Historical Figures Codexery

Isaac Newton

English polymath who formulated laws of motion and universal gravitation.

Isaac Newton was an English polymath who made foundational contributions to physics, mathematics, and optics.[1] He formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation in his 1687 work Principia, which established classical mechanics.[1][2] Using prism experiments, Newton observed that white light separates into a spectrum of colours, and he created the initial functional reflecting telescope.[3]

Quick Facts

Birthplace
Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England
Place of death
Kensington, Middlesex, England
Resting place
Westminster Abbey
Fields
  • Physics
  • natural philosophy
  • alchemy
  • theology
  • mathematics
  • astronomy
  • economics
Workplaces
University of Cambridge, Royal Society, Royal Mint
Education
Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1665; MA, 1668)
Academic advisors
Isaac Barrow, Benjamin Pulleyn
Notable students
Roger Cotes, William Whiston

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Newton was born on Christmas Day 1642 at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, and his father had died three months before.[4] He disliked his stepfather and once threatened to burn down the house over him and his mother.[5] From about age twelve, Newton attended The King's School in Grantham, where he learned Latin and Greek.[6] After his mother tried to make him a farmer, his schoolmaster and uncle persuaded her to send him back to school.[7]

After Cambridge closed due to the Great Plague, Newton spent two years at home developing theories on calculus, optics, and gravitation.[8][9] Newton began his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge in June 1661, where he initially worked as a subsizar to pay his way.[10] A conflict over who first developed calculus emerged between Newton and the German scholar Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.[11]

What the cited sources add

According to the 1934 biography by More, the laws of motion and universal gravitation that Newton set out in the Principia established the prevailing scientific framework for many centuries.[12][2] More's biography also explains that Newton's laws remain accurate enough for describing phenomena at low speeds and in weak gravitational fields.[12][2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Iliffe Smith 2016, p. 4–5, 30; Gleick, "Isaac Newton", Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007, p. 4–5; Alex, "Who was the smartest person in the world?", Big Think, 4 February 2022; Matthews, "Time for Science Education: How Teaching the History and Philosophy of Pendulum Motion Can Contribute to Science Literacy", Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2000, p. 181; Rynasiewicz, "Newton's Views on Space, Time, and Motion", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 22 August 2011; Mainzer, "Symmetries of Nature: A Handbook for Philosophy of Natu en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: More, "Isaac Newton: A Biography", Dover Publications, 1934, p. 327 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cheng, "Isaac Newton and Heat Transfer", Heat Transfer Engineering, 1998, p. 9–21 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hatch, "Sir Isaac Newton", The Scientific Revolution Homepage, 1988 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Keynes, "Balancing Newton's Mind: His Singular Behaviour and His Madness of 1692–93", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 20 September 2008, p. 289–300; Westfall 1980, p. 55 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Whiteside, "Contemporary Newtonian Research", Springer, 1982, p. 110–111 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Westfall 1994, p. 16–19; Westfall 1994, p. 16–19; White 1997, p. 22; Westfall 1980, p. 55 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Connor, "Sir Isaac Newton, the Pioneer of Astrophysics", Leaflet of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1 January 1942, p. 55; Newton, "Waste Book", Cambridge University Digital Library (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Westfall 1980, p. 55 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Isaac Newton" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Newman, "The World of Mathematics: A Small Library of the Literature of Mathematics from Aʻh-mosé the Scribe to Albert Einstein", Simon and Schuster, 1956, p. 58; Whitrow, "Newton's Role in the History of Mathematics", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 1989, p. 71–92; Hall 1980, p. 1, 15, 21; "Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach", Dover Publications, 2013, p. 903 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  12. More, "Isaac Newton: A Biography", Dover Publications, 1934, p. 327. facts only, no text reused. archive.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Isaac Newton (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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