WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Welcome to the deep dive. Today we are taking 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:06.400 on a figure so foundational to modern thought. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:08.960 It's well it's easy to feel like we already know 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:11.019 him. I'm talking about Sir Isaac Newton. Right. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:14.199 But the simplified image we hold you know the 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:16.399 genius who merely happened to be sitting under 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:20.179 an apple tree. It hides a truth that is far stranger, 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:24.100 more contradictory, and ultimately far more compelling. 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:26.719 That's exactly where the sources become so essential. 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:28.920 Because when you actually analyze the entire 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:32.619 historical record, you see a figure of just unparalleled 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:35.280 intellectual rigor. The public scientist who 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:38.060 defined math and physics for centuries. The man 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:40.390 we all learn about in school. Precisely. But 00:00:40.390 --> 00:00:42.270 he's existing simultaneously with this deeply 00:00:42.270 --> 00:00:44.969 secretive private man. I mean, this was someone 00:00:44.969 --> 00:00:46.869 obsessed with pursuits his contemporaries might 00:00:46.869 --> 00:00:49.109 have labeled heresy or, you know, even black 00:00:49.109 --> 00:00:51.130 magic. What are we talking about here? We're 00:00:51.130 --> 00:00:53.549 talking about complex, unorthodox theology and 00:00:53.549 --> 00:00:56.310 an extensive, decades -long devotion to alchemy. 00:00:56.469 --> 00:00:59.719 Okay, so let's unpack this monumental life. Our 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:01.960 mission for you, the intellectually curious learner, 00:01:02.100 --> 00:01:05.120 is to move far beyond the famous principia and 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:08.140 the laws of motion. We are plunging into his 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:11.599 golden years of secretive discovery. Yes. His 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.060 controversial spiritual beliefs that he had to 00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:16.879 hide from the Anglican Church. His highly effective 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:19.980 real world role reforming the nation's coinage. 00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:22.439 And I mean, why historians like the physicist 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:24.859 James Jeans were compelled to call him perhaps 00:01:24.859 --> 00:01:27.500 the greatest intellect the human race has seen. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.299 We're examining a polymath in the truest sense 00:01:30.299 --> 00:01:33.120 of the word. You have Newton, the mathematician, 00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:35.359 the physicist, the astronomer, the theologian, 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:37.640 the alchemist, and crucially, the master of the 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:39.780 royal mint. That's an incredible list. It is. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:41.579 And his collected work is rightly considered 00:01:41.579 --> 00:01:43.560 the most influential in bringing forth modern 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:46.420 science and really igniting the Enlightenment. 00:01:46.500 --> 00:01:49.799 Yet his personal reality was this intense, often 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:53.299 volatile blend of... rigorous rationality, and 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:55.459 profound occult interest. So let's start at the 00:01:55.459 --> 00:01:57.500 beginning, because to understand the towering 00:01:57.500 --> 00:01:59.760 figure of the adult Newton, I think we have to 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.079 look at the unstable foundation he was built 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:05.400 on. Precisely. His was a difficult and unstable 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:08.479 start. He was born prematurely on Christmas Day, 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:11.759 that's December 25th, 1642, under the old style 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:16.360 calendar, which translates to January 4th, 1643, 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:19.400 in the new style at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire. 00:02:19.710 --> 00:02:21.650 And his father died before he was even born. 00:02:21.930 --> 00:02:24.729 That's right. Before you ever knew him, his father, 00:02:24.810 --> 00:02:27.449 who was also named Isaac Newton, died three months 00:02:27.449 --> 00:02:29.969 before his birth. So he was born into loss. And 00:02:29.969 --> 00:02:32.189 then a few years later, he experienced what seems 00:02:32.189 --> 00:02:35.159 like a profound abandonment. His mother, Hannah 00:02:35.159 --> 00:02:37.900 Ascoff, remarried. She did. She married the wealthy 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:39.780 Reverend Barnabas Smith when Newton was only 00:02:39.780 --> 00:02:42.240 three, and she moved away to live with her new 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.780 husband, leaving young Isaac to be raised by 00:02:44.780 --> 00:02:47.139 his maternal grandmother. That's a massive psychological 00:02:47.139 --> 00:02:49.620 shock for a small child. I mean, you can't overstate 00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:51.939 that. It was. And the intensity of his resulting 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.680 resentment is, well, it's shockingly documented 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:57.199 in his own hand. We have a surviving list of 00:02:57.199 --> 00:02:58.819 sins he wrote down that he had committed up to 00:02:58.819 --> 00:03:02.379 the age of 19. A list of his own sins. Yes. And 00:03:02.379 --> 00:03:04.759 among those entries, you find this revealing 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:07.759 and frankly, pretty alarming insight. He wrote, 00:03:07.860 --> 00:03:10.159 threatening my father and mother Smith to burn 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:13.360 them and the house over them. Wow. This is the 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:15.240 psychological foundation of the man who would 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:18.039 later define the universe with cold, elegant 00:03:18.039 --> 00:03:21.620 laws. He was intensely driven, often ruthlessly 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:24.099 competitive. And you have to think those traits 00:03:24.099 --> 00:03:26.939 may well stem from this early instability and 00:03:26.939 --> 00:03:30.379 this this need for control. So after an initial 00:03:30.379 --> 00:03:33.020 period of schooling at the King's School in Grantham, 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:36.419 his mother, who was widowed again, tried to make 00:03:36.419 --> 00:03:39.550 him a farmer. Right. An utterly miserable detour 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:42.210 for someone whose mind was clearly already operating 00:03:42.210 --> 00:03:44.969 at a different frequency. Oh, it was a very brief 00:03:44.969 --> 00:03:47.610 but miserable period for him. He absolutely hated 00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:50.090 the idea of farming. But his time at King's School 00:03:50.090 --> 00:03:53.830 from age 12 to 17 was essential because he had 00:03:53.830 --> 00:03:56.250 already gained a significant foundation in mathematics 00:03:56.250 --> 00:03:58.229 and geometry there. He was already standing out. 00:03:58.370 --> 00:04:01.430 He was. He distinguished himself by building 00:04:01.430 --> 00:04:04.409 these complex physical objects like sundials 00:04:04.409 --> 00:04:07.409 and remarkably intricate working models of windows. 00:04:07.629 --> 00:04:10.129 He only got to return to school after persistent 00:04:10.129 --> 00:04:12.629 persuasion from his former master, Henry Stokes, 00:04:12.729 --> 00:04:15.830 and his uncle, Reverend William Eiskoff. They 00:04:15.830 --> 00:04:17.569 saw his potential. And that's what cleared his 00:04:17.569 --> 00:04:21.449 path to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1661. But 00:04:21.449 --> 00:04:23.649 he didn't start privileged. We often forget that 00:04:23.649 --> 00:04:25.350 part of the story. He definitely had to hustle. 00:04:25.470 --> 00:04:28.370 He was admitted as a sub -sizar, which meant 00:04:28.370 --> 00:04:31.149 he had to perform menial valet duties for wealthier 00:04:31.149 --> 00:04:33.569 students just to put his way. It wasn't until 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:36.689 1664 that he secured a scholarship. And that 00:04:36.689 --> 00:04:38.670 provided the financial stability he needed to 00:04:38.670 --> 00:04:42.720 complete his B .A. in August 1665. And it's during 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.060 these university years that he moved from reading 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:47.459 the classical curriculum of Aristotle to absorbing 00:04:47.459 --> 00:04:49.639 the work of modern thinkers like Descartes and 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:51.759 Galileo. And that leads us to the great turning 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:54.519 point. Just as he finished his degree, fate, 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.040 you could say, intervened, shutting down the 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:59.319 entire academic world. The famous closure of 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:02.250 the university due to the Great Plague. Newton 00:05:02.250 --> 00:05:04.509 returned to the quiet of his childhood home in 00:05:04.509 --> 00:05:07.470 Woolsthorpe for nearly two years. And this period, 00:05:07.670 --> 00:05:12.370 1665 to 1667, is arguably the single most productive 00:05:12.370 --> 00:05:15.170 individual period in the entire history of science. 00:05:15.410 --> 00:05:17.870 It's the origin story of modern science itself, 00:05:18.110 --> 00:05:20.889 really. I mean, Louis Trenchard Moore, one of 00:05:20.889 --> 00:05:23.509 his biographers, described it as the richest 00:05:23.509 --> 00:05:25.850 and most productive ever experienced by a scientist. 00:05:26.300 --> 00:05:28.899 He even suggested there are no other examples 00:05:28.899 --> 00:05:31.459 of achievement in the history of science to compare 00:05:31.459 --> 00:05:33.779 with that of Newton during those two golden years. 00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:36.300 It was just an explosion of solitary genius. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:39.050 Totally. powered by his own furious drive and 00:05:39.050 --> 00:05:41.410 a massive intellectual appetite. And during those 00:05:41.410 --> 00:05:44.069 two years, he laid the groundwork for the trio 00:05:44.069 --> 00:05:46.230 of discoveries that would change the world. You 00:05:46.230 --> 00:05:48.050 have the initial development of his theories 00:05:48.050 --> 00:05:51.250 on infinitesimal calculus, which he called fluxions, 00:05:51.410 --> 00:05:54.029 the fundamental principles of optics, particularly 00:05:54.029 --> 00:05:56.529 his theory of color, and of course the formulation 00:05:56.529 --> 00:05:59.189 of the law of universal gravitation, all conceived 00:05:59.189 --> 00:06:01.230 and developed in complete intellectual isolation. 00:06:01.730 --> 00:06:04.149 And we also get glimpses into the mechanics of 00:06:04.149 --> 00:06:06.759 his organized mind during this period. The sources 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:10.120 describe him as exceptionally organized when 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:12.180 it came to his note -taking. What does that mean 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:15.019 exactly? What was he doing? Well, he would dog 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:18.100 -ear important pages, and his indexes, which 00:06:18.100 --> 00:06:21.019 were alphabetical, by topic, look remarkably 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:23.379 like the indexes we use today for quick reference. 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.699 And this organization was absolutely critical 00:06:25.699 --> 00:06:28.279 because the sources identify him as a Janusian 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:31.079 thinker, named after the two -faced Roman god 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:34.160 Janus. A Genusian thinker, what does that mean 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.639 in an academic context? It means he had this 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:39.519 rare ability to look simultaneously in two disparate 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:41.819 directions. He could mix and combine seemingly 00:06:41.819 --> 00:06:44.300 unrelated fields like, say, geometry and heat 00:06:44.300 --> 00:06:47.360 transfer or astronomy and theology to get these 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:49.379 creative breakthroughs. That makes so much sense. 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:51.540 This ability to synthesize across intellectual 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:54.060 boundaries, it definitely explains his later 00:06:54.060 --> 00:06:56.879 forays into alchemy and theology alongside his 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.420 rigorous physics. His mind was structured, but 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:03.560 it wasn't limited. So in 1667, the plague subsides 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:06.079 and he returns to Cambridge. He's elected as 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.740 a fellow of Trinity in October. But stability 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:11.660 brought its own crisis, the requirement that 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:14.319 all fellows take holy orders as Anglican priests. 00:07:14.779 --> 00:07:17.639 And this was a ticking time bomb because Newton 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:20.339 had privately and fundamentally rejected the 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:22.319 central doctrine of the Anglican Church. Yeah, 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.680 the Trinity. He wasn't just ambivalent. He actively 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:28.600 rejected it. He did. He was, in secret, an unorthodox 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.180 Christian. possibly a Socinian sympathizer or 00:07:31.180 --> 00:07:33.959 an Arian. The idea that Jesus Christ was co -equal 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:36.579 with God the Father was, in his eyes, a later 00:07:36.579 --> 00:07:39.139 corruption of scripture, and so for him, worshiping 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:42.180 Christ as God was idolatry. That is a life -altering, 00:07:42.220 --> 00:07:44.579 potentially career -ending, or even fatal heresy 00:07:44.579 --> 00:07:47.180 in 17th century England. How on earth did he 00:07:47.180 --> 00:07:49.319 navigate that risk? He was incredibly cautious 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:52.170 and, frankly, politically astute. He succeeded 00:07:52.170 --> 00:07:54.750 his mentor, Isaac Barrow, as the Lucasian professor 00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:58.269 of mathematics in 1669 at only 26 years old. 00:07:58.389 --> 00:08:01.310 An amazing achievement at that age, it was. And 00:08:01.310 --> 00:08:03.389 he successfully argued that this prestigious 00:08:03.389 --> 00:08:05.970 position should exempt him from the ordination 00:08:05.970 --> 00:08:08.829 requirement, emphasizing the time needed for 00:08:08.829 --> 00:08:11.649 his profound scientific studies. This request 00:08:11.649 --> 00:08:14.269 was actually accepted by King Charles II, which 00:08:14.269 --> 00:08:17.209 averted a major public conflict with Anglican 00:08:17.209 --> 00:08:19.850 orthodoxy that could have completely ruined him. 00:08:20.089 --> 00:08:22.389 It's fascinating, then, that the same position 00:08:22.389 --> 00:08:25.129 that saved his career was the one he seemed to 00:08:25.129 --> 00:08:27.910 care least about in terms of its contractual 00:08:27.910 --> 00:08:30.990 duties. That's the great irony. Despite being 00:08:30.990 --> 00:08:33.570 the Lucasian professor, he was notoriously terrible 00:08:33.570 --> 00:08:35.909 at the actual teaching part. Really? Oh, yeah. 00:08:36.590 --> 00:08:38.830 Biographical accounts suggest his classes were 00:08:38.830 --> 00:08:41.840 almost always empty. His assistant noted that 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:44.159 Newton would arrive on time, and if no one showed 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.179 up, he would just cut the lecture time from 30 00:08:46.179 --> 00:08:48.539 minutes to 15, talk to the walls for a bit, and 00:08:48.539 --> 00:08:50.740 then retreat to his experiments or his private 00:08:50.740 --> 00:08:53.240 studies. So he was just checking a box. Exactly. 00:08:53.820 --> 00:08:56.600 He fulfilled his contractual obligation to lecture, 00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:58.659 but he enjoyed neither teaching nor students. 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:01.519 It paints this picture of a man who valued intense 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:04.720 personal study and discovery far, far above public 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:07.129 engagement. So having established the psychological 00:09:07.129 --> 00:09:09.990 engine and that initial burst of solitary genius, 00:09:10.330 --> 00:09:12.830 let's focus on the staggering output that followed. 00:09:13.049 --> 00:09:15.289 The sources claim that Newton's work managed 00:09:15.289 --> 00:09:18.490 to distinctly advance every branch of mathematics 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:21.889 then studied. And he was almost entirely self 00:09:21.889 --> 00:09:24.090 -taught in the subject. Yeah, the historian Richard 00:09:24.090 --> 00:09:26.909 S. Westphal confirmed this. He wrote that by 00:09:26.909 --> 00:09:29.429 every indication we have, Newton carried out 00:09:29.429 --> 00:09:31.690 his education in mathematics and his program 00:09:31.690 --> 00:09:34.740 of research entirely on his own. He started developing 00:09:34.740 --> 00:09:37.639 calculus, or fluxions as he called it, as early 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:42.299 as 1664. Wow. And by May of 1665, he was already 00:09:42.299 --> 00:09:44.379 at the point where he could compute tangents 00:09:44.379 --> 00:09:47.059 and curvature of continuous curves, and he was 00:09:47.059 --> 00:09:49.279 recording these definitive tractates in his private 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:51.860 waste book. This brings us directly to, I think, 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:53.899 the most famous intellectual feud of the time. 00:09:54.039 --> 00:09:56.299 Yeah. The calculus priority dispute with Gottfried 00:09:56.299 --> 00:09:59.990 Wilhelm Leibniz. Yes, the controversy was bitter, 00:10:00.129 --> 00:10:02.990 it was fueled by nationalistic pride, and it 00:10:02.990 --> 00:10:05.169 seriously marred the later lives of both men. 00:10:05.590 --> 00:10:08.190 And while both of them independently invented 00:10:08.190 --> 00:10:10.950 the principles of calculus, the evidence is pretty 00:10:10.950 --> 00:10:13.470 overwhelming that Newton formulated the core 00:10:13.470 --> 00:10:16.649 ideas years earlier than Leibniz. He was way 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:19.029 ahead. He started his work almost a decade before 00:10:19.029 --> 00:10:21.990 the German polymath published his findings. But 00:10:21.990 --> 00:10:24.649 the irony remains that the elegant, highly functional 00:10:24.649 --> 00:10:27.970 notation we use universally today, the Dicksteady, 00:10:28.090 --> 00:10:31.659 is Leibniz's invention. Not Newton's. Exactly. 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:34.580 Leibniz's notation was adopted across continental 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:36.940 Europe for its convenience in representing integrals 00:10:36.940 --> 00:10:39.440 and derivatives. Newton's notation, which used 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:42.039 dots over variables to represent fluxions, is 00:10:42.039 --> 00:10:44.080 still widely used in physics for things like 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:46.460 time derivatives. But yeah, Leibniz's approach 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:48.419 ultimately won the day for general mathematical 00:10:48.419 --> 00:10:50.700 use. But there's a twist there, right, about 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:52.899 how modern mathematicians view Newton's original 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:55.879 work. There is, and it's truly fascinating. Roger 00:10:55.879 --> 00:10:58.080 Penrose noted that Newton's original geometrical 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.610 methods were often more concise and elegant than 00:11:00.610 --> 00:11:02.929 the formal calculus that replaced it. And Vladimir 00:11:02.929 --> 00:11:05.549 Arnold went even further. What did he say? He 00:11:05.549 --> 00:11:07.990 stated that comparing Newton's original texts 00:11:07.990 --> 00:11:10.809 with later commentators reveals how Newton's 00:11:10.809 --> 00:11:13.830 presentation is often more modern, more understandable, 00:11:13.990 --> 00:11:17.210 and richer in ideas. See, Newton was obsessed 00:11:17.210 --> 00:11:20.009 with limits and ratios, what he called the method 00:11:20.009 --> 00:11:22.789 of first and last ratios, which allowed him to 00:11:22.789 --> 00:11:26.190 avoid the philosophical quagmires of infinitesimal 00:11:26.190 --> 00:11:28.690 quantities that really plagued his contemporaries. 00:11:29.049 --> 00:11:32.509 So the very tool we use to understand his work 00:11:32.509 --> 00:11:35.309 might actually be hiding the elegance and depth 00:11:35.309 --> 00:11:38.029 of his original geometric thinking. That's a 00:11:38.029 --> 00:11:40.070 profound shift in perspective. It really is. 00:11:40.210 --> 00:11:42.529 And beyond calculus, I mean, the sheer scale 00:11:42.529 --> 00:11:44.809 of his mathematical achievements is just breathtaking. 00:11:45.190 --> 00:11:47.370 His first major breakthrough was the generalized 00:11:47.370 --> 00:11:49.549 binomial theorem, which he discovered around 00:11:49.549 --> 00:11:53.529 1664 -65. Why was that theorem so powerful and 00:11:53.529 --> 00:11:55.610 significant? What did it unlock? Well, before 00:11:55.610 --> 00:11:57.669 Newton, the binomial theorem, which tells you 00:11:57.669 --> 00:12:00.210 how to expand expressions like a plus b to a 00:12:00.210 --> 00:12:02.590 power, it only worked if the exponent was a positive 00:12:02.590 --> 00:12:05.440 integer. Okay, pretty limited. Right. Newton 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:07.639 generalized this theorem, so it could be applied 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:10.840 to fractional or negative exponents. And this 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:13.879 discovery provided a powerful new tool for handling 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:16.919 complex algebraic expressions, and crucially, 00:12:17.019 --> 00:12:19.700 it allowed him to easily approximate the area 00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:22.779 under curves. It was essentially a massive shortcut 00:12:22.779 --> 00:12:25.490 for integration. A foundational tool. It was 00:12:25.490 --> 00:12:27.889 instantly hailed as one. And he didn't stop there. 00:12:28.029 --> 00:12:30.389 We see his name attached to methods that are 00:12:30.389 --> 00:12:33.350 still central to computation today. Absolutely. 00:12:33.389 --> 00:12:35.970 He developed Newton's method for approximating 00:12:35.970 --> 00:12:38.470 roots of a function, which is fundamental to 00:12:38.470 --> 00:12:41.129 numerical analysis. He also created the Newton 00:12:41.129 --> 00:12:43.870 polygon and originated the Newton -Coates formulas 00:12:43.870 --> 00:12:46.789 for numerical integration. And even more surprisingly, 00:12:46.990 --> 00:12:49.470 he pioneered the modern application of Gaussian 00:12:49.470 --> 00:12:51.970 elimination in Europe. Gaussian elimination is 00:12:51.970 --> 00:12:54.549 something taught in basic linear algebra today. 00:12:54.629 --> 00:12:57.549 What was his contribution to that? So in 1669 00:12:57.549 --> 00:13:00.450 -70, Newton noted that the existing algebra books 00:13:00.450 --> 00:13:03.669 just lacked a clear systematic lesson for solving 00:13:03.669 --> 00:13:06.789 simultaneous equations. So he supplied that method, 00:13:06.870 --> 00:13:08.990 basically the organized process of substitution 00:13:08.990 --> 00:13:11.750 and row reduction we know today, and established 00:13:11.750 --> 00:13:14.490 the key terminology of extermination. which we 00:13:14.490 --> 00:13:17.610 now call elimination. So he wrote the textbook, 00:13:17.750 --> 00:13:19.850 essentially. He provided the first practical, 00:13:19.929 --> 00:13:22.429 systematic guide for efficiently solving systems 00:13:22.429 --> 00:13:25.090 of equations, which was critical for things like 00:13:25.090 --> 00:13:27.929 astronomical calculation. And he initiated an 00:13:27.929 --> 00:13:31.610 entire new branch of applied math, the calculus 00:13:31.610 --> 00:13:34.230 of variations. He did. This is the field that 00:13:34.230 --> 00:13:36.289 deals with finding the functions that minimize 00:13:36.289 --> 00:13:38.679 or maximize a certain quantity. He kicked it 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:40.639 off by formulating and solving Newton's minimal 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.659 resistance problem in 1685. Which was? Finding 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:46.000 the optimal shape of a body to experience minimum 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:50.139 drag. Then in 1697, he famously solved Johann 00:13:50.139 --> 00:13:52.279 Bernoulli's really challenging Brastochrone curve 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:54.620 problem. That's the curve down which a bead falls 00:13:54.620 --> 00:13:56.759 in the shortest time. And he did it in a single 00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:59.200 intense night of work. One night. One night. 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:02.019 And that resistance problem is still regarded 00:14:02.019 --> 00:14:04.700 as one of the most difficult tackled by variational 00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:08.409 methods prior to the 20th century. He also pioneered 00:14:08.409 --> 00:14:11.570 vector analysis, introducing the notion of the 00:14:11.570 --> 00:14:14.129 vector in principia, treating physical quantities 00:14:14.129 --> 00:14:17.529 like velocity, acceleration, and force as directed 00:14:17.529 --> 00:14:20.950 quantities, which is central to all modern physics. 00:14:21.190 --> 00:14:23.929 Let's shift gears from pure mathematics to optics, 00:14:24.210 --> 00:14:26.529 another field he fundamentally reformed during 00:14:26.529 --> 00:14:28.889 those golden years. And it all begins with a 00:14:28.889 --> 00:14:31.690 pretty simple experiment using a prism. It was 00:14:31.690 --> 00:14:35.169 revolutionary in its simplicity. Around 1666, 00:14:35.470 --> 00:14:37.649 Newton passed sunlight through a single prism. 00:14:38.009 --> 00:14:40.309 And he observed that the resulting spectrum, 00:14:40.409 --> 00:14:43.029 when he projected it, was oblong, not circular, 00:14:43.230 --> 00:14:45.009 even though the source light was circular. And 00:14:45.009 --> 00:14:46.909 from that simple observation... From that, he 00:14:46.909 --> 00:14:49.110 came to the radical conclusion. Color is not 00:14:49.110 --> 00:14:51.669 generated by the prism. It is intrinsic to light 00:14:51.669 --> 00:14:54.409 itself. The prism simply separates the existing 00:14:54.409 --> 00:14:56.730 colors because it refracts different colors by 00:14:56.730 --> 00:14:58.929 different angles. This laid the bedrock for all 00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:02.549 color science. Crucially, yes. He proved that 00:15:02.549 --> 00:15:04.750 colored light does not change properties upon 00:15:04.750 --> 00:15:07.230 reflection or scattering. So color is the result 00:15:07.230 --> 00:15:09.789 of objects interacting with already colored light, 00:15:09.950 --> 00:15:13.289 not the object generating the color itself. And 00:15:13.289 --> 00:15:15.169 this immediately revealed a major problem with 00:15:15.169 --> 00:15:18.009 the technology of the day. The telescopes. Exactly. 00:15:18.210 --> 00:15:21.110 He concluded that refracting telescopes, which 00:15:21.110 --> 00:15:23.549 use lenses, would always suffer from chromatic 00:15:23.549 --> 00:15:26.870 aberration, that blurring of colors caused by 00:15:26.870 --> 00:15:29.409 the lens refracting different wavelengths unevenly. 00:15:29.690 --> 00:15:31.929 And being Newton, he didn't just diagnose the 00:15:31.929 --> 00:15:35.149 problem, he invented the solution, the Newtonian 00:15:35.149 --> 00:15:37.690 telescope. Yes, as a practical demonstration, 00:15:37.950 --> 00:15:40.509 a proof of concept, he built the first known 00:15:40.509 --> 00:15:43.090 functional reflecting telescope, which used mirror 00:15:43.090 --> 00:15:45.750 instead of lenses, to eliminate that chromatic 00:15:45.750 --> 00:15:47.669 aberration. Which must have been a huge engineering 00:15:47.669 --> 00:15:50.549 challenge. Tremendous. He had to invent the technique 00:15:50.549 --> 00:15:53.149 for grinding his own highly reflective speculum 00:15:53.149 --> 00:15:55.330 metal mirrors, and he even used the phenomenon 00:15:55.330 --> 00:15:57.980 of Newton's rings. these interference patterns 00:15:57.980 --> 00:16:00.659 he observed, to judge the quality of the precise 00:16:00.659 --> 00:16:03.279 shape of his optics. His methodology was also 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:05.919 decades ahead of its time, wasn't it? Particularly 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:08.820 in dealing with imperfect data. His approach 00:16:08.820 --> 00:16:11.159 to measurement was incredibly sophisticated. 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:14.720 In his studies of Newton's rings, he introduced 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:18.039 what he called an error -slaying method, systematically 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:21.159 averaging differences and reducing noise in his 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:23.480 measurements in a way that was just unprecedented 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:26.529 in the 17th century. And he applied this elsewhere. 00:16:26.830 --> 00:16:29.570 He did. He applied this rigor later to astronomical 00:16:29.570 --> 00:16:32.909 studies, and historians now credit him with inventing 00:16:32.909 --> 00:16:35.450 a technique we know today as linear regression 00:16:35.450 --> 00:16:39.309 analysis by averaging data sets and summing the 00:16:39.309 --> 00:16:42.330 residuals to zero. He basically treated measurement 00:16:42.330 --> 00:16:44.710 error like a separate problem to be solved mathematically. 00:16:45.190 --> 00:16:48.029 And finally, his views on light itself hold a 00:16:48.029 --> 00:16:50.870 surprising modern twist. For a classical physicist, 00:16:51.169 --> 00:16:53.669 he was remarkably close to anticipating quantum 00:16:53.669 --> 00:16:56.200 mechanics. It's true. Although the classical 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:58.700 view holds him up as the champion of the corpuscular 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:01.279 or particle theory of light, Newton was never 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:03.980 fully satisfied with it. He noted in his seminal 00:17:03.980 --> 00:17:06.480 work Optics that light had both particle -like 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:09.240 and wave -like properties. Wave -particle duality. 00:17:09.299 --> 00:17:11.279 He was trying to reconcile these two aspects, 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:14.140 really anticipating the concept of wave -particle 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:17.720 duality. The physicist David Finkelstein actually 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:20.819 called him the first quantum physicist for this 00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:22.900 attempt to bridge the two descriptions. And if 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:25.440 we want a dramatic illustration of his power 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:27.500 as an experimentalist, we need to talk about 00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:30.240 the sheer intensity of his burning mirror. Right. 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:33.400 So in 1704, he presented a burning mirror made 00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:36.700 of seven concave glass mirrors. The estimated 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:40.240 radiant energy it achieved was a staggering 460 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:43.000 watts per square centimeter. I can't even picture 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:45.619 what that means. Well, the intensity was so extreme, 00:17:45.660 --> 00:17:48.119 it was described in one account as being certainly 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:50.819 brighter thermally than a thousand suns. That 00:17:50.819 --> 00:17:53.220 historians suggest it may have produced the greatest 00:17:53.220 --> 00:17:55.440 intensity of radiation brought about by human 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:57.880 agency before the arrival of nuclear weapons 00:17:57.880 --> 00:18:01.160 in 1945. That is incredible. Reports noted that 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:03.859 it could make metal smoke and even boil gold. 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:06.799 It wasn't just theoretical. His practical skill 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.359 could harness immense physical power. All of 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:11.420 this mathematical and optical work, it feels 00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:14.000 like it served as preparation for the single 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:17.559 masterpiece that anchored his fame, the Philosophia 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:21.160 Naturalis Principia Mathematica. But the impetus 00:18:21.160 --> 00:18:23.119 for returning to celestial mechanics actually 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:25.660 came from a renewed correspondence with a rival. 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:28.259 That rival was Robert Hooke, the secretary of 00:18:28.259 --> 00:18:31.779 the Royal Society in 1679. And it was Hooke who 00:18:31.779 --> 00:18:33.740 spurred Newton to work out the critical proof. 00:18:34.900 --> 00:18:36.740 Demonstrating mathematically that elliptical 00:18:36.740 --> 00:18:39.440 planetary orbits must result from a centripetal 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:42.119 force inversely proportional to the square of 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:44.440 the radius vector. And this leads to the monumental 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:48.000 publication in 1687. And we really owe a debt 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.279 of gratitude to Edmund Halley for encouraging 00:18:50.279 --> 00:18:52.660 and financially supporting its printing. Halley's 00:18:52.660 --> 00:18:54.589 role was absolutely crucial. The Principia might 00:18:54.589 --> 00:18:55.910 have just remained a set of notes otherwise. 00:18:56.390 --> 00:18:58.670 The core achievement was, I mean, it was the 00:18:58.670 --> 00:19:00.869 first great unification in physics. It established 00:19:00.869 --> 00:19:03.390 classical mechanics and formulated the three 00:19:03.390 --> 00:19:05.930 universal laws of motion and the law of universal 00:19:05.930 --> 00:19:08.789 gravitation, defining a single set of rules for 00:19:08.789 --> 00:19:11.430 the entire cosmos. The scope of what these laws 00:19:11.430 --> 00:19:14.130 explain must have felt like, I don't know, uncovering 00:19:14.130 --> 00:19:16.390 the mind of God to his contemporaries. It was 00:19:16.390 --> 00:19:19.150 completely transformative. The implications were 00:19:19.150 --> 00:19:22.099 truly universal. These laws explained everything 00:19:22.099 --> 00:19:24.900 from an apple falling on Earth to the precise 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:28.500 motion of celestial bodies. Using gravity, Newton 00:19:28.500 --> 00:19:31.000 was able to derive Kepler's laws of planetary 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.359 motion. account for the tides. Yes, account for 00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:36.660 the regular behavior of ocean tides, explain 00:19:36.660 --> 00:19:39.400 the trajectories of comets, and even detail the 00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:42.220 slow wobble of Earth's axis, you know, the precession 00:19:42.220 --> 00:19:44.940 of the equinoxes. This body of evidence just 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:47.599 effectively eradicated all remaining scientific 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:50.339 doubt about heliocentricity. He also gave us 00:19:50.339 --> 00:19:52.140 the first quantitative metrics for the solar 00:19:52.140 --> 00:19:54.440 system, right? That was vital for establishing 00:19:54.440 --> 00:19:57.519 a universal scale. Newton provided the first 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:00.099 quantitative estimate of the solar mass and determined 00:20:00.099 --> 00:20:02.319 the masses and densities of Jupiter and Saturn. 00:20:02.579 --> 00:20:05.359 This application of a universal law to specific 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:08.500 measurable bodies was hailed as the supreme expression 00:20:08.500 --> 00:20:11.259 of the doctrine that one single set of physical 00:20:11.259 --> 00:20:13.799 concepts applies to all matter everywhere in 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:16.359 the universe. But the work on gravity came at 00:20:16.359 --> 00:20:19.630 a serious human cost. There's a deeply revealing 00:20:19.630 --> 00:20:22.109 anecdote about the intellectual difficulty he 00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:24.369 faced when applying his theory to the motion 00:20:24.369 --> 00:20:27.269 of the moon. The complexity of applying the three 00:20:27.269 --> 00:20:29.910 -body problem, you know, the gravitational interactions 00:20:29.910 --> 00:20:32.450 between the Earth, the Sun, and the moon, was 00:20:32.450 --> 00:20:35.690 just mathematically profound. Right. And Newton's 00:20:35.690 --> 00:20:37.789 biographer reported that working on this specific 00:20:37.789 --> 00:20:40.910 problem in the early 1690s caused him a severe 00:20:40.910 --> 00:20:44.190 loss of appetite, acute sleep deprivation, and 00:20:44.190 --> 00:20:47.289 intense headaches. He even confessed to an astronomer 00:20:47.289 --> 00:20:49.970 that his head never ached but when he was studying 00:20:49.970 --> 00:20:52.369 the subject. And he resolved that he would eventually 00:20:52.369 --> 00:20:54.390 think of it no more. It was literally hurting 00:20:54.390 --> 00:20:56.029 him to think about it. It was intellectually 00:20:56.029 --> 00:20:58.809 debilitating. It shows the immense mental toll 00:20:58.809 --> 00:21:01.150 of his greatest work. We tend to focus only on 00:21:01.150 --> 00:21:03.730 the laws of motion and gravity. But Book 2 of 00:21:03.730 --> 00:21:06.170 the Principia is a foundational text for an entirely 00:21:06.170 --> 00:21:09.130 different field, fluid mechanics. It really is. 00:21:09.569 --> 00:21:12.680 Book 2 was a critical pioneer. It provided the 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:15.460 first comprehensive quantitative treatment of 00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:18.720 motion under resistance, so how objects move 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:22.160 in the real world through air or water. He formulated 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:24.339 the linear relationship between shear stress 00:21:24.339 --> 00:21:27.099 and strain rate that defines a Newtonian fluid. 00:21:27.299 --> 00:21:30.440 Things we still use today. Every day. He analyzed 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:33.480 Coet flow and studied the resistance of axisymmetric 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:35.759 bodies. I mean, he was solving problems that 00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:37.539 wouldn't really be tackled again until the 20th 00:21:37.539 --> 00:21:39.880 century. And his scope extended beyond mechanics 00:21:39.880 --> 00:21:43.579 and fluids. Oh, yes. In the Principia, he inferred 00:21:43.579 --> 00:21:45.700 the abladeness of Earth's spheroidal figure, 00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:48.079 the fact that it bulges slightly at the equator, 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:50.960 a prediction later confirmed by geodetic measurements. 00:21:51.259 --> 00:21:53.640 He also performed experiments to calculate the 00:21:53.640 --> 00:21:55.839 age of the Earth and described a precursor to 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:57.420 the modern wind tunnel. It just keeps going. 00:21:57.660 --> 00:22:01.160 It does. Separately, in 1701, he formulated the 00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:03.539 empirical law of cooling, which was the first 00:22:03.539 --> 00:22:05.980 heat transfer formulation, and the formal basis 00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:08.950 of convective heat transfer. Even in sports physics, 00:22:09.170 --> 00:22:11.470 he was the first to explain the Magnus effect, 00:22:11.690 --> 00:22:14.730 how spinning objects curve in flight, based on 00:22:14.730 --> 00:22:17.430 observing tennis players at Cambridge in 1672. 00:22:17.809 --> 00:22:20.970 The sheer dread is just astounding. And all of 00:22:20.970 --> 00:22:23.109 this incredible output rests on a fundamental 00:22:23.109 --> 00:22:25.710 philosophical declaration that became the motto 00:22:25.710 --> 00:22:28.609 for the scientific revolution. Hypotheses non 00:22:28.609 --> 00:22:32.309 -fingo. I frame no hypotheses. This assertion, 00:22:32.309 --> 00:22:34.470 which he famously placed in the concluding general 00:22:34.470 --> 00:22:37.349 scolium of the Principia, was a strategic declaration 00:22:37.349 --> 00:22:39.769 of his method, but it was also a direct shot 00:22:39.769 --> 00:22:42.269 at his critics, particularly the Cartesians. 00:22:42.430 --> 00:22:44.730 Who were complaining about what, exactly? They 00:22:44.730 --> 00:22:47.390 accused him of introducing an occult agency by 00:22:47.390 --> 00:22:49.849 postulating an invisible force gravity acting 00:22:49.849 --> 00:22:52.470 over vast empty distances without explaining 00:22:52.470 --> 00:22:55.029 how it worked. So his response wasn't, this is 00:22:55.029 --> 00:22:57.630 how gravity works, but... I don't need to hypothesize 00:22:57.630 --> 00:22:59.789 on how it works, only that it works. Exactly. 00:22:59.849 --> 00:23:02.269 He insisted that whatever is not deduced directly 00:23:02.269 --> 00:23:05.930 from phenomena is merely a hypothesis. And hypotheses, 00:23:06.150 --> 00:23:09.450 whether metaphysical, physical, of occult qualities, 00:23:09.509 --> 00:23:12.230 or mechanical, have no place in experimental 00:23:12.230 --> 00:23:15.750 philosophy. So his rules became the bedrock of 00:23:15.750 --> 00:23:18.920 modern science. They did. Admit only sufficient 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:21.539 and true causes, assign the same causes to the 00:23:21.539 --> 00:23:24.039 same effects, generalize qualities of bodies 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:26.940 found universally, and treat observation -derived 00:23:26.940 --> 00:23:29.839 propositions as accurate until contradicted by 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:33.000 other observations. This established a new, highly 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:36.180 rigorous scientific method. It wasn't enough 00:23:36.180 --> 00:23:37.799 to just predict the movement of the planets. 00:23:37.859 --> 00:23:40.599 The phenomena had to accurately measure the theoretical 00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:43.319 parameters, forcing scientists to use provisional 00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:46.059 propositions to guide successive approximations 00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:48.160 toward the truth. It was a philosophical statement 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:50.480 demanding empirical grounding. He said, it is 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:52.359 enough that gravity really does exist and acts 00:23:52.359 --> 00:23:54.539 according to the laws we have set forth and is 00:23:54.539 --> 00:23:56.259 sufficient to explain all the motions of the 00:23:56.259 --> 00:23:59.220 heavens and the sea. It was a firm line drawn 00:23:59.220 --> 00:24:01.440 between mathematical description and metaphysical 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:04.900 speculation. Now we enter the shadows, the side 00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:08.039 of Newton that was hidden for centuries. We've 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:10.140 described the hyper -rationalist of the Principia. 00:24:10.410 --> 00:24:12.210 But that man was spending most of his time elsewhere. 00:24:12.430 --> 00:24:14.970 That's the great paradox. And we know that over 00:24:14.970 --> 00:24:17.150 half of everything Isaac Newton wrote concerned 00:24:17.150 --> 00:24:20.950 theology and alchemy. Of his estimated 10 million 00:24:20.950 --> 00:24:23.650 words of writing, approximately 1 million deal 00:24:23.650 --> 00:24:26.250 with alchemy alone. A million words. It was an 00:24:26.250 --> 00:24:28.990 enormous, decades -long, secretive commitment. 00:24:29.390 --> 00:24:31.529 And we can verify his true range of interests 00:24:31.529 --> 00:24:33.970 by looking at his library, which truly changes 00:24:33.970 --> 00:24:35.990 the perception of his priorities. It absolutely 00:24:35.990 --> 00:24:40.190 does. His personal library contained 1 ,752 books. 00:24:40.390 --> 00:24:43.369 When you categorize them, works on theology represented 00:24:43.369 --> 00:24:47.950 the largest, section 477 books, about 27 .2%, 00:24:47.950 --> 00:24:51.130 and alchemy made up a substantial portion, 169 00:24:51.130 --> 00:24:53.960 books, or 9 .6%. And how does that compare to 00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:56.900 his main fields? Well, these two categories vastly 00:24:56.900 --> 00:24:59.539 outnumbered his core scientific texts. Mathematics 00:24:59.539 --> 00:25:02.160 accounted for only 7 .2 % and physics for just 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:05.000 3 .0%. He was arguably more devoted to finding 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:06.920 the true chronology of the Bible in the philosopher's 00:25:06.920 --> 00:25:09.240 stone than he was to publishing advanced mathematics. 00:25:09.579 --> 00:25:11.460 Let's start with his controversial religious 00:25:11.460 --> 00:25:14.660 beliefs. He was devout, but his views would have 00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:17.160 been considered extremely dangerous heresy. He 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:19.980 was a private heretic. He rejected the doctrine 00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:22.799 of the Trinity, siding with Arius, who held that 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:25.279 Christ was a divine mediator, but ultimately 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:28.319 a creation of and subordinate to God the Father. 00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:31.380 Newton profoundly believed that worshipping Jesus 00:25:31.380 --> 00:25:34.759 Christ as God was idolatry, the grievous sin, 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:38.240 a belief he had to hide meticulously because 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.150 it was punishable by law. It's amazing he kept 00:25:41.150 --> 00:25:43.349 this secret while maintaining such a high profile 00:25:43.349 --> 00:25:46.009 at an Anglican university. He was a master of 00:25:46.009 --> 00:25:48.250 self -concealment. He went to great lengths, 00:25:48.390 --> 00:25:51.130 engaging in extensive biblical scholarship, including 00:25:51.130 --> 00:25:53.730 detailed textual criticism, to prove that the 00:25:53.730 --> 00:25:56.849 standard texts had been corrupted. His work included 00:25:56.849 --> 00:25:59.410 an historical account of two notable corruptions 00:25:59.410 --> 00:26:01.470 of scripture. He's applying the same rigor to 00:26:01.470 --> 00:26:03.730 ancient texts as he was to planetary orbits? 00:26:04.049 --> 00:26:06.339 Precisely. He also applied his computational 00:26:06.339 --> 00:26:09.000 rigor to theology, producing complex biblical 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:11.119 chronology where he calculated the precise date 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:14.599 of the crucifixion to be 3 April A .D. 33. And 00:26:14.599 --> 00:26:16.660 his contemporaries had no idea. Well, despite 00:26:16.660 --> 00:26:19.960 his private heresy, he was respected as a theologian 00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:22.599 by them. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:25.500 Tennyson, once told him, You know more divinity 00:26:25.500 --> 00:26:28.339 than all of us put together. But that admiration 00:26:28.339 --> 00:26:30.900 was based on a false premise. They never knew 00:26:30.900 --> 00:26:33.640 the full extent of his Unitarian beliefs. Now 00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:36.630 for the alchemy. It wasn't a casual hobby. It 00:26:36.630 --> 00:26:39.930 was a decades -long, intensive pursuit that may 00:26:39.930 --> 00:26:42.210 have physically damaged him. Right. Alchemical 00:26:42.210 --> 00:26:45.049 texts were always coded with allegory to protect 00:26:45.049 --> 00:26:47.990 craft secrets, which made them perfectly suited 00:26:47.990 --> 00:26:50.470 to Newton's intensely private, complex mind. 00:26:50.829 --> 00:26:53.509 But this pursuit had a very dark side. The mercury. 00:26:53.710 --> 00:26:56.650 Yes. When his death mask was examined posthumously, 00:26:56.710 --> 00:26:58.710 his hair was found to contain high levels of 00:26:58.710 --> 00:27:00.910 mercury. This was almost certainly the result 00:27:00.910 --> 00:27:03.170 of his alchemical experiments, which often involved 00:27:03.170 --> 00:27:05.529 heating and handling mercury and other toxic 00:27:05.529 --> 00:27:07.829 metals. And mercury poisoning is the leading 00:27:07.829 --> 00:27:10.369 theory to explain his eccentricity and the nervous 00:27:10.369 --> 00:27:12.809 breakdown we mentioned earlier. That's the consensus 00:27:12.809 --> 00:27:15.990 among scholars. Mercury exposure, especially 00:27:15.990 --> 00:27:18.289 chronic low -level exposure, is known to cause 00:27:18.289 --> 00:27:21.589 paranoia, emotional instability, and wild swings 00:27:21.589 --> 00:27:24.549 in temperament. This fits perfectly with a breakdown 00:27:24.549 --> 00:27:28.109 that occurred around 1693. Which coincided with 00:27:28.109 --> 00:27:30.730 what? With the abrupt end of his close friendship 00:27:30.730 --> 00:27:33.250 with a Swiss mathematician, Nicolas Fatio de 00:27:33.250 --> 00:27:35.549 Dulier. Tell us about that breakdown. What did 00:27:35.549 --> 00:27:38.289 it look like? It was severe. During this period 00:27:38.289 --> 00:27:40.710 of paranoia and emotional instability, Newton 00:27:40.710 --> 00:27:43.210 sent these wildly accusatory letters to close 00:27:43.210 --> 00:27:45.690 friends, including the philosopher John Locke. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:48.559 He charged Locke with trying to embroil Newton 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:51.079 with women and by other means. Which was completely 00:27:51.079 --> 00:27:53.220 unfounded. Completely unfounded and irrational. 00:27:53.559 --> 00:27:56.200 And Newton later apologized, blaming lack of 00:27:56.200 --> 00:27:59.019 sleep. But it was a clear, documented moment 00:27:59.019 --> 00:28:01.940 where the intense pressure and likely the mercury 00:28:01.940 --> 00:28:03.859 poisoning overwhelmed his otherwise rigorous 00:28:03.859 --> 00:28:06.910 mind. And speaking of bizarre notes, his alchemical 00:28:06.910 --> 00:28:09.250 notes also revealed what he thought was the best 00:28:09.250 --> 00:28:11.769 cure for the plague. This is a stark reminder 00:28:11.769 --> 00:28:13.890 that even the greatest scientific mind existed 00:28:13.890 --> 00:28:16.890 during an era when science and superstition were 00:28:16.890 --> 00:28:20.150 still deeply intertwined. Analyzing his notes 00:28:20.150 --> 00:28:23.130 from the 1660s plague years, Newton suggested 00:28:23.130 --> 00:28:25.490 a therapy based on the work of Jan Baptist van 00:28:25.490 --> 00:28:28.140 Helmont. And what did it involve? The cure involved 00:28:28.140 --> 00:28:30.640 suspending a toad by its legs in a chimney for 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:33.500 three days until it vomited up earth and insects 00:28:33.500 --> 00:28:37.299 onto a dish of yellow wax and then died. The 00:28:37.299 --> 00:28:39.680 powdered toad, combined with its secretions, 00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:42.259 would be made into lozenges and worn about the 00:28:42.259 --> 00:28:45.259 affected area to drive away the contagion. A 00:28:45.259 --> 00:28:47.599 mixture of empirical observation and pure occult 00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:49.799 practice. Exactly. Let's turn to his intense 00:28:49.799 --> 00:28:52.160 personality. We know he was incredibly driven, 00:28:52.339 --> 00:28:54.299 prioritizing work over health and controlling 00:28:54.299 --> 00:28:56.799 his physical appetites, even becoming vegetarian 00:28:56.799 --> 00:29:00.160 later in life. But he was complex, neurotic, 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:02.400 and fiercely competitive. He definitely presented 00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:05.559 two faces. On one hand, he expressed this profound 00:29:05.559 --> 00:29:08.700 humility, writing, I do not know what I may appear 00:29:08.700 --> 00:29:10.779 to the world, but to myself I seem to have been 00:29:10.779 --> 00:29:13.440 only like a boy playing on the seashore, whilst 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:15.839 the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:19.339 before me. A beautiful quote. Yet, we know he 00:29:19.339 --> 00:29:21.819 was intensely sensitive to criticism and held 00:29:21.819 --> 00:29:23.980 massive grudges against intellectual rivals, 00:29:24.180 --> 00:29:26.759 most famously Robert Hooke, which brings us to 00:29:26.759 --> 00:29:29.039 perhaps the most misunderstood quote in science 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:33.500 history. The shoulders of giants. Ah, yes. The 00:29:33.500 --> 00:29:35.920 full quote is, If I have seen further, it is 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:38.380 by standing on the shoulders of giants. While 00:29:38.380 --> 00:29:40.640 it's typically celebrated as a statement of modesty, 00:29:40.779 --> 00:29:43.119 many historians believe that in the context of 00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:46.220 his vicious, ongoing dispute with Hook in 1675, 00:29:46.660 --> 00:29:49.519 it was intended as a cruel personal attack. Oh, 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:52.130 so. Hooke was noted for being physically short 00:29:52.130 --> 00:29:54.470 and hunchbacked. So even though the underlying 00:29:54.470 --> 00:29:56.990 proverb suggests the speaker is the dwarf who 00:29:56.990 --> 00:29:59.390 sees farther, using that specific language in 00:29:59.390 --> 00:30:02.069 a letter to his rival is highly suspicious. It 00:30:02.069 --> 00:30:04.650 suggests a streak of profound intellectual malice. 00:30:04.710 --> 00:30:07.170 Around the age of 53, Newton made this dramatic 00:30:07.170 --> 00:30:09.750 career pivot, leaving the empty lecture halls 00:30:09.750 --> 00:30:11.849 of Cambridge for the high stakes world of London 00:30:11.849 --> 00:30:14.410 government. This is where the hyper theoretician 00:30:14.410 --> 00:30:16.869 becomes the hands on executive. He became the 00:30:16.869 --> 00:30:20.170 Warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, a position 00:30:20.170 --> 00:30:22.589 he got through the patronage of his friend Charles 00:30:22.589 --> 00:30:25.269 Montague. He was later promoted to Master of 00:30:25.269 --> 00:30:28.289 the Mint in 1699, which was a highly lucrative 00:30:28.289 --> 00:30:30.569 position he held for the last 30 years of his 00:30:30.569 --> 00:30:32.569 life. And these were usually do -nothing jobs, 00:30:32.750 --> 00:30:35.089 right? They were typically sinecures, jobs that 00:30:35.089 --> 00:30:37.789 paid well for very little work, but Newton treated 00:30:37.789 --> 00:30:40.849 them as vital duties. He retired from Cambridge 00:30:40.849 --> 00:30:44.650 entirely in 1701 to focus on it. The mint appointment 00:30:44.650 --> 00:30:46.970 put him in charge of managing a massive national 00:30:46.970 --> 00:30:51.150 crisis, the Great Recoinage of 1696. What was 00:30:51.150 --> 00:30:53.630 the central problem facing the country? The currency 00:30:53.630 --> 00:30:56.430 was collapsing. It was due to widespread counterfeiting 00:30:56.430 --> 00:30:58.869 and specifically clipping. People would shave 00:30:58.869 --> 00:31:00.910 small amounts of silver off the edge of hammered 00:31:00.910 --> 00:31:03.509 coins and then hoard the silver scraps. So the 00:31:03.509 --> 00:31:05.569 coins in circulation were worth less than their 00:31:05.569 --> 00:31:08.390 face value. Much less. Since coins were valued 00:31:08.390 --> 00:31:11.150 by weight, not just denomination, the silver 00:31:11.150 --> 00:31:13.339 content of the currency had plummeted. Newton 00:31:13.339 --> 00:31:15.880 estimated a staggering 20 % of the coins taken 00:31:15.880 --> 00:31:18.160 in during the recoinage were counterfeit or clipped. 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:21.160 The national economy was at serious risk. And 00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:23.480 this is where the genius theoretician becomes 00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:26.220 an incredibly effective, bureaucratic, and often 00:31:26.220 --> 00:31:28.539 ruthless crime fighter. It's one of the most 00:31:28.539 --> 00:31:31.180 surprising twists of his life. Counterfeiting 00:31:31.180 --> 00:31:33.920 was considered high treason, punishable by hanging, 00:31:34.099 --> 00:31:37.039 drawing, and quartering. Newton personally took 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:39.299 charge of the enforcement. He knew he couldn't 00:31:39.299 --> 00:31:42.359 rely on the existing, often corrupt, constables. 00:31:42.359 --> 00:31:44.440 What did he do? He developed an intelligence 00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:47.880 network. He personally investigated cases, often 00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:50.779 disguising himself as a patron of bars, taverns, 00:31:50.779 --> 00:31:53.259 and criminal haunts just to gather evidence. 00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:56.119 He was a master physicist turned master detective. 00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:00.039 He was meticulous. Between 1698 and 1699, he 00:32:00.039 --> 00:32:02.539 conducted over 100 personal cross -examinations 00:32:02.539 --> 00:32:05.799 of witnesses, informers, and suspects. He used 00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:08.359 the same relentless, systematic interrogation 00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:11.440 style he used on abstract problems, exploiting 00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:13.519 the weaknesses in their testimonies until the 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:16.079 truth was revealed. And he got results. He successfully 00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:19.119 prosecuted 28 coiners, ensuring they faced the 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:21.579 full penalty of the law. This included the infamous 00:32:21.579 --> 00:32:24.319 serial counterfeiter William Chaloner. Chaloner 00:32:24.319 --> 00:32:26.569 was a formidable opponent, wasn't he? He was. 00:32:26.990 --> 00:32:30.009 Chaloner was a master confidence man and counterfeiter 00:32:30.009 --> 00:32:33.049 who had nearly outmaneuvered the law. He had 00:32:33.049 --> 00:32:35.410 previously used bribery and perjured testimony 00:32:35.410 --> 00:32:38.390 to escape prosecution. But Newton was different. 00:32:38.650 --> 00:32:41.309 Newton, seeing Chaloner as a genuine threat to 00:32:41.309 --> 00:32:43.950 the stability of the entire economy, personally 00:32:43.950 --> 00:32:47.329 gathered the damning evidence. Chaloner tried 00:32:47.329 --> 00:32:50.329 everything, appealing to Newton's vanity, claiming 00:32:50.329 --> 00:32:53.089 innocence, sending desperate letters. But Newton 00:32:53.089 --> 00:32:55.859 was unyielding. He treated Chaloner's downfall 00:32:55.859 --> 00:32:58.359 with the same intellectual rigor as he treated 00:32:58.359 --> 00:33:01.099 a physics proof. Chaloner was found guilty and 00:33:01.099 --> 00:33:04.059 hanged at Tyburn in 1699. Did he apply his scientific 00:33:04.059 --> 00:33:06.920 mind to the actual industrial process of minting? 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:09.000 Absolutely. He used his unique combination of 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:11.319 organizational skill and engineering genius to 00:33:11.319 --> 00:33:13.539 streamline the mint's operations. He dramatically 00:33:13.539 --> 00:33:16.279 improved minting technology, raising the weekly 00:33:16.279 --> 00:33:18.740 coin output from 15 ,000 pounds to an impressive 00:33:18.740 --> 00:33:21.509 100 ,000 pounds. And the quality. More importantly, 00:33:21.710 --> 00:33:24.329 he introduced unprecedented quality control. 00:33:24.809 --> 00:33:27.470 He reduced the standard deviation of guinea weights 00:33:27.470 --> 00:33:31.769 from 1 .3 grams to just 0 .75 grams, increasing 00:33:31.769 --> 00:33:34.170 the accuracy and uniformity of British coinage. 00:33:34.609 --> 00:33:37.569 These improvements lasted until the 1770s and 00:33:37.569 --> 00:33:40.349 saved the Treasury massive sums. Beyond production, 00:33:40.569 --> 00:33:42.910 he was also influencing national economic policy 00:33:42.910 --> 00:33:45.829 with surprisingly modern views. He was way ahead 00:33:45.829 --> 00:33:48.450 of his time. He believed that paper credit, such 00:33:48.450 --> 00:33:50.930 as government debt, was a practical and wise 00:33:50.930 --> 00:33:53.029 solution to lower interest rates, which would 00:33:53.029 --> 00:33:55.490 in turn stimulate trade and growth of view often 00:33:55.490 --> 00:33:57.730 debated at the time. And he had a radical view 00:33:57.730 --> 00:34:00.880 on what gave currency its value. He did. He held 00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:03.259 a radical minority opinion that the value of 00:34:03.259 --> 00:34:05.660 both metal and paper currency was fundamentally 00:34:05.660 --> 00:34:08.940 set by public opinion and trust a social concept 00:34:08.940 --> 00:34:11.679 rather than simply the intrinsic material value. 00:34:11.820 --> 00:34:14.400 And his most definitive economic action inadvertently 00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:17.059 shifted the basis of the national currency. That's 00:34:17.059 --> 00:34:20.519 right. His extensive report in 1717 led to a 00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:23.199 royal proclamation that definitively changed 00:34:23.199 --> 00:34:25.679 the bimetallic ratio between gold guineas and 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.719 silver shillings. The new ratio favored gold, 00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:31.559 and the long -term effect of his adjustment was 00:34:31.559 --> 00:34:34.320 to inadvertently move Britain from the silver 00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:37.239 standard to its first operational gold standard. 00:34:37.500 --> 00:34:39.960 Despite his profound success at the Mint, his 00:34:39.960 --> 00:34:42.840 brief foray into parliamentary politics was far 00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:45.440 less illustrious. Yeah, he served two short, 00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:48.940 largely unremarkable terms as a member of parliament 00:34:48.940 --> 00:34:51.360 for the University of Cambridge. there's a famous 00:34:51.360 --> 00:34:53.500 anecdote suggesting his only recorded comments 00:34:53.500 --> 00:34:56.079 during one term were to complain about a cold 00:34:56.079 --> 00:34:58.280 draft in the chamber and politely request that 00:34:58.280 --> 00:35:00.400 the window be closed he clearly preferred the 00:35:00.400 --> 00:35:02.679 systematic precision of the mint to the messy 00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:05.849 chaos of politics no question And even the greatest 00:35:05.849 --> 00:35:08.210 minds are not immune to financial speculation, 00:35:08.449 --> 00:35:10.449 particularly during the heady days of the South 00:35:10.449 --> 00:35:12.909 Sea bubble. No, even the supreme rationalist 00:35:12.909 --> 00:35:15.989 fell victim to the hysteria. He lost a staggering 00:35:15.989 --> 00:35:18.809 amount, at least 10 ,000 pounds and plausibly 00:35:18.809 --> 00:35:21.250 over 20 ,000 pounds, in the collapse of the South 00:35:21.250 --> 00:35:23.610 Sea Company around 1720. And he had a famous 00:35:23.610 --> 00:35:26.010 quote about that, didn't he? He supposedly remarked 00:35:26.010 --> 00:35:28.409 afterward that he could calculate the motions 00:35:28.409 --> 00:35:31.090 of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of 00:35:31.090 --> 00:35:33.920 the people. Fortunately, he was already rich 00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:36.320 before the bubble, so he still died a very wealthy 00:35:36.320 --> 00:35:38.820 man. He received his knighthood later in life, 00:35:38.980 --> 00:35:42.280 an honor that recognized his status. He was knighted 00:35:42.280 --> 00:35:45.679 by Tween Anne in 1705, making him only the second 00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:48.059 scientist to receive the honor after Francis 00:35:48.059 --> 00:35:51.159 Bacon. Historians suggest this knighthood was 00:35:51.159 --> 00:35:53.039 likely motivated by political considerations 00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:55.260 connected with the parliamentary election that 00:35:55.260 --> 00:35:57.880 year, rather than solely recognizing his scientific 00:35:57.880 --> 00:36:01.059 work or his service at the Mint. Though certainly 00:36:01.059 --> 00:36:03.440 provided the pretext. Of course. Newton died 00:36:03.440 --> 00:36:07.360 in his sleep in London on March 31st, 1727, new 00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:10.440 style. What kind of farewell did the world give 00:36:10.440 --> 00:36:12.860 the man who had defined it? It was a monumental 00:36:12.860 --> 00:36:15.679 event. Given his revolutionary status, he was 00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:17.880 given a highly ceremonial funeral attended by 00:36:17.880 --> 00:36:20.820 nobles, scientists, and philosophers. And he 00:36:20.820 --> 00:36:22.840 was buried in Westminster Abbey among kings and 00:36:22.840 --> 00:36:25.219 queens, a testament to his status. He was the 00:36:25.219 --> 00:36:27.599 first scientist ever granted burial there. We 00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:30.440 must definitively address the persistent, charming 00:36:30.440 --> 00:36:33.579 myth surrounding his greatest discovery, the 00:36:33.579 --> 00:36:36.300 Apple story. We all know the popular version, 00:36:36.420 --> 00:36:38.920 but what did the sources actually record about 00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:42.019 the event? Well, the story is a wonderful piece 00:36:42.019 --> 00:36:45.079 of scientific folklore, passed into popular knowledge 00:36:45.079 --> 00:36:48.099 largely by Voltaire, who heard it directly from 00:36:48.099 --> 00:36:50.840 Newton's niece, Catherine Barton. So it comes 00:36:50.840 --> 00:36:53.630 from the family, in a way. But what's the reality, 00:36:53.789 --> 00:36:56.909 according to his contemporaries who recorded 00:36:56.909 --> 00:36:59.550 the event? Acquaintances confirm Newton did tell 00:36:59.550 --> 00:37:02.269 the story, but the apocryphal detail of him being 00:37:02.269 --> 00:37:05.030 struck on the head is definitely false. William 00:37:05.030 --> 00:37:07.869 Stukely's account, recorded in 1726, quotes, 00:37:07.969 --> 00:37:10.889 Newton recalling the event, contemplating why 00:37:10.889 --> 00:37:13.909 the apple always descends perpendicularly, always 00:37:13.909 --> 00:37:16.230 toward the Earth's center. Okay. This led him 00:37:16.230 --> 00:37:19.110 to hypothesize a drawing power in matter that 00:37:19.110 --> 00:37:21.429 extends not just to the surface, but all the 00:37:21.429 --> 00:37:23.590 way to the Earth's core. So the apple provided 00:37:23.590 --> 00:37:26.090 the moment of introspection, the critical question, 00:37:26.170 --> 00:37:28.889 not the immediate mathematical answer. Exactly. 00:37:29.210 --> 00:37:31.909 It prompted him to grapple with the idea that 00:37:31.909 --> 00:37:34.550 terrestrial gravity extends to the moon in an 00:37:34.550 --> 00:37:37.050 inverse square proportion, which he was working 00:37:37.050 --> 00:37:41.000 on as early as the late 1660s. The crucial missing 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:44.019 piece, the scientific gap that took him two decades 00:37:44.019 --> 00:37:46.699 of intense mathematical struggle, was proving 00:37:46.699 --> 00:37:49.320 that the Earth's gravity acts as if all its mass 00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:51.519 were concentrated at its center point. That was 00:37:51.519 --> 00:37:54.159 a real work. That highly complex proof was the 00:37:54.159 --> 00:37:56.719 20 -year battle, not the simple fall of the apple. 00:37:57.059 --> 00:38:00.280 The acclaim he achieved, both in his time and 00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:02.760 posthumously, places him in a class by himself. 00:38:03.469 --> 00:38:05.429 You simply can't overstate the impact of his 00:38:05.429 --> 00:38:07.909 life's work. No, you can't. The sources are full 00:38:07.909 --> 00:38:11.409 of hyperbolic yet genuinely earned praise. Joseph 00:38:11.409 --> 00:38:13.829 Louis Lagrange called Newton the greatest genius 00:38:13.829 --> 00:38:16.550 who ever lived, and he added, the most fortunate, 00:38:16.710 --> 00:38:18.949 for we cannot find more than once a system of 00:38:18.949 --> 00:38:21.599 the world to establish. Even Einstein. Albert 00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:23.880 Einstein himself, someone who later superseded 00:38:23.880 --> 00:38:26.320 aspects of Newton's work, stated that Newton's 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:28.360 creation of calculus in relation to his laws 00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:30.900 of motion was perhaps the greatest advance in 00:38:30.900 --> 00:38:33.000 thought that a single individual was ever privileged 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:35.659 to make. James Gleich's assessment cuts right 00:38:35.659 --> 00:38:38.239 to the core of his achievement. Gleich wrote 00:38:38.239 --> 00:38:40.719 that Newton discovered more of the essential 00:38:40.719 --> 00:38:43.639 core of human knowledge than anyone before or 00:38:43.639 --> 00:38:47.090 after. and Ludwig Boltzmann simply called Principia 00:38:47.090 --> 00:38:49.789 the first and greatest work ever written about 00:38:49.789 --> 00:38:52.769 theoretical physics. So where do historians rank 00:38:52.769 --> 00:38:55.590 him? This immense respect places him generally 00:38:55.590 --> 00:38:58.590 alongside Carl F. Gauss and Archimedes as one 00:38:58.590 --> 00:39:00.809 of the three greatest mathematicians of all time. 00:39:01.190 --> 00:39:04.559 But his combined achievements as the theoretician, 00:39:04.599 --> 00:39:07.820 an experimentalist, and mathematician, put him 00:39:07.820 --> 00:39:10.199 in a class by himself among empirical scientists. 00:39:10.559 --> 00:39:12.980 His honors are global and enduring. The unit 00:39:12.980 --> 00:39:15.699 of force is named for him. Right. He was named 00:39:15.699 --> 00:39:17.619 Time Magazine's Person of the Century for the 00:39:17.619 --> 00:39:20.480 17th century, and he was voted the greatest Briton 00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:23.380 in a 2003 poll, ahead of massive figures like 00:39:23.380 --> 00:39:25.840 Winston Churchill. Even the Nobel Prize -winning 00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:28.300 physicist Lev Landau ranked all physicists on 00:39:28.300 --> 00:39:30.920 a logarithmic scale of genius from 0 to 5, the 00:39:30.920 --> 00:39:33.199 highest ranking 0 was assigned only to Newton. 00:39:33.389 --> 00:39:36.329 Wow, just... Acknowledging his singular contribution. 00:39:36.750 --> 00:39:39.250 Ultimately, the Principia was more than a physics 00:39:39.250 --> 00:39:42.050 text. It provided the philosophical framework 00:39:42.050 --> 00:39:44.449 that sparked the Enlightenment itself. That's 00:39:44.449 --> 00:39:47.079 the deeper legacy. Newton's publication of the 00:39:47.079 --> 00:39:49.400 Principia is considered a crucial turning point 00:39:49.400 --> 00:39:52.099 that started the Enlightenment. His conception 00:39:52.099 --> 00:39:54.940 of the universe, based on natural, universal, 00:39:55.159 --> 00:39:57.719 and rationally understandable laws, provided 00:39:57.719 --> 00:39:59.820 the philosophical seed for Enlightenment ideology 00:39:59.820 --> 00:40:02.780 across all disciplines. How exactly did that 00:40:02.780 --> 00:40:05.699 scientific framework inform political and economic 00:40:05.699 --> 00:40:07.880 thought? Well, Enlightenment thinkers took the 00:40:07.880 --> 00:40:11.159 idea of universal natural laws and they applied 00:40:11.159 --> 00:40:14.250 them to human society. Think of John Locke and 00:40:14.250 --> 00:40:17.010 Voltaire, who applied concepts of natural law 00:40:17.010 --> 00:40:18.809 governing the heavens and earth to political 00:40:18.809 --> 00:40:21.690 systems, advocating for intrinsic, unalienable 00:40:21.690 --> 00:40:24.090 rights for humans. And Adam Smith in economics. 00:40:24.510 --> 00:40:27.750 Similarly, yes. Adam Smith applied natural conceptions 00:40:27.750 --> 00:40:30.329 of human psychology and self -interest to economic 00:40:30.329 --> 00:40:33.230 systems, seeking the invisible hand that governed 00:40:33.230 --> 00:40:35.809 markets. Newton provided the clockwork universe, 00:40:36.050 --> 00:40:38.190 and Enlightenment thinkers sought to find the 00:40:38.190 --> 00:40:40.409 clockwork governing human behavior and governance. 00:40:40.969 --> 00:40:42.889 What an incredible journey through a life that 00:40:42.889 --> 00:40:46.570 defied simple categorization. We started with 00:40:46.570 --> 00:40:49.030 the apple, but we ended up with universal laws, 00:40:49.289 --> 00:40:52.030 a successful war against counterfeiters that 00:40:52.030 --> 00:40:54.730 stabilized a national currency, and a secret 00:40:54.730 --> 00:40:57.710 life involving both ancient heretical texts and 00:40:57.710 --> 00:41:00.090 mercury poisoning. It's the profound paradox 00:41:00.090 --> 00:41:02.630 that must stick with you, the listener, the man 00:41:02.630 --> 00:41:04.929 who fundamentally changed the basis of the scientific 00:41:04.929 --> 00:41:07.820 method. demanding that explanations be grounded 00:41:07.820 --> 00:41:10.679 strictly on observable data with his famous rejection 00:41:10.679 --> 00:41:14.019 of unsupported hypotheses, hypotheses, not Fingo. 00:41:14.199 --> 00:41:16.940 Right. That same man spent decades searching 00:41:16.940 --> 00:41:19.119 for the secret fire of nature through alchemy. 00:41:19.400 --> 00:41:21.659 a field that blurred the line between science 00:41:21.659 --> 00:41:24.380 and magic. That seems like an utterly human, 00:41:24.559 --> 00:41:26.880 necessary contradiction contained within the 00:41:26.880 --> 00:41:29.320 supreme genius. He had the rational side that 00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:32.219 wrote the laws of motion and the intuitive, exploratory 00:41:32.219 --> 00:41:34.480 side that risked his life searching for secrets 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:37.119 in the dark. It does. And this raises an important 00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:40.170 question for you, the learner. If the supreme 00:41:40.170 --> 00:41:43.050 genius of science operated simultaneously on 00:41:43.050 --> 00:41:45.610 multiple seemingly contradictory intellectual 00:41:45.610 --> 00:41:48.849 pathways, the intensely rational and the passionately 00:41:48.849 --> 00:41:51.409 occult, what does that tell us about the true, 00:41:51.570 --> 00:41:54.690 meth -y nature of breakthrough discovery? That's 00:41:54.690 --> 00:41:56.789 a great question. What contemporary fields or 00:41:56.789 --> 00:41:59.409 pursuits, dismissed today as marginal or non 00:41:59.409 --> 00:42:01.929 -scientific, might actually hold the scientific 00:42:01.929 --> 00:42:04.469 seat of tomorrow? Something to mull over as you 00:42:04.469 --> 00:42:07.829 encounter new, strange ideas. A fantastic thought 00:42:07.829 --> 00:42:09.940 to end on. Thank you for joining us for this 00:42:09.940 --> 00:42:12.559 deep dive into the paradoxical world of Sir Isaac 00:42:12.559 --> 00:42:13.900 Newton. We'll see you next time.