Isaac Newton was born on January 4th 1643 at Woolsthorpe Manor in the county of Lincolnshire. He was born prematurely and without a father. At the age of three his mother remarried to man that Isaac disliked but he was placed in the care of his grandmother.
From the ages of 12 to 17, Isaac attended the King’s School, Grantham. His mother was widowed for the second time and she took Isaac out of school to become a farmer. Henry Stoke, master at the King’s School, persuaded Isaac’s mother to let him go back to school. With the motivation for revenge against a schoolyard bully, Isaac became the top-ranked student. In 1661, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge as a sizar. After Cambridge closed down for precautionary reasons due to the black plague, Newton did some private studies in which his theories for calculus, optics, and the law of gravitation were developed. After Cambridge was reopened, Isaac was elected to the Lucasian Chair, a very prestigious position. An issue arose because it was required that Isaac became an ordained priest in order to hold the position. Newton didn’t want to be ordained so Charles II gave special permission and Newton avoided it.
Some of Newton’s best work was done in the field of mathematics. It has been said that Newton’s work “distinctly advanced every branch of mathematics then studied.” Newton wrote a manuscript dealing with infinite series. This manuscript was sent to John Collins, an English Mathematician. Newton eventually went on to develop infinitesimal calculus which caused a dispute. This dispute was with Gottfried Leibniz, who also developed infinitesimal calculus independent of Newton, over who had priority in the development of infinitesimal calculus. Most historians believe they each worked independently but Leibniz published his research in 1684 and Newton didn’t give his full report until 1704. Newton wrote Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. This book is regarded as one of the most important books to the history of science ever written. Newton later revised it and wrote two newer editions one in 1713 and another in 1726.
Newton also did some great work in the field of optics. Some of the topics he dealt with were the refraction of light, the decomposition of white light in a prism into a spectrum of colors, and how a lens and a second prism could revert the spectrum of colors back into white light. Newton also devised a theory of color. This theory states that objects don’t create their own color but their color is a result of the objects interaction with colored light. Newton wrote a Hypothesis of Light in 1675. In this hypothesis Newton expressed his interest in alchemy as he talked about ether and its effect on light. Some went as far as saying “Newton wasn’t the first of the age of reason but the last of the magicians.” Newton also published Opticks which referred to his corpuscular theory of light.
Newton also did a lot of research on astronomy, mainly gravitation. He revised kepler’s laws of planetary motion and stated the three laws of motion. His biggest discovery was the Law of Universal Gravitation. He presented a heliocentric view of our solar system which was also a heavily debated topic Newton was involved in.
Newton went on to do some religious work in his later life. He also appeared to have pursued alchemy which was thought because of the large amounts of mercury in his system after his death. This is only speculation but a possibility. Newton’s legacy is incredible as he made numerous sizable discoveries across a plethora of scientific fields.
