Newton’s Laws: 1659–1687

“To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age,” said Isaac Newton. One of the greatest scientists who ever lived, Newton was responsible for several revolutions. Establishing his laws of gravity in mathematical instead of mystical terms was a revolution in itself. Describing the attraction between the Earth and an apple in the same terms as between the planets and the Sun demolished Aristotle’s legacy. A theoretician in astronomy, Newton was also an experimentalist in optics. Understanding the constitution of light was another revolution. Inventing calculus (simultaneously with Leibniz) created a new sort of mathematics. Of course, all of these discoveries built upon the century of work comprising the Scientific Revolution. By making the transition from providing explanations based on observations and experiments into formulating generalizable laws of physics, Newton set the scene for modern science (although he also continued to work in alchemy). In the following century, there were major advances as physics, chemistry, and biology became separate disciplines.