Isaac Newton
The work of Isaac Newton dominated physics for nearly 2 centuries.
He published 2 of of the most important scientific books ever written: Principia (1687),
which explained his laws of motion and the theory of gravitational; and Opticks (1704),
which investigated light. Isaac Newton is an independent, brilliant thinker and not an
easy man to get along.
Optics
Optics was another area of Newton's early interests. In trying to
explain how colors occur, he arrived at the idea that sunlight is a heterogeneous blend of
different rays—each of which represents a different color—and that reflections
and refraction cause colors to appear by separating the blend into its components. Newton
demonstrated his theory of colors by passing a beam of sunlight through a type of prism,
which split the beam into separate colors.
