Isaac Newton Biography

Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 25 December 1642 in the county of Lincolnshire. His father, also named Isaac Newton, had died three months before.

From age 12 to age 17, Newton resided with William Clarke, apothecary, in Grantham, where he acquired his interest in chemistry. While living with the Clarke family, Newton went to The King’s School, Grantham for education.

He spent much of his time on independent pursuits, and did poorly in school. His mother attempted to make a farmer of him. He hated farming.

Henry Stokes, master at the King’s School, persuaded his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his education. This he did at the age of eighteen, achieving an admirable final report.

Isaac Newton Education

In June 1661, his family admitted him to Trinity College, Cambridge, on the recommendation of his uncle Rev William Ayscough, who had studied there.

Soon after Newton had obtained his BA degree in August 1665, the university temporarily closed as a precaution against the Great Plague.

He remained undistinguished as a Cambridge student. Newton’s private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the subsequent two years. He develop his theories on calculus, optics, and the law of gravitation.

In April 1667, he returned to Cambridge and in October member of Trinity elected him as fellow.

His studies had impressed the Lucasian professor Isaac Barrow and in 1669 Newton succeeded him, only one year after receiving his MA. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1672.

Isaac Newton Inventions

Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colours of the visible spectrum.

His work on light was collected in his highly influential book Opticks, published in 1704.

Isaac Newton Quotes

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion.

Genius is patience.

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.

Isaac Newton Discoveries

Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until the theory of relativity superseded it.

Newton used his mathematical description of gravity to prove Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena.

He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid.

In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of the cubic plane curves.

Isaac Newton Books

De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas (1669, published 1711)

De motu corporum in gyrum (1684)

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)

Scala graduum Caloris. Calorum Descriptiones & signa (1701)

Opticks (1704)

Arithmetica Universalis (1707)

Isaac Newton Facts

In a manuscript he wrote in 1704, he mentions the date of 2060, but it is not given as a date for the end of days. If dated from the complete conquest of the three kings 800 AD, world will end 2060.

Although the laws of motion and universal gravitation became Newton’s best-known discoveries, he warned against using them to view the Universe as a mere machine, as if akin to a great clock.

Along with his scientific fame, Newton’s studies of the Bible and of the early Church Fathers were also noteworthy.

Newton was one of many people who lost heavily when the South Sea Company collapsed. Their most significant trade was slaves, and according to his niece, he lost around £20,000.

Politically and personally he tied to the Whig party. Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–90 and 1701–02.

Isaac Newton Death

Newton died in his sleep in London on 20 March 1727. His family buried him in Westminster Abbey.

Isaac Newton Family

Although he got engaged, Newton never married. Many writers believe that he died a virgin.

Isaac Newton Awards

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1672.

Queen Anne knighted him in 1705. He spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden (1696–1700) and Master (1700–1727) of the Royal Mint, as well as president of the Royal Society (1703–1727).

Isaac Newton Laws

Newton’s laws of motion are three physical laws that, together, laid the foundation for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between a body and the forces acting upon it, and its motion in response to those forces.

More precisely, the first law defines the force qualitatively, the second law offers a quantitative measure of the force, and the third asserts that a single isolated force doesn’t exist.

Isaac Newton Apple

Newton himself often told the story that he was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a tree.

Although he said that the apple story is a myth. He did not arrive at his theory of gravity in any single moment.

Acquaintances of Newton do in fact confirm the incident, though not the apocryphal version that the apple actually hit Newton’s head.