Isaac NewtonFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the scientist. For the agriculturalist, seeIsaac Newton (agriculturalist).Sir Isaac Newton

Portrait of Isaac Newton in 1689 (age 46) byGodfrey Kneller

Born25 December 1642[NS:4 January 1643][1]Woolsthorpe,Lincolnshire,England

Died20 March1726/7(aged 84)[OS: 20 March 1726NS: 31 March 1727][1]Kensington,Middlesex, England

Resting placeWestminster Abbey

ResidenceEngland

NationalityEnglish

Fields Physics Natural philosophy Mathematics Astronomy Alchemy Economics

Institutions University of Cambridge Royal Society Royal Mint

Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

Academic advisors Isaac Barrow[2] Benjamin Pulleyn[3][4]

Notable students Roger Cotes William Whiston

Knownfor Newtonian mechanics Universal gravitation Calculus Newton's laws of motion Optics Binomial series Principia Newton's method

Influences Johannes Kepler Galileo Galilei Henry More[5] Polish Brethren[6] Robert Boyle[7]

Influenced Nicolas Fatio de Duillier John Keill Voltaire

Notable awardsFRS(1672)[8]

Signature

Life ofIsaac Newton

Early life Middle years Later life WritingPrincipia Religious views Occult studies

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Sir Isaac NewtonPRSMP(/njutn/;[9]25 December 1642 20 March1726/7[1]) was anEnglishphysicistandmathematician(described in his own day as a "natural philosopher") who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in thescientific revolution. His bookPhilosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations forclassical mechanics. Newton made seminal contributions tooptics, and he shares credit withGottfried Leibnizfor the development ofcalculus.Newton'sPrincipiaformulated thelaws of motionanduniversal gravitation, which dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. By derivingKepler's laws of planetary motionfrom his mathematical description of gravity, and then using the same principles to account for the trajectories ofcomets, thetides, theprecession of the equinoxes, and other phenomena, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of theheliocentricmodel of the Solar System. This work also demonstrated that themotion of objectson Earth and ofcelestialbodies could be described by the same principles. His prediction that Earth should be shaped as anoblate spheroidwas later vindicated by the measurements ofMaupertuis,La Condamine, and others, which helped convince mostContinental Europeanscientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over the earlier system ofDescartes.Newton built the first practicalreflecting telescopeand developed atheory of colourbased on the observation that aprismdecomposes white light into the many colours of thevisible spectrum. He formulated anempirical law of cooling, studied thespeed of sound, and introduced the notion of aNewtonian fluid. In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study ofpower series, generalised thebinomial theoremto non-integer exponents, developed amethodfor approximating theroots of a function, and classified most of thecubic plane curves.Newton was a fellow ofTrinity Collegeand the secondLucasian Professor of Mathematicsat theUniversity of Cambridge. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian and, unusually for a member of the Cambridge faculty of the day, he refused to takeholy ordersin theChurch of England, perhaps because he privately rejected the doctrine of theTrinity. Beyond his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton dedicated much of his time to the study ofbiblical chronologyandalchemy, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. In his later life, Newton became president of theRoyal Society. Newton served the British government as Warden and Master of theRoyal Mint.Contents[hide] 1Life 1.1Early life 1.2Middle years 1.2.1Mathematics 1.2.2Optics 1.2.3Mechanics and gravitation 1.3Classification of cubics and beyond 1.4Later life 1.5Personal relations 2After death 2.1Fame 2.2Commemorations 2.3In popular culture 3Religious views 3.1Effect on religious thought 3.2End of the world 3.3Alchemy 4Enlightenment philosophers 5Apple incident 6Works 6.1Published in his lifetime 6.2Published posthumously 6.3Primary sources 7See also 8References 9Bibliography 10Further reading 11External linksLifeEarly lifeMain article:Early life of Isaac NewtonIsaac Newton was born according to theJulian calendar(in use in England at the time) on Christmas Day, 25 December 1642 (NS4 January 1643[1]), atWoolsthorpe ManorinWoolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, ahamletin the county ofLincolnshire. He was born three months after the death of his father, a prosperous farmer also named Isaac Newton. Bornprematurely, he was a small child; his mother Hannah Ayscough reportedly said that he could have fit inside aquartmug.[10]When Newton was three, his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband, the Reverend Barnabas Smith, leaving her son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough. The young Isaac disliked his stepfather and maintained some enmity towards his mother for marrying him, as revealed by this entry in a list of sins committed up to the age of 19: "Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them."[11]Newton's mother had three children from her second marriage.[12]Although it was claimed that he was once engaged,[13]Newton never married.

Newton in a 1702 portrait byGodfrey Kneller

Isaac Newton (Bolton, Sarah K. Famous Men of Science. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1889)From the age of about twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated atThe King's School, Granthamwhich taught him Latin but no mathematics. He was removed from school, and by October 1659, he was to be found atWoolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, where his mother, widowed for a second time, attempted to make a farmer of him. Newton hated farming.[14]Henry Stokes, master at the King's School, persuaded his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his education. Motivated partly by a desire for revenge against a schoolyard bully, he became the top-ranked student,[15]distinguishing himself mainly by building sundials and models of windmills.[16]In June 1661, he was admitted toTrinity College, Cambridge, on the recommendation of his uncle Rev William Ayscough. He started as asubsizarpaying his way by performingvalet's dutiesuntil he was awarded a scholarship in 1664, which guaranteed him four more years until he would get his M.A.[17]At that time, the college's teachings were based on those ofAristotle, whom Newton supplemented with modern philosophers such asDescartes, andastronomerssuch asGalileoandThomas Street, through whom he learned ofKepler's work. He set down in his notebook a series of 'Quaestiones' about mechanical philosophy as he found it. In 1665, he discovered the generalisedbinomial theoremand began to develop a mathematical theory that later becamecalculus. Soon after Newton had obtained his B.A. degree in August 1665, the university temporarily closed as a precaution against theGreat Plague. Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student,[18]Newton's private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the subsequent two years saw the development of his theories on calculus,[19]optics, and thelaw of gravitation. In April 1667, he returned to Cambridge and in October was elected as a fellow of Trinity.[20][21]Fellows were required to become ordained priests, although this was not enforced in the restoration years and an assertion of conformity to the Church of England was sufficient. However, by 1675 the issue could not be avoided and by then his unconventional views stood in the way.[22]Nevertheless, Newton managed to avoid it by means of a special permission fromCharles II(see "Middle years" section below).His studies had impressed the Lucasian professor,Isaac Barrow, who was more anxious to develop his own religious and administrative potential (he became master of Trinity two years later), and in 1669, Newton succeeded him, only one year after he received his M.A. He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1672.[8]Middle yearsMathematicsNewton's work has been said "to distinctly advance every branch of mathematics then studied".[23]His work on the subject usually referred to as fluxions or calculus, seen in a manuscript of October 1666, is now published among Newton's mathematical papers.[24]The author of the manuscriptDe analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas, sent byIsaac BarrowtoJohn Collinsin June 1669, was identified by Barrow in a letter sent to Collins in August of that year as:[25]