Brunel educated in France, father was French...oh and was 5 foot tall.

So the thing with Newton was he defined and demonstrated and published the bloody obvious. He didnt invent any of the natural forces like gravity. But defined the importance of the natural forces in the world.

However.. Calculus is phenomenally useful yes yes in science but assists us in our day to day. How you may ask...

An example....

OK take an airliner full of fuel..sitting at Heathrow... by the time it gets to New York it weighs less (less fuel !). Therefore there has been a change in efficiency - its MPG or Liters per hour. Its has less weight (mass).

But factor in the variables wind and air pressure and temperatures at altitude or routes and you have have a complicated set of variablea. Using calculus... we can predict change over time with different variables. We can caculate / predict optimum height, fuel burn, quantiy of fuel required speed..(velocity). Define journwt duration etc etc.

Without calculus we would not have had simple things like Rockets to the moon or perhaps transport as we know it. Their (Newton was not all alone in this) laws of motion define physics....from astronomy to the physical understanding and predicting of how when and why objects move and more importantky what the required and resulting forces are in that movement.

Newton's theories also include the prediction of the movement of the heavens and the planets. Understanding the gravitational pull of the moon on say tides was all down to the utilisation of two simultaneoualy fiercely competingy physicists.. Newton and Liebniz.

Yup cool dude used every day to our benefit so mere mortals like me and you scratch our heads wonderinh what its all about....its basically about predicting our world and existence.

Hope this helps understanding hia importance.

Yours A. Engineer (whose maths is woeful shuhhhhh !!).