Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton, (1642-1727). English mathematician and scientist. After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, Newton privately studied the works of the leading scientists and mathematicians of his day. He formulated the rules of the calculus, the binomial theorem, and the law of gravity and demonstrated that white light is made up of rays of light of different colours. In 1667 he returned to Cambridge as a Fellow of Trinity College, becoming professor of mathematics in 1669. Although his work remained largely un-published, in 1672 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his invention of the reflecting telescope and for his researches into light. In 1684, encouraged by Edmond Halley, Newton began writing The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687). This major work contained the law of universal gravitation, Newton’s three laws of motion and many other portant ideas that together formed the basis for the development of modern physics. Newton became Master of the Royal Mint in 1700 and president of the Royal Society in 1703. The publication of his Optics in 1704 provoked a long quarrel with Leibniz, each accusing the other of plagiarism. Newton was also a keen student of alchemy and wrote commentaries on the biblical books of Daniel and Revelation. Newton was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705, becoming the first person to be honoured in this way for scientific achievement.
“I don’t know what I may seem to the world, but as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore 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. Sir Isaac Newton of himself, in Joseph Spence, Anecdotes (1820)”
