What hath Newton wrought in the two centuries after his death?

[chaszz]

I know that Newton's work made possible the Industrial Revolution, but I don't know how. I understand his impact on subjects like astronomy, gravity, and predicting motion, but not on mechanics and industrial technology. The steam engine was the most important machine in the early Industrial Revolution. Would its invention have been impossible without Newton? If so, how did his work make it possible?

 

[Drakkith]

It's not that he had DIRECT contributions to the industrial revolution, it's that his contributions laid the foundation for science as we know it today, which itself led to the revolution in technology that we've seen.