NATS 1745 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Cambridge University R.U.F.C., Roygbiv, Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society
22 Jul 2017
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*born in the year that galileo died. Father died before he was born, and mom re-married. Didn"t initially show any adeptness to science/school in general. Only engaged with it later in his school years. Studied philosophy, math, and ancient greeks at cambridge u. Aware of kepler, galileo, and copernicus"s work. Great interest in alchemy (precursor to chemistry), and the bible. May have been looking for the philosopher"s stone. Also instances of the plague at the time (spread by rats) 1666 plague got so bad, uni closed and everyone was sent home. Had a lot of freedom and time to think. Referred to this year/time as his annus mirabilis (miracle year) Had seeds of thought" (discoveries) during this year: Important for creative process: gravity law of universal gravitation, motion 3 laws of motion, light, colour, and optics, calculus. *got into trouble because another mathematician (lagnus) claimed to have come up with calculus. *each convinced that the other stole their idea.
