Scientist

Isaac Newton

1,643 CE – 1,727 CE

Discovered laws of motion and universal gravitation.

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Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day 1643 in Lincolnshire, three months after his father's death. Sent up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1661, he was a quiet student until the plague of 1665–66 closed the university and sent him home to Woolsthorpe Manor. In what he later called his annus mirabilis, he invented the calculus, demonstrated that white light is composed of all colours, and worked out the law of universal gravitation. Returning to Cambridge he held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics from 1669; in 1687 the Royal Society published the Philosophiae Naturalis Mathematica, the most consequential single book in the history of physics. He served as Master of the Royal Mint, hunted counterfeiters in person, and was president of the Royal Society until his death in 1727 at the age of 84. Buried in Westminster Abbey, he was the first scientist to be honoured with a state funeral.

Deeper Dive

Notable Works

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica — title page
1687
Public domain·Commons

Opticks — title page
1704
Public domain·Commons

Newton's reflecting telescope (replica)
1671
CC BY-SA 2.0·Commons

Newton's dual-prism experiment
1672
Public domain·Commons

A clone of Newton's apple tree at the NPL
c. 1665 (clone)
CC0·Commons

Newton's tomb in Westminster Abbey
1731
Public domain·Commons

Places

Woolsthorpe Manor
Lincolnshire, England
Birthplace and childhood home. The 'annus mirabilis' of calculus, optics and gravity was worked out here during the plague years.
1643–1661, 1665–1667
Cambridge
England
Trinity College — undergraduate, Fellow, then Lucasian Professor for nearly thirty years. The Principia was written here.
1661–1696
London
England
Warden then Master of the Royal Mint; President of the Royal Society from 1703. Lived on Jermyn Street and later in Kensington.
1696–1727
Westminster Abbey
London, England
Buried in the nave. His grand monument, completed in 1731, became the model for the burial of scientists in the Abbey.
1727–

In Their Own Words

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
Letter to Robert Hooke · 1675

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself 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.
Quoted by Joseph Spence

To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.
Principia, Book I, Third Law of Motion · 1687

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.
Manuscript notes

Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but my greatest friend is truth.
Trinity College notebook · c. 1664

Read Deeper

Isaac Newton2003
by James Gleick
Biography
Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton1980
by Richard S. Westfall
Definitive biography
The Principia: The Authoritative Translation1999
by Isaac Newton (Cohen & Whitman translation)
Primary source
Opticks 1704
by Isaac Newton
Primary source

Threads

Number, zero, gravity, relativity, current, radium

The Mathematics Thread

7 stops

Meet Isaac

Historical Portrait

Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller

1689

by Godfrey Kneller

Public domain·Commons

Life Timeline

1643 CEBorn at Woolsthorpe Manor
Born prematurely on Christmas Day (Julian calendar), Lincolnshire. His father, also Isaac, had died three months earlier.
1661 CEEnters Trinity College, Cambridge
Admitted as a sizar — a poor student who paid his way by waiting tables. He had access to the Cambridge curriculum (Aristotle, Aristotelian physics) but quickly began reading Descartes, Galileo and Kepler on the side.
1665 CEThe Annus Mirabilis at Woolsthorpe
Plague closes Cambridge. Newton returns home and over eighteen months works out the fundamentals of calculus, the laws of motion, and gravitation. He later says: 'In those days I was in the prime of my age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since.'
1669 CELucasian Professor of Mathematics
Appointed to the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge at twenty-six, succeeding Isaac Barrow who recommended him.
1671 CEReflecting telescope to the Royal Society
Builds his first reflecting telescope (six inches long, 30× magnification). The Royal Society admits him as a Fellow the following year.
1684 CEHalley's visit
Edmond Halley travels to Cambridge to ask Newton what the orbit of a planet under inverse-square attraction would look like. 'An ellipse,' replies Newton, who has 'computed it' but cannot find the papers. Halley persuades him to write up the proof — and stays for the next eighteen months.
1687 CEPublishes the Principia
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica appears. The three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, in geometric proofs that explain the orbits of planets, the tides, the path of comets — in a single mathematical system. Halley pays for the printing.
1696 CEWarden of the Royal Mint
Moves to London. Takes the recoinage in hand, personally walks the taverns hunting counterfeiters, and sees several hanged. Becomes Master of the Mint in 1699.
1703 CEPresident of the Royal Society
Elected; he holds the office for the rest of his life, ruling it autocratically. Drives a long, ugly priority dispute with Leibniz over the invention of calculus.
1704 CEPublishes Opticks
Theories of light, colour, and the prism — held back until after Hooke's death. He confirms that white light is composed of all colours.
1705 CEKnighted by Queen Anne
Knighted at Trinity College, Cambridge. The first scientist ever to receive the honour for scientific work.
1727 CEDies in London
Dies at eighty-four. Buried in Westminster Abbey — the first scientist to be — under a monument that reads, in Latin: 'Mortals, rejoice that there has existed such and so great an Ornament to the Human Race.'

Historical Guide

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