GCSE Maths Coursework

GCSE Maths coursework sample on Newton and Galileo.The following sample is written for you with the hope to help you with writing your own coursework. If this coursework does not fit your topic, you may contact us and request professional coursework writing help. If you are looking for assistance with GCSE English Coursework or need advice on how to write Maths Coursework, we are onlin3 24/7 to help you with writing!

GCSE Maths Coursework Sample

Newton's work followed and considerably broadened the plan laid down by Galileo, who proposed to find basic quantitative physical principles and to deduce from them the description of physical phenomena. Galileo had discovered and utilized such axioms as the first law of motion, the constant acceleration of bodies moving near the surface of the earth, and the independence of the horizontal and vertical motions of projectiles. His results were confined to terrestrial motions. Newton added to the axioms the second law of motion and replaced the principle of constant acceleration of falling bodies by the more general law of gravitation. He then found that the resulting set of principles enabled him to deduce the description of all motions of matter on earth and in the heavens. Thus the scientific method of Galileo and Newton involves mathematics not only in the expression of axioms and the laws which are deduced but also in the deductive process itself. Indeed, mathematics offered not merely the vehicle for scientific expression but the most powerful tool for the real work of science that is the acquisition of knowledge about the physical world and the organization of that knowledge in coherent systems. From the time of Newton, these roles of mathematics have been unquestionably accepted and utilized. Hence, as the success of Newtonian mechanics spurred efforts in other physical domains, mathematics was confronted with new challenges and received new suggestions for the creation of concepts and methods which in turn gave greater power to science. This interaction of mathematics and science has grown immensely since its beginning in the seventeenth century and has become the outstanding feature of the intellectual life of our own century.

The work of Newton secured the triumph of the heliocentric theory and thereby enhanced the importance of mathematics. Copernicus' and Kepler's defense of heliocentrism on the ground that it gave a simpler mathematical account of the heavenly motions seemed to place too much importance on the mathematical structure. Their theory could have been regarded by everyone and had been regarded by many as a mathematical contrivance convenient for the calculations of the paths of the moon and planets but not physically true. Moreover, in addition to being isolated from the main body of scientific knowledge, the heliocentric theory created difficulties in accounting for the phenomena of motion readily observed here on earth, and hence encountered legitimate objections.