Born: 25 December 1642 · Died: 20 March 1727 · Age: 84
English mathematician and physicist who formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, and co-invented calculus
Did you know?He spent many years serving as the Master of the Royal Mint, where he helped to hunt down counterfeiters in London.
Quick facts
Date of birth25 December 1642
Date of death20 March 1727
Age at death84
NationalityEnglish
BirthplaceWoolsthorpe Manor, United Kingdom
Occupationmathematician, philosopher, physicist
Editor's Take:
Isaac Newton did something few people in history can claim: he gave humanity a single set of rules that explained both a falling apple and the orbit of the Moon. His laws of motion and universal gravitation turned the heavens from a mystery into a machine that could be calculated. Along the way he invented much of calculus, split white light into a rainbow with a prism and built the first practical reflecting telescope. He was also secretive, quarrelsome and deeply absorbed in alchemy and biblical prophecy, a reminder that great science can live inside a complicated mind. For more than two centuries, until Einstein, the universe essentially ran on Newton's terms.
Key Milestones
1661: Enters Trinity College, Cambridge
1666: Works on gravity, optics and calculus during the plague years
1668: Builds the first reflecting telescope
1687: Publishes the Principia
1703: Becomes President of the Royal Society
1705: Knighted by Queen Anne
Sir Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, historian and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed.
