Isaac Newton was an English scientist and
mathematician, who discovered gravitation and Newtonian Mechanics. Read
this biography to find more on his life.
An extraordinary genius and proficient
physicist, mathematician, astronomer and alchemist, Sir Isaac Newton is
considered to be the greatest and the most influential scientist who
ever lived. One of the paramount contributors of the 17th century
Scientific Revolution, he developed the principles of modern physics
which he laid out in his book, ‘Philosophiae, Natrualis, Principia
Mathematica’. Popularly known as Principia, the book highlighted the
concepts of universal gravitation and laws of motions which remained at
the forefront of science for centuries after. Furthermore, he worked on
and developed the theory of color. He was the first to lay out the fact
that color is an intrinsic property of light and that when reflected,
scattered or transmitted, a white light decomposed into numerous colors
that are visible in the spectrum or in the rainbow. He was responsible
for building the first practical telescope. Newton also contributed to
the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to
non-integer exponents, and developed method for approximating the roots
of a function. Apart from all the aforementioned, Newton made noteworthy
and substantial contribution in the field of alchemy and theology as
well. In his life, he held numerous significant positions such as
serving as the Lucasian Professor of mathematics, President of the Royal
Society and Warden and Master of the Mint. Thus, it wouldn’t be wrong
to say that Newton, single-handedly, achieved milestones in physics that
laid the groundwork for future discoveries by scientists across the
globe.
Isaac Newton's life can be divided into three
quite distinct periods. The first is his boyhood days from 1643 up to
his appointment to a chair in 1669. The second period from 1669 to 1687
was the highly productive period in which he was Lucasian professor at
Cambridge. The third period (nearly as long as the other two combined)
saw Newton as a highly paid government official in London with little
further interest in mathematical research.
Isaac Newton was born in the manor house of Woolsthorpe, near Grantham
in Lincolnshire. Although by the calendar in use at the time of his
birth he was born on Christmas Day 1642, we give the date of 4 January
1643 in this biography which is the "corrected" Gregorian calendar date
bringing it into line with our present calendar. (The Gregorian calendar
was not adopted in England until 1752.) Isaac Newton came from a family
of farmers but never knew his father, also named Isaac Newton, who died
in October 1642, three months before his son was born. Although Isaac's
father owned property and animals which made him quite a wealthy man,
he was completely uneducated and could not sign his own name.
Isaac's
mother Hannah Ayscough remarried Barnabas Smith the minister of the
church at North Witham, a nearby village, when Isaac was two years old.
The young child was then left in the care of his grandmother Margery
Ayscough at Woolsthorpe. Basically treated as an orphan, Isaac did not
have a happy childhood. His grandfather James Ayscough was never
mentioned by Isaac in later life and the fact that James left nothing to
Isaac in his will, made when the boy was ten years old, suggests that
there was no love lost between the two. There is no doubt that Isaac
felt very bitter towards his mother and his step-father Barnabas Smith.
When examining his sins at age nineteen, Isaac listed:-
Upon the death of his stepfather in 1653, Newton lived in an extended
family consisting of his mother, his grandmother, one half-brother, and
two half-sisters. From shortly after this time Isaac began attending the
Free Grammar School in Grantham. Although this was only five miles from
his home, Isaac lodged with the Clark family at Grantham. However he
seems to have shown little promise in academic work. His school reports
described him as 'idle' and 'inattentive'. His mother, by now a lady of
reasonable wealth and property, thought that her eldest son was the
right person to manage her affairs and her estate. Isaac was taken away
from school but soon showed that he had no talent, or interest, in
managing an estate.
An uncle, William Ayscough, decided that Isaac should prepare for
entering university and, having persuaded his mother that this was the
right thing to do, Isaac was allowed to return to the Free Grammar
School in Grantham in 1660 to complete his school education. This time
he lodged with Stokes, who was the headmaster of the school, and it
would appear that, despite suggestions that he had previously shown no
academic promise, Isaac must have convinced some of those around him
that he had academic promise. Some evidence points to Stokes also
persuading Isaac's mother to let him enter university, so it is likely
that Isaac had shown more promise in his first spell at the school than
the school reports suggest. Another piece of evidence comes from Isaac's
list of sins referred to above. He lists one of his sins as:-
... setting my heart on money, learning, and pleasure more than Thee ...
which tells us that Isaac must have had a passion for learning.
Comments