Isaac Newton: Light, Motion, and Questions

A look inside

The opening of Isaac Newton: Light, Motion, and Questions, free to read.

1. 

   A narrow beam of sunlight crossed Isaac Newton’s dark room. He sent it through a prism, a clear piece of glass shaped like a triangle. Colors spread across the wall. Why did white light make so many colors? Isaac expected something else. To understand what he saw, he would test the light again. His question began long before that bright strip appeared.

2. 

   Years earlier, Isaac was born at Woolsthorpe, a farmhouse in England. His father had died before he was born. When Isaac was small, his mother remarried and moved to another village. Isaac stayed with his grandmother. People who knew him later told stories about the things he made as a boy. Those stories show a child who liked to watch how things worked.

3. 

   Near his school, workers built a windmill. A windmill uses moving air to turn a wheel. Isaac watched the workers, then made a small model from wood. According to a later account, a mouse could make his model turn. Watching was his first step; making a working model was another. He wanted to see whether an idea about motion would work.