Sir Isaac Newton: Biography & Contributions

You are here:

HomeHistorySir Isaac Newton: Biography &…

Early life

Born 4 January 1643 in Lincolnshire, England

Came from a poor family, allowed to attend school at King’s College for free because of his
academic ability and bible knowledge

Attended Trinity College with intention of becoming an England Minister, graduated in 1666,
bible knowledge impressed teachers again

Beliefs

Unorthodox Christian who was highly religious

Wrote more on Biblical hermeneutics and occult studies than on science and mathematics, the
studies he is usually associated with

Saw God as the master creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur
of all creation

Through his readings and interpretations of the Bible, he estimated that the world would end no
earlier than 2060

Believed in experimental method of science

‘I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired.
I study the Bible daily.’

Contributions

Developed calculus, revolutionary form of mathematics, allowed for the calculation of the area
inside a shape with curved sides, and to calculate the rate of change of physical quantities

Newton and Leibniz accused of stealing ideas on calculus from each other, later established that
both came up with it at the same time

Used prisms to show that light was made up of colours of the rainbow, disproved ancient Greek
ideas on light
Telescopes in his time broke light into unwanted colours, causing an obscure view of objects,
solved problem by being first to construct a telescope with a curved mirror rather than lenses

In 1672, he became a member of the royal society (group of scientist who believed in
experimental method)

Laws of Motion

Key work

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Latin for Mathematical Principles of Natural

Philosophy (1687)

Newton’s conception of the Universe based upon Natural and rationally understandable laws
that became one of the seeds for Enlightenment ideology.

His work paved the way and enabled many of the advances of the Industrial Revolution which
soon followed and were not to be improved upon for more than 200 years, and are still the
underpinnings of the non-relativistic technologies of the modern world

Laws of motion

“Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is
compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”

“The relationship between an object’s mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is
F=ma.”

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

heliocentricism

Newton, as he wrote in Principia, made clear his heliocentric view of the solar system –
developed in a somewhat modern way, because already in the mid-1680s he recognized the
“deviation of the Sun” from the centre of gravity of the solar system

Apple story

He was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a
tree

Some suggest that the apple fell on Newton’s head, making him aware of the force of gravity