One of the dark secrets of Newton is his deep curiosity and obsession to religion and his devotion to occult. Another revelation shows that Newton has tried to enter pseudoscience which means he settled on beliefs and practices that are mistakenly known as based on scientific method given that before everything, he believes that everything in this world can be subscribed to scientific understanding. According to Walter Lewin, one of the speakers in the video, Isaac Newton is allergic to criticisms even before that is why he decided on keeping his inventions and even the other earthly manners that interests him because he was afraid on judgments and critiques of different people. This is also related to his attitude towards sharing what he knows because he thinks that only few can understand him. His esteem lowers every time he fails to convince his audience. With regards to Newton being obsessed with religion, if he has revealed it while he was still building up his name in the field of science, his career would not have taken any longer according to Stephen Snobelen.
In the documentary, two titles of books by Newton were discussed. One is Principia Mathematica, a 500-page draft of his masterpiece which Isaac Newton submitted to the Royal Society for publication. The second one is the Opticks which shows his works on light. Some of Newton’s experiments on science were shown in the video as well. He made windmills and little boats since he was preoccupied by physicists’ stuff. He also made kites and he tied candles into it and people thought those were comets. For an instance, Isaac Newton has been curious on how colors are produced so he made an experiment on himself making use of a large needle. He pricked his eye until he discovered black, white and other dark colors. In his published books and experiments, Newton learned calculus, colors, light and of course, the concept of gravity.
Newton’s works have been very important in the history of science and mathematics. Calculus has been used in computing elements in geography and physics. The concept of light has been used in studying the eyes and the different colors present in the real world. It has also lead to some concepts of energy intensities. Finally, his discovery of the gravitational pull has been widely used in explaining things and the free fall.
The story of Newton and the apple that lead his thoughts to the Universal Law of Gravitation was also shown in the documentary. Historian Simon Schaffer said in the matter of the apple and Isaac Newton that he felt extremely skeptical about what the role of the apple is in Isaac Newton’s life. It is possible that Sir Simon Schaffer is not easily convinced to the manner of how Newton has become famous worldwide in his works on physics and calculus. He does not believe that everything that Newton has now is just because of an apple. Sir Simon Schaffer is not skeptical on the concepts that Newton was able to arrive rather on the manner of how Newton found out the concept of gravity. Maybe he was thinking that there is something more serious than a falling apple from a tree.
Works Cited:
“Newton’s Dark Secrets.” YouTube, 6 Apr. 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
