Isaac Newton

Physicist, Academic

1642 – 1727

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Who was Isaac Newton?

Sir Isaac Newton PRS MP was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics and shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the invention of the infinitesimal calculus.

Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. It also demonstrated that the motion of objects on the Earth and that of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the cosmos.

Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours of the visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound. In addition to his work on the calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, and developed Newton's method for approximating the roots of a function.

Famous Quotes:

  • I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light.
  • If I am anything, which I highly doubt, I have made myself so by hard work.
  • A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.
  • I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
  • If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.
  • Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.
  • Yet one thing secures us what ever betide, the scriptures assures us the Lord will provide.
  • If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent.
  • If I have seen further... it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
  • This most beautiful system -- The Universe could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.

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Born
Dec 25, 1642
Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth
Also known as
  • Sir Isaac Newton
  • Sir Newton Isaac
Parents
Siblings
Religion
  • Anglicanism
  • Monotheism
  • Arianism
Nationality
  • Kingdom of England
  • Kingdom of Great Britain
  • England
Profession
Education
  • Bachelor of Arts, Trinity College, Cambridge
    (1661/06 - 1665/08)
  • The King's School, Grantham
    ( - 1661)
  • M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge
    (1667 - 1668)
Employment
  • University of Cambridge
  • President, Royal Society
    (1703 - 1727)
Lived in
  • England
Died
Mar 20, 1727
Kensington
Resting place
Westminster Abbey

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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"Isaac Newton." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/isaac_newton>.

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