Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was born prematurely

in Lincolnshire. He was placed in the care of his

grandmother.
He remained a lonely child who kept himself occupied
by inventing gadgets.
Because of a bubonic plague outbreak, he was forced to
leave Cambridge University and return home in 1665.

According to John Merriman (History of Modern

Europe) Newton observed a falling apple while sitting
under a tree, ruminating about celestial motion, which
led him to recognise that the force that caused
objects to fall to earth was related to planetary
motion.
He demonstrated that earthly and celestial motion are
subject to laws that can be described mathematically,
thereby advancing the science of mechanics.
He thus proposed a Theory of Universal Gravitation,
based on the existence of forces of attraction and
repulsion acting between objects.
 According to Arvind Sinha (Transition in Europe)
Newton’s greatest achievement was combining Kepler’s
laws of planar motion, Galileo’s law of falling bodies and
the concept of inertia, Descartes’ views on science, and
his own concept of gravitation into a single
mathematical-physical system.
Newton’s system was explained in three laws:
first, motion continues in a straight line with uniform
velocity in the absence of force.
second, the force acting on motion determines the rate
of change of momentum (mass time velocity), including
friction.
third, and most importantly, every action has an equal
and opposite reaction.
The concepts of mass force in relation to velocity,
inertia, and acceleration were used to explain these
laws.
 Further, Arvind Sinha states that, he was the
first to distinguish between an object’s mass and
weight.
He was the creator of the infinitesimal calculus (a
mathematical procedure).
He contributed to dynamics by explaining how tidal
waves are related to lunar movements.
He demonstrated that light could be separated into
different colours using a prism. By combining these
colours, he was also able to reconstruct white light.

According to John Merriman (History of Modern

Europe), The first synthesis of scientific principles
was Newton’s Principia, The Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy (1687).
In this he laid the groundwork for modern science,
which is based on both theory and experimentation.

Many of the unanswered questions left by

Newton’s physics were answered by the great scientist
Albert Einstein in the twentieth century.
 Thus, in his own time, he became a hero. In 1703
he was elected President of the Royal Society, and in
1705 he became the first scientist to be knighted.
When he died in 1727, he was given a legend’s burial in
Westminster Abbey.
Newton’s greatest achievement, as per Arvind Sinha,
was the formulation of the laws of universal
gravitation, which he expressed in his monumental work
in Latin, “Pruicipia Mathematica” (Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy) (1687). It was written
to refute the much-admired French school, Descartes’
Cartesian approach to science. While rejecting
Descartes’ emphasis on mental powers or the deductive
approach, Newton relied on mathematics to prove his
experiments, a branch of science that even Descartes
emphasised.

Newton proposes the mathematical laws of mechanics

in his Principia, which were applicable on Earth and
throughout the universe. He believed that gravity kept
the moon in orbit. This was a direct refutation of
Aristotle’s theory that the earth and heaven (meaning
the universe) followed different sets of laws.
The solution to the problem of motion, which had
captivated the attention of material philosophers since
ancient times, was the most important of his
discoveries. These laws, along with the law of
gravitation, became universal tools applicable to both
planets and the Earth, notes Arvind Sinha.