Courtney Leipertz

Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 at Woolsthorpe Manor in

Lincolnshire (England). Newtons father died 3 months before Newtons birth and

Newtons mother remarried when he was 3 years old. Newtons mother tried to make

Isaac into a farmer, but Newton hated farming. Instead, he attended Trinity College with

a scholarship that would pay for his way to a Master of Arts degree. The college taught

theories of Aristotle, which sparked Newtons interest. He began to write about

mechanical philosophy and in 1665, he discovered the binomial theorem. With this

theorem, he developed a mathematical theory that later became known as calculus.

Not long after Newton received his Bachelor of Arts degree, the college

temporarily closed due to The Great Plague. Newton continued his studies at home

and over the span of two years, had developed his calculus, optics, and law of

gravitation theories. In April 1667, Newton returned to Trinity College and only 1 year

after receiving his Masters, he succeeded his own professor.

Isaac Newton got into a disagreement with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the

development of calculus. Apparently, both Leibniz and Newton developed calculus

independently, but with very different notations. People who knew Isaac well, claimed

that Leibniz was a fraud and accused him of plagiarism. Eventually in 1711, the Royal

Society proclaimed that Newton was the true discoverer.

In 1666, Newton discovered the spectrum of colors that exists in a prism and how

to position it. Newton also claims that colored light does not change its properties by
separating out a colored beam and shining it on various objects. In 1704, Newton

published Opticks, which expressed his corpuscular theory of light.

In 1679, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, with his law of universal

gravitation. He worked with Keplers law of planetary motion as a reference for the

gravitation of the planets orbits. Newton published The Principia that stated his three

universal laws of motion.

Newtons first law of motion states, Every object in a state of uniform motion

tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. Newtons

second law is, The relationship between an objects mass (m), its acceleration (a), and

the applied force (F) is F=ma. Newtons third (and last) law of motion states, For every

action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Isaac Newton died March 20, 1726/27, and is often considered to be the greatest

genius who ever lived. Even after Newtons fate, his theories lived on and inspired

other mathematicians and scientists. Even the great Albert Einstein kept a picture of

Newton on his study wall. Sir Isaac Newton gave many great tributes not only to Math,

but also to mankinds better understanding of how theories and motions fit into our

everyday lives.
References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

http://www.biography.com/people/isaac-newton-9422656

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newton3laws.html