Sir Isaac Newton

Born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire on 25 December, 1642

Died in London on 25 March, 1727

Newton, in the opinion of many, the greatest scientist that ever lived, did not have an easy youth.

He was born after his father died and because he had a premature birth, he almost died too. His mother remarried. His stepfather died when he was still a school boy. He was an unusual boy. While his classmates played, he was building mechanical toys. Neither at school nor at college did he show any talent. He only tried harder at school when he wanted to be better than the bully of the class who happened to be also the best student. Before 1660 they took him out of school because he had to help his mother on the farm. He realized that he was not made for farmering. Afterwards his uncle took him to Cambridge University where he graduated five years later without any special distinction. In 1666 there was a plague in London, so he returned to his mother's farm. When he was sitting by an apple tree he saw this apple falling from the tree. He started to think why the apple had fallen. He realized that gravity force decreased proportionally to the square of the distance to the center of the Earth. He started to experiment with prisms and he discovered the diffraction of light. If a beam of visible light passes through a prism it separates into the color specter and if the latter passes through a second prism it is seen again as a beam of white light. These experiments made him famous. His biggest competitor was Hook. Together with Leibnitz, Newton discovered infinitesimal calculus. He improved the telescope. Newton also developed three laws:

  1. Law of inertia
  2. Force is defined as the product of acceleration and mass
  3. Every action is equal to its reaction

He developed a procedure to calculate the gravity force between Moon and Earth. He wrote the book called Principia Mathematica where he explained many mathematical theories from a philosophical point of view. When he was older he was granted the title of Lord by the Royal Society. He was manager of the Royal Mint. He had a nervous breakdown and he lived lonely until 25 March, 1727 when he died.

Author: Marko Maric, 3.C