held that one could work out all the laws that govern the universe by pure thought: it was not necessary to check by observation. So no one until Galileo bothered to see whether bodies of different weight did in fact fall at different speeds.
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Newton was very worried by this lack of absolute position, or absolute space, as it was called, because it did not accord with his idea of an absolute God. In fact, he refused to accept lack of absolute space, even though it was implied by his laws.
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Page Number and Citation:
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