走进剑桥大学 第8期:牛顿的苹果树

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

牛顿的苹果树

Newton was an English physicist¹ and mathmatician,and was the greatest scientist in his era.

牛顿是一位英国物理学家和数学家，也是他那个时代最卓越的科学家之一。

Isaac Newton was born on 4 January 1643 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. His father was a prosperous farmer, who died three months before Newton was born. His mother remarried and Newton was left in the care of his grandparents. In 1661，he went to Cambridge

1643年1月4号，艾萨克牛顿出生于林肯郡伍尔索坡。牛顿的父亲是一个富裕的农民，在牛顿出生前3个月就过世了。他的妈妈改嫁，而他则由祖父母养大成人。1661年，他进入剑桥大学学习，对数学、光学、物理学和天文学产生了兴趣。1665年10月，一场大瘟疫迫使剑桥大学暂时关闭，牛顿回到了伍尔索坡。在那两年中他收获颇丰，他开始思考重力问题，还致力于光学和数学研究，提出了“微积分”的概念。

University where he became interested in mathematics, optics，physics and astronomy. In October 1665, a plague epidemic² forced the university to close and Newton returned to Woolsthorpe. The two years he spent there were an extremely fruitful time during which he began to think about gravity. He also devoted³ time to optics and mathematics, working out his ideas about calculus⁴. In 1667, Newton returned to Cambridge, where he became a fellow of Trinity College. Two years later he was appointed second Lucasian professor of mathematics. It was Newton’s reflecting telescope, made in 1668，that finally brought him to the attention of the scientific community and in 1672 he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. From the mid-1660s, Newton conducted a series of experiments on the composition of light, discovering that white light is composed of the same system of colours that can be seen in a rainbow and establishing the modern study of optics. In 1704，Newton published The Opticks which dealt with light and colour.He also studied and published works on history, theology and alchemy.

1667年，牛顿回到剑桥大学，成为三一学院的研究员。两年后他被任命为第二任卢卡斯数学教授。1668年牛顿发明的反射望远镜终于使他受到科学界的关注。1672年，牛顿成为了英国皇家学会的会员。从17世纪60年代中期起，牛顿做了一系列关于光的构成的实验，发现了白光是由同一体系的不用颜色构成的，那些不同的颜色可以在彩虹中看到。他由此创立了现代光学。1704年，牛顿出版了《光学》一书，阐述了光和颜色的有关原理。他还研宄历史、神学和炼金术，并出版了相关著作。

In 1687，with the support of his friend the astronomer⁵ Edmond Hailey, Newton published his single greatest work, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy). This showed how gravity, applied⁶ to all objects in all parts of the universe.

1687年，在他的朋友，天文学家埃德蒙哈雷的帮助下，牛顿出版了他最伟大的专著《自然哲学的数学原理》。这本著作展示了万有引力是如何适用于宇宙中的万事万物的。

In 1689, Newton was elected member of parliament for Cambridge University, In 1696, Newton was appointed warden⁷ of the Royal Mint, settling in London. He took his duties at the Mint very seriously and campaigned against corruption⁸ and inefficiency⁹ within the organization. In 1703，he was elected president of the Royal Society, an office he held until his death. He was knighted in 1705.

1689年，牛顿当选为剑桥大学校委会委员。1696年，他被任命为位于伦敦的皇家铸币厂的监管人。他在铸币厂尽心尽力工作，并在铸币厂内部发起反腐败和反低效率工作的运动。1703年，牛顿被评选为英国皇家学会主席，并一直担任这个职务直到去世。1705年，他被封为爵士。

Newton was a difficult man, prone¹⁰ to depression and often involved in bitter arguments with other scientists, but by the early 1700s he was the dominant¹¹ figure in British and European science. He died on 31 March 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

牛顿不是个容易相处的人，他有抑郁倾向，经常陷入和其他科学家的激烈争论中。 但是一直到18世纪早期,牛顿仍是英国乃至欧洲科学界的领军人物。1727年3月31日，牛顿逝世，葬于威斯敏斯特教堂。

分享到：