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Is not Fire a Body heated so hot as to emit Light copiously? For what else is a red hot Iron than Fire? And what else is a burning Coal than red hot Wood?
Isaac Newton
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote explores the nature of fire and its relation to heated materials.

In this quote, Isaac Newton is discussing the properties of fire, illustrating that fire is essentially a manifestation of heat so intense that it produces light. He uses examples like red hot iron and burning coal to convey that what we perceive as fire is fundamentally related to the heated state of matter, inviting us to consider the interconnectedness of natural phenomena.

Themes

FireLightHeatScienceNature

In practice

Example use cases

In a science class discussion about the properties of matter, this quote can be used to illustrate the relationship between heat and light.

More from Isaac Newton

The best and safest way of philosophising seems to be, first to enquire diligently into the properties of things, and to establish those properties by experiences [experiments] and then to proceed slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them. For hypotheses should be employed only in explaining the properties of things, but not assumed in determining them; unless so far as they may furnish experiments.
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Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
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His epitaph: Who, by vigor of mind almost divine, the motions and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, and the tides of the seas first demonstrated.
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And from true lordship it follows that the true God is living, intelligent, and powerful; from the other perfections, that he is supreme, or supremely perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, he endures from eternity to eternity; and he is present from infinity to infinity; he rules all things, and he knows all things that happen or can happen.
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My Design in this Book is not to explain the Properties of Light by Hypotheses, but to propose and prove them by Reason and Experiments: In order to which, I shall premise the following Definitions and Axioms.
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It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.
Isaac NewtonRead

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