Pandemic Physics (article) by Susan K. Smith on AuthorsDen

Sir Isaac Newton's pandemic lock down gave birth to his annus miribilis - Year of Wonders.

Pandemic giant leap in Physics?

As of this posting, many have been in "lock down" since mid-March 2020. All due to precautions to manage the Coronavirus ( COVID-19) pandemic.

350 years ago...

Another young man was under "lock down" during a perilous pandemic. The bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death. Though the plague first hit during the mid-1300s, it reared its ugly head in future generations. Such as in England as The Great Plague 1665--the Black Death.

The name of this young man in quarantine?

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726).

And today, many scientists recognize him as the Father of Modern Science. Stepping out of the shadows of the Dark Ages into Modern Times.

A Giant among Giants.

And his story to support that claim is told in the video below:

( reference: https://youtu.be/MApnf7L4g44 )

Newton's pandemic lock down gave birth to his annus miribilis - Year of Wonders.

In those 18 months, he developed:

(1) Calculus

(2) Laws of Optics

(3) Laws of Motion

(4) Law of Universal Gravitation.

At the age of 25.

Reference: Isaac Newton Changed the World While in Quarantine From the Plague

And friend Sir Edmund Halley (1656-1742) of Halley's Comet urged Newton to publish his works,

The Principia (1687).

Now considered one of the greatest works in the history of science.

During this pandemic, what "Newton" may emerge from quarantine?

And will Pandemic 2020 give birth to a new "Roaring 20's"?

---------------------------------

Previous posts in this series:

Physics (part 1) - Picking Feynman's Brain (2013)

Physics (part 2) - Flat Earth? It depends ... (2015)

Physics (part 3) - 100 years of Einstein (2015)

Physics (part 4) - Einstein and Pi (2016)

Physics (part 5) - Be Curious, Don't Give Up (2018)

Physics (part 6) - Eclipse 1919 (2019)

---------------------------------

Photo: Newton/wikipedia.com

Web Site: smithsk: Physics (part 7) - Pandemic Physics

Hiraeth- (noun) - a deep, wistful, nostalgic sense of longing for home; a home that is no longer or perhaps never was. A yearning and wistful grief fo

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on June 3, 2020

I struggled with calculus and can't imagine what it must've been like to invent it. I knew others that found calculus to be "fun," and I never wanted to play chess with them. ;-)

I like your question at the end. You think that the brilliant thinker will be working with "crowdsourcing" his/her ideas?

As I watched the video presented so simply and clearly, it reminded me why I loved physics so much. All of those hard-won principles seemed so natural and inherently correct. To think they may be overturned by some string theory or theory of everything is beyond my meager comprehension.

Ron

Reviewed by E Phillips

Reviewed on May 31, 2020

This is very informative, Susan. Newton was indeed an intellectual in a class by himself. But Einstein was "up there" also. In fact, it was Einstein who corrected Newton's inverse square law by adding the gravitational constant G. Otherwise, we might still be making tiny little corrections to orbital paths without knowing why. I'm only poking fun at those who like to use the term "greatest" when trying to make distinctions among the "best of the best."