Newton!

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for the long delay in our blog posts.  We didn't intend to leave our blog without any kind of a close-off, but our return to Canada (now almost 2 months ago) has been complicated.  We'll try to put a push on to wrap up the last details of our trip, including our epic 9-country 13 city tour across Eastern Europe before we moved back home.  Now the first of our 'catch-up' posts.  This was written in August just before I submitted my thesis.

Getting onto the important task at hand, while our last 'real' trip was to Ireland,  a month ago, we've not been sitting idle around missing out.  Since returning from Ireland, we've managed to fit in a weekend of SCUBA diving - both of us getting our dry suit certification, and I completing the Sports Diver certification as well.  We've also escaped from three more UK escape rooms.

Kristin has finished up the last two weekend shifts she had for work, but on one of the nice weekends we had back at the end of July, we ventured off to go visit another historical place, surprisingly close to home.

The homestead of Sir Isaac Newton is located in Woolsthorp, just 45 minutes north-east of Loughborough, including the house, the barn / workshop, and the famous apple tree, which is rumored to have inspired his understanding of the theory of Gravity.
Ok, so being both a physics and an engineering graduate, I was nerding right out!

The original homestead

This might be one of the first visits we've made to a National Trust site.  We have English Heritage memberships for the year, which generally covers anything in an advanced state of ruin; Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall, several castles in the countryside.  The National Trust sites are usually historical buildings which are maintained in the period they were famous for; so Newtons home shows what life would have been like in the late 1600's.

The kitchen and hearth

The kitchen was well stocked

So we made our way to the homestead.  The house includes biographical information about Newton and his family, historical information about the time period to understand how they lived, and scienciey information; experiments and activities that were a result of Newton's work for you to try.

Beginning with the biographical side.

A bust of Newton in the parlour

And a death mask... is it just me or does that also look a bit like Robin Williams?

Isaac Newton lived from 1642 to 1727.  He was born on December 25 of 1642 at Woolsthorpe Manor.  He lived there off and throughout his life; mainly during his youth; and during a famous period when Trinity College of Cambridge University was shut down to prevent spread of the Plague.  It was during the second period that he first wrote down many of the founding ideas of his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy); which were the foundations of modern mechanics.  From his study, it is possible, still today, to see the apple tree from which it is believed the famous apple fell to inspire his discovery / explanation of gravity.

In addition to the laws of motion, Newton also discovered and explained many of the basic principles of optics; such as the fact that white light is made of all colours, and can be separated by a prism, and many of the basics about mirrors, reflections and lenses.

This is a safe / shelf in Newton's room

And a copy of Prinicipa on display, this a 3rd edition copy in Latin  

As I mentioned the house is maintained in a state to be used as a museum.  When the National Trust took the house over; they found a number of ... well... grafitti on the walls that would otherwise be the bane of every parent; but as it's possible they were drawn by Newton; we'll call them  art and of enormous historical significance.  Where they can, they have placed them behind plexi-glass to preserve them.

No Mom, it's not damage, it's art to inspire future generations

More graffiti in the lower left

And a close-up 

Outside of the house we spent a few moments pondering by the famous apple tree, as well as a couple of other locations around the grounds.

Ok, impressive plaque, sure; but how do you decide which are the 50 'great British trees'? 

From Newton's bedroom desk.

I do feel smarter!

Tin Man is about to understand Gravity too

We both really enjoyed the human sundial we saw in the yard.  It's not in anyway from Newton's time, but with his preoccupation for designing and building sundials, it's a great addition to the grounds.  By standing on the month on the tile in the centre, your own shadow will point to the current time.

There is a 'discovery centre' at the Manor where these ideas are all explained in some interesting hands-on displays.
This included separating light with prisms, and seeing light distortion in bubbles.  We added the polarizing filter on the camera to accentuate this effect.

We were both in thinking moods while we were at different parts of the estate; I think mine is the most historically accurate.

Front of the house

And the back of the house; with barn and workshop down the drive.

In addition to his scientific discoveries; his membership on the Royal Society and involvement with Cambridge University; Newton is also famous for his role as the Warden and Master of the Royal Mint, responsible for re-coining the British monetary system to cut down on 'clippers'.  Clippers were the people who would trim off a little shaving of the silver and gold coins in use at the time, with the intent of resmelting them back to form a new coin; and 'create' new money.  Although the post of Warden and Master of the Mint were traditionally ceremonial; Newton not only took it on as a full time job, he also resigned his post at Trinity College to do so.  

One homage to his time as Master of the Mint is the inscription on every £2 coin of the quote below, carved into the rim of each coin.

Source: http://c8.alamy.com/comp/ARDYYP/four-uk-two-pound-coins-showing-the-inscription-on-the-edge-standing-ARDYYP.jpg

Designs such as this were also very effective at deterring the very clippers that Netwon fought against.

This was one of my favourite parts of the UK, that in some of these incredibly small villages, there can be history dating back hundreds of years, with significance to, literally the entire body of science and mathematics.  It was a fun little jaunt out.  We finished the day with a proper Sunday roast, and made our way back to Loughborough to start the week.