Issac Newton (1642-1727), English mathematician and physicist,
considered the greatest single influence on theoretical
physics until Einstein. In Principia Mathematica (1687), he
gave a mathematical description of the laws of mechanics and
gravitation and applied these to planetary motion. Opticks
(1704) records his optical experiments and theories, including
the discovery that white light is made up of a mixture of
colors. His work in mathematics included the binomial theorem
and differential calculus.
How two scientists built a bridge between Newton and Einstein
https://aeon.co/videos/how-two-scientists-built-a-bridge-between-newton-and-einstein-in-empty-spaces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMgcX8UNIGY 5+ min
Gravity retained a somewhat mystifying quality, even after
the Newtonian revolution: how could one object affect
another from great distances? The same could be said about
light, heat and magnetism, which all seemed to jump through
empty space. It wasn't until the 19th century that the
scientists Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell made
sense of these phenomena by developing electromagnetic field
theory. With Faraday conceiving of electromagnetic fields
and Maxwell expressing them with mathematics, the duo
revolutionised physics by demonstrating how seemingly empty
space isn't so empty.
Poincare & Einstein
In his 1902 book "Science and Hypothesis", the mathematical
physicist Henri Poincare identified three fundamental yet
unresolved problems [in physics].
One problem concerned the mysterious way ultraviolet light
ejects electrons from the surface of a metal; the second
problem was the zig-zagging perpetual motion of pollen
particles suspended in a liquid; the third problem was the
failure of experiments to detect Earth's motion through the
aether.
In 1904, Einstein read Poincare's book. He had also been
thinking about these problems, independently of Poincare.
For Einstein, they were clearly part of God's thoughts. One
year later, in 1905, he solved all three.
Five Papers That Shook The World by Matthew Chalmers (2005)
https://physicsworld.com/a/five-papers-that-shook-the-world/
Episode 25: From Kepler To Einstein - The Mechanical Universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkFD9ZPM3Jg 28:30
BBC: Albert Einstein Documentary HD 1h 30m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_yk45m4E3M
Predictions of Einstein's General Relativity
http://edu-observatory.org/olli/GR/Week2.html
http://edu-observatory.org/olli/GR/Week3.html
Tests of Big Bang Cosmology
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_tests.html
http://edu-observatory.org/olli/tobbc/index.html
Gravitational Waves: A New Era of Astronomy Begins
http://edu-observatory.org/olli/Lecture.20180417/index.html
https://www.ligo.caltech.edu
Selections from The Principle of Relativity
by Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking
Running Press, December 2004
ISBN-10: 0762420235
https://www.amazon.com/Selections-Principle-Relativity-Shoulders-Giants/dp/0762420235
Einstein's essay, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,
introduces his famous "principle of relativity," one of the
twentieth century's most revolutionary concepts. In his
introduction to this seminal work, the renowned physicist
Stephen Hawking cuts through Einstein's mathematical
complexities to explain this revolutionary concept in
language that excites and informs the reader. This book
features selections from a translation of the original
essay, The Principle of Relativity, as well as an insightful
biography of Einstein and Hawking's informative summary.
sam.wormley@gmail.com