What’s In a Name?

We are often asked what the meaning is of the two curious words which make up our company name, IMPERIAL-Newton. Is it a reference to imperialist capitalism enjoyed with fig newton cookies? No, not really, not even close actually. It’s a bit more technically minded and engineering related. Although we enjoy hearing some wonderfully entertaining guesses at what our namesake refers to, we decided to offer the following information to spell out exactly what our name infers, and why it says so much about what we are all about.

There are two basic systems of measurement which pervade the entire spectrum of nuts and bolts used in heavy industry on down to tiny screws used in attaching tiny circuit boards inside mobile devices. They are the “imperial” system of measurement (also known more commonly as the inch system) which consists of all fractions and inch related measurements such as 9/16″ and 2500 ft-lbs, or inch-pounds or torque. The second measurement system is the Metric system, which in our world of large fasteners includes measurements in millimeters (mm) and torque applied commonly in Newton-Meters of force (N-m). Therefore, our name makes reference at once to both of these common measurement and force terminologies used everyday in the industrial world; and, also intends to make reference to the fact that we offer every size of socket and wrench used in heavy industry for both the inch and metric systems of measurement.

The “imperial” in our name, which is a formal reference to the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824, actually refers to what is now commonly known as the “inch system”, which became the predominant system of the United States.

The “Newton” in our name is a reference to the Newton-Meter of torque measurement. Sir Isaac Newton is an important historical figure in the world of physics, and his name graces some of the common terminology used in describing torque and force to this day. Units such as the Newton-Meter (N-m) of force, and the singular Newton unit of force are direct references to the sir name of Isaac Newton, the physicist.

Here at IMPERIAL-Newton Corp, we work with applications involving high forces and torque reaction every day, so the following physics laws established by Isaac Newton are especially relevant to us on a daily basis in one form or another. Perhaps they are in your work as well, in which case you might be interested to know that:

Newton’s laws of motion are comprised of three physical laws which form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on an object and its motion due to those forces. They can be summarized as follows:

Newton’s First law:

An object in motion tends to stay in motion. An object at rest tends to stay at rest. Every object remains in a state of constant velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force. This means that in the absence of another force, the center of mass of an object either remains at rest, or moves at a constant velocity.

Newton’s Second law:

An object which is subjected to a given force, undergoes an acceleration that has the same direction as the force, and a magnitude that is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass, i.e., Force = mass X acceleration (F=ma).

Newton’s Third law:

Every action has an opposite but equal reaction. The mutual forces of action and reaction between two objects are equal, opposite and collinear. This means that whenever a first object exerts a force on a second object, the second object also exerts a force on the first object. This law is sometimes referred to as the action-reaction law, with F called the “action” and -F the “reaction”. F and -F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. The action and the reaction are simultaneous.

The three laws of motion were first compiled by Sir Isaac Newton in his work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published on July 5, 1687. Newton used them to explain and investigate the motion of many physical objects and systems. For example, in the third volume of the text, Newton showed that these laws of motion, combined with his law of universal gravitation, explained Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.