Hubert A. Newton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
H. A. Newton
|
|
|---|---|
Hubert Anson Newton, around 1879
|
|
| Born | 19 March 1830 |
| Died | 12 August 1896 (aged 66) New Haven, Connecticut, United States
|
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Known for | Science of meteors |
| Awards | Smith gold medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomer and mathematician |
| Institutions | Yale University |
| Academic advisors | Michel Chasles |
| Doctoral students | E. H. Moore Josiah Willard Gibbs Charles Newton Little Arthur W. Wright |
| Signature | |
 |
|
Hubert Anson Newton (born March 19, 1830 – died August 12, 1896), often called H. A. Newton, was an American astronomer and mathematician. He was famous for his studies on meteors, also known as shooting stars.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Newton was born in Sherburne, New York. He went to Yale and finished his studies in 1850. He continued to study math on his own in New Haven and at home. This was because the main math professor at Yale was ill.
In 1853, Newton became a tutor at Yale. He taught mathematics until 1855, when he became a full professor. Before starting his new job, he traveled to Europe. There, he attended lectures by famous mathematicians, including Michel Chasles in Paris. Chasles's ideas helped Newton a lot in his later math research.
Studying Meteors and Comets
Newton is best known for his work on meteors and comets. He wanted to understand how they were connected. In 1833, another Yale scientist, Denison Olmsted, suggested that meteors were part of a group of objects orbiting the sun. Newton tried to add to this idea.
In 1860, Newton described a meteor he saw in 1859. He used reports of its path and time to figure out its height and speed. From 1861, he led a project with the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. They watched meteors together and used special charts to track them. Their findings, published in 1865, showed that meteor showers in different months happened at different heights.
Newton also studied when meteor showers happened. He showed that changes in their timing over hundreds of years could be explained by something called the "precession of equinoxes." This helped him understand the orbits of the Leonid meteors.
Contributions to Science
Newton played a key role in American mathematics. Yale was the first university in the United States to give out doctoral degrees in math, starting in 1862. One of his most famous students was E.H. Moore.
Newton won the Smith gold medal from the National Academy of Sciences. He was also one of the first members of this academy. In 1867, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society. He was also chosen as a member of the Royal Astronomical Society in London. Newton served as the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1885.
Many of his scientific papers about meteors were published in important journals. These included the Memoirs of the National Academy and the American Journal of Science.
Family Life
In 1859, Hubert Newton married Anna C. Stiles. She was a minister's daughter from New York. They had two daughters together.
See also
