- Wikipedia

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For other uses, see Isaac Newton (disambiguation).

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Sir Isaac Newton FRS
$\"Portrait$ Portrait of Newton at 46, 1689
Born	(1643-01-04)4 January 1643 [O.S. 25 December 1642]^[a] Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England
Died	31 March 1727(1727-03-31) (aged 84) [O.S. 20 March 1726]^[a] Kensington, Middlesex, England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Education	Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1665; MA, 1668)^[4]
Known for	\n List \n Newtonian mechanics universal gravitation calculus Newton's laws of motion optics binomial series Principia Newton's method Newton's law of cooling Newton's identities Newton's metal Newton line Newton\u2013Gauss line Newtonian fluid Newton's rings Standing on the shoulders of giants List of all other works and concepts \n
Political party	Whig
Awards	FRS (1672)^[1] Knight Bachelor (1705)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics natural philosophy alchemy theology mathematics astronomy economics
Institutions	University of Cambridge Royal Society Royal Mint
Academic advisors	Isaac Barrow^[2] Benjamin Pulleyn^[3]
Notable students	Roger Cotes William Whiston
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Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge
In office 1689\u20131690
Preceded by	Robert Brady
Succeeded by	Edward Finch
In office 1701\u20131702
Preceded by	Anthony Hammond
Succeeded by	Arthur Annesley, 5th Earl of Anglesey
12th President of the Royal Society
In office 1703\u20131727
Preceded by	John Somers
Succeeded by	Hans Sloane
Master of the Mint
In office 1699\u20131727
1696\u20131699	Warden of the Mint
Preceded by	Thomas Neale
Succeeded by	John Conduitt
2nd Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
In office 1669\u20131702
Preceded by	Isaac Barrow
Succeeded by	William Whiston
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Signature

Sir Isaac Newton (/\u02c8nju\u02d0t\u0259n/; 4 January [O.S. 25 December] 1643 – 31 March [O.S. 20 March] 1727)^[a] was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author.^[5] Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed.^[6] His book Philosophi\u00e6 Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, achieved the first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics.^[7]^[8] Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating infinitesimal calculus, though he developed calculus years before Leibniz.^[9]^[10] He contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]\n

In the Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was superseded by the theory of relativity. He used his mathematical description of gravity to derive Kepler's laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the Solar System's heliocentricity.^[16] Newton solved the two-body problem, and introduced the three-body problem.^[17] He demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton's inference that the Earth is an oblate spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, thereby convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.\n

Newton built the first reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colours of the visible spectrum. His work on light was collected in his book Opticks, published in 1704. He originated prisms as beam expanders and multiple-prism arrays, which would later become integral to the development of tunable lasers.^[18] Newton also formulated an empirical law of cooling, which was the first heat transfer formulation and serves as the formal basis of convective heat transfer,^[19] made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notions of a Newtonian fluid and a black body. Furthermore, he made early investigations into electricity,^[20]^[21] with an idea from his book Opticks arguably the beginning of the field theory of the electric force.^[22] In addition to his creation of calculus, as a mathematician, he generalized the binomial theorem to any real number, contributed to the study of power series, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, classified most of the cubic plane curves, and also originated the Newton-Cotes formulas for numerical integration.^[23] He further initiated the field of calculus of variations,^[24] and devised an early form of regression analysis.^[25]\n

Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge; he was appointed at the age of 26. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian who privately rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. He refused to take holy orders in the Church of England, unlike most members of the Cambridge faculty of the day. Beyond his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. Politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689\u20131690 and 1701\u20131702. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden (1696\u20131699) and Master (1699\u20131727) of the Royal Mint, in which he increased the accuracy and security of British coinage,^[26]^[27] as well as president of the Royal Society (1703\u20131727).\n

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v t e Sir Isaac Newton
Publications	\n Fluxions (1671) \n De Motu (1684) \n Principia (1687) \n Opticks (1704) \n Queries (1704) \n Arithmetica (1707) \n De Analysi (1711) \n
Other writings	\n Quaestiones (1661\u20131665) \n \"standing on the shoulders of giants\" (1675) \n Notes on the Jewish Temple (c. 1680) \n \"General Scholium\" (1713; \"hypotheses non fingo\" ) \n Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) \n Corruptions of Scripture (1754) \n
Contributions	\n Calculus\n fluxion \n Impact depth \n Inertia \n Newton disc \n Newton polygon\n Newton\u2013Okounkov body \n Newton's reflector \n Newtonian telescope \n Newton scale \n Newton's metal \n Spectrum \n Structural coloration \n
Newtonianism	\n Bucket argument \n Newton's inequalities \n Newton's law of cooling \n Newton's law of universal gravitation\n post-Newtonian expansion \n parameterized \n gravitational constant \n Newton\u2013Cartan theory \n Schr\u00f6dinger\u2013Newton equation \n Newton's laws of motion\n Kepler's laws \n Newtonian dynamics \n Newton's method in optimization\n Apollonius's problem \n truncated Newton method \n Gauss\u2013Newton algorithm \n Newton's rings \n Newton's theorem about ovals \n Newton\u2013Pepys problem \n Newtonian potential \n Newtonian fluid \n Classical mechanics \n Corpuscular theory of light \n Leibniz\u2013Newton calculus controversy \n Newton's notation \n Rotating spheres \n Newton's cannonball \n Newton\u2013Cotes formulas \n Newton's method\n generalized Gauss\u2013Newton method \n Newton fractal \n Newton's identities \n Newton polynomial \n Newton's theorem of revolving orbits \n Newton\u2013Euler equations \n Newton number\n kissing number problem \n Newton's quotient \n Parallelogram of force \n Newton\u2013Puiseux theorem \n Absolute space and time \n Luminiferous aether \n Newtonian series\n table \n
Personal life	\n Woolsthorpe Manor (birthplace) \n Cranbury Park (home) \n Early life \n Later life \n Apple tree \n Religious views \n Occult studies \n Scientific Revolution \n Copernican Revolution \n
Relations	\n Catherine Barton (niece) \n John Conduitt (nephew-in-law) \n Isaac Barrow (professor) \n William Clarke (mentor) \n Benjamin Pulleyn (tutor) \n Roger Cotes (student) \n William Whiston (student) \n John Keill (disciple) \n William Stukeley (friend) \n William Jones (friend) \n Abraham de Moivre (friend) \n
Depictions	\n Newton by Blake (monotype) \n Newton by Paolozzi (sculpture) \n Isaac Newton Gargoyle \n Astronomers Monument \n
Namesake	\n Newton (unit) \n Newton's cradle \n Isaac Newton Institute \n Isaac Newton Medal \n Isaac Newton Telescope \n Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes \n XMM-Newton \n Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form \n Statal Institute of Higher Education Isaac Newton \n Newton International Fellowship \n
Categories	\n Isaac Newton \n

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Early life

The King's School

University of Cambridge

Mid-life

Calculus

Optics

Gravity

Other significant work

Philosophy of Science

Later life

Royal Mint

Knighthood

Death

Personality

Theology

Religious views

Religious thought

Alchemy

Legacy

Recognition

Apple incident

Commemorations

The Enlightenment

Works

Published in his lifetime

Published posthumously

See also

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading

Primary

Alchemy

Religion

Science

External links

Digital archives

Isaac Newton

Media collections