Isaac Newton

By: Mark Fagan & Brian Doyle

Early Life
Isaac Newton was born on 25 December 1642, in
a manor house in Lincolnshire, England. His
father died three months before his birth. When
Isaac was three his mother remarried, and Isaac
remained with his grandmother. He was not
interested in the family farm, so he was sent to
the University of Cambridge to study. It is
sometimes told that Isaac Newton was reading a
book under a tree when an apple from the tree
fell on his head. This led to his calculations of
gravity.

Early Workings
Newton explained the workings of the universe
through mathematics. He described laws of motion
and gravitation. These laws are math formulas that
explain how objects move when a force acts on
them. Isaac published his most famous book,
Principia, in 1687 while he was a mathematics
professor at Trinity College, Cambridge. In the
Principia, Isaac explained three basic laws that
govern the way objects move. He then described
his idea, or theory, about gravity. Gravity is the
force that causes things to fall down. If a pencil fell
off a desk, it will land on the floor, not the ceiling. In
his book Isaac also used his laws to show that the
planets revolve around the suns in orbits that are
oval, not round.

Contribution to Mathematics
In mathematics too, early brilliance appeared in Newton's student notes. He may have
learnt geometry at school, though he always spoke of himself as self-taught; certainly
he advanced through studying the writings of his compatriots William Oughtred and
John Wallis, and of Descartes and the Dutch school. Newton made contributions to all
branches of mathematics then studied, but is especially famous for his solutions to the
contemporary problems in analytical geometry of drawing tangents to curves
(differentiation) and defining areas bounded by curves (integration). Not only did
Newton discover that these problems were inverse to each other, but he discovered
general methods of resolving problems of curvature, embraced in his "method of
fluxions" and "inverse method of fluxions", respectively equivalent to Leibniz's later
differential and integral calculus. Newton used the term "fluxion" (from Latin meaning
"flow") because he imagined a quantity "flowing" from one magnitude to another.
Fluxions were expressed algebraically, as Leibniz's differentials were, but Newton
made extensive use also (especially in the Principia) of analogous geometrical
arguments. Late in life, Newton expressed regret for the algebraic style of recent
mathematical progress, preferring the geometrical method of the Classical Greeks,
which he regarded as clearer and more rigorous.
Newton's work on pure mathematics was virtually hidden from all but his
correspondents until 1704, when he published, with Opticks, a tract on the quadrature
of curves (integration) and another on the classification of the cubic curves. His
Cambridge lectures, delivered from about 1673 to 1683, were published in 1707.

How He Influenced Future Mathematics & Society

Isaac Newton invented the calculus.
Calculus, known in its early history as
infinitesimal calculus, is a mathematical
discipline focused on limits, functions,
derivatives, integrals, and infinite series.
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz
independently invented calculus in the
mid-17th century.

DEATH
Isaac Newton died on 31 March 1727, in
London, England. After his death,
mercury was found in his hair. This may
have meant that he had suffered from
mercury poisoning.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey. He
set the stage for many famous physicists
to come, such as Albert Einstein, James
Chadwick, and Stephen Hawking.