Born: 4 Jan 1643 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England Died: 31 March 1727 in London, England

Isaac Newton's life can be divided into three quite distinct periods. The first is his boyhood days from 1643 up to his appointment to a chair in 1669. The second period from 1669 to 1687 was the highly productive period in which he was Lucasian professor at Cambridge. The third period (nearly as long as the other two combined) saw Newton as a highly paid government official in London with little further interest in mathematical research.

Isaac Newton was born in the manor house of Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire.Although by the calendar in use at the time of his birth he was born on Christmas Day 1642,we give the date of 4 January 1643 in this biography which is the "corrected" Gregorian calendar date bringing it into line with our present calendar.(The Gregorian calendar was not adopted in England until 1752.) Isaac Newton came from a family of farmers but never knew his father, also named Isaac Newton, who died in October 1642, three months before his son was born. Although Isaac's father owned property and animals which made him quite a wealthy man, he was completely uneducated and could not sign his own name.

In 1703 he was elected president of the Royal Society and was relected each year until his death. He was knighted in 1705 by Queen Anne, the first scientist to be so honoured for his work. However the last portion of his life was not an easy one, dominated in many ways with the controversy with Leibniz over which of them had invented the calculus.

After suffering a second nervous breakdown in 1693, Newton retired from research. The reasons for this breakdown have been discussed by his biographers and many theories have been proposed: chemical poisoning as a result of his alchemy experiments; frustration with his researches; the ending of a personal friendship with Fatio de Duillier, a Swiss-born mathematician resident in London; and problems resulting from his religious beliefs. Newton himself blamed lack of sleep but this was almost certainly a symptom of the illness rather than the cause of it. There seems little reason to suppose that the illness was anything other than depression, a mental illness he must have suffered from throughout most of his life, perhaps made worse by some of the events we have just listed.

Newton's aim at Cambridge was a law degree. Instruction at Cambridge was dominated by the philosophy of Aristotle but some freedom of study was allowed in the third year of the course. Newton studied the philosophy of Descartes, Gassendi, Hobbes, and in particular Boyle. The mechanics of the Copernican astronomy of Galileo attracted him and he also studied Kepler's Optics. He recorded his thoughts in a book which he entitled Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions). It is a fascinating account of how Newton's ideas were already forming around 1664. He headed the text with a Latin statement meaning "Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth" showing himself a free thinker from an early stage.. 

Newton's aim at Cambridge was a law degree. Instruction at Cambridge was dominated by the philosophy of Aristotle but some freedom of study was allowed in the third year of the course. Newton studied the philosophy of Descartes, Gassendi, Hobbes, and in particular Boyle. The mechanics of the Copernican astronomy of Galileo attracted him and he also studied Kepler's Optics. He recorded his thoughts in a book which he entitled Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions). It is a fascinating account of how Newton's ideas were already forming around 1664. He headed the text with a Latin statement meaning "Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my best friend is truth" showing himself a free thinker from an early stage..                                      

How to Burn CD?

Basics of CD Burning

You have a CD burner in your computer, but have no idea how to burn a CD, well here's how. It's usually pretty easy. Most CD writers come with some kind of CD writing software. Since this varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, this is going to be a VERY basic lesson. It should help get you started though

Not sure where your CD burning program is? It should be lurking somewhere under the Start menu, Programs (it's not necessarily on your desktop or quick launch toolbar). If for some reason, you don't have a CD writing program on your computer you can download them from internet.

OK, assuming that you've discovered the location of your CD burning program, here's how it typically works:

1. First, if you get an option for either writing manually or via a wizard, pick the wizard (you can get fancier later on).

2. OK, now you are probably going to be asked what kind of CD you want to write, either audio or data. If you're saving files, choose data. If you're pirating music, oops, I mean making a music CD for your own use from your own CDs, choose music.

Note that for music CDs and for stuff you want to archive, a CD-R is your best choice. If you have a CD-RW, use that for data that you may or may not want to save (they don't always work so hot for music, at least from the standpoint that many CD players refuse to play CD-RWs).

3. OK, the next step is probably choosing files. Most of the time you'll get a "Windows Explorer" type interface that lets you either choose files manually or just drag & drop( copy & paste).

4. That should be about it. At this point, you should have an option for writing the CD.

Note that most programs will let you "test" before you write the CD. The first couple times you use the CD burner, this may not be a bad idea. If you find you have no problems, this is probably a step you can safely skip from then on.

During the actual CD writing process, it's best not to mess with your computer. Just stand 4-6 feet away and let it write the CD.

Why?

Most CD recorders record on the fly. If the computer is busy and can't get the info to the CD burner fast enough, you'll get a buffer underrun error - and your CD will be useless (well, you could make a modernistic coaster out of it I suppose).