Isaac Newton

## Overview

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 and died on March 31, 1727, in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England.
He was an English physicist and mathematician who developed the principals of modern physics. He most famous for his work during the scientific revolution of the 17th century. He is also very famous for his law of gravitation.

## Early Life

He was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England on January 4, 1643. His father who was also named 'Isaac Newton' had died three months before Newton was born. His mother Hannah Ayscough remarried when he was three and went to live with new husband, Reverend Barbanas Smith, leaving Newton to live with his grandmother. When he was twelve he was reunited with his mother who brought her three children from her second marrige after her second husband died.

From age of about 12 to 17 he attended The King's School, Grantham. He was removed from school and his mother, widowed for the second atempted to make a farmer of him, although he hated farming. Henry Stokes, the master at King's School, persuaded his mother to send him back to school so he could finish his education. Motivated partly by a desire for revenge against a schoolyard bully, he became the top-ranked student, distinguishing himself mainly by building sundials and models of windmills.

In June of 1661, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, on the recommendation of his uncle Rev William Ayscough, who had studied there. He had to leave briefly because of the Great Plague.

## Major Achievements

In 1705 he was knighted by the Queen Anne of England, making him Sir Isaac Newton. He is

most well known for his for the apple myth. According to the myth he was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his

head which inspired him to come up with the theory of gravity. Although there is no proof of an apple hitting him on the head, he did see an apple fall from a tree which lead him to wonder about gravity and why it fell down and not on an angle.
In 1687 he published a book after 18 months of non-stopwork called Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), most often known as Principia. in the book he had three basic laws of motion which were:
1. A stationary body will stay stationary unless an external force is applied to it.

2. Force is equal to mass times acceleration, and a change in motion (i.e., change in speed) is proportional to the force applied.

3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

## **Why are they considered important in the Renaissance?**

Isaac Newton was considered very important to the Reniassnace because his work is still used today and his work with gravity and many other discoveries were very important contribution to science during the Renaissnace.

## **Impacts on the Renaissance**

Isaac Newton made a great impact on the Renaissnace because of his contribution to science and mathematics.

Besides his work on gravitation, Newton developed the three laws of motion which form the basic principles of modern physics. He discovered calculus which led to more methods of solving mathematical problems. His work in optics included the study of white light and the discovery of the colour spectrum. It was his experiments with light that first made him famous.

## **How are they linked to the Renaissance's 'major ideas'?**

Isaac Newton is linked to the Renaissnace's 'major ideas' because without him we would have a very different world today.

## **How we look at them in modern day**

Today, he is considered one of the most influential scientists of all time alongside greats such as Albert Einstein, Aristotle and Galileo. while most of us remember Newton as the discoverer of gravity, his research included mathematics, optics and philosophy.

### Bilbliography-

In-text: (Biography.com, 2017)

### BIOGRAPHY FOR KIDS: SCIENTIST - ISAAC NEWTON

In-text: (Ducksters.com, 2017)

Your Bibliography: Ducksters.com. (2017). *Biography for Kids: Scientist - Isaac Newton*. [online] Available at: http://www.ducksters.com/biography/scientists/isaac\_newton.php [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].

### SIR ISAAC NEWTON: DISCOVERIES | ASU - ASK A BIOLOGIST

In-text: (Askabiologist.asu.edu, 2017)

Your Bibliography: Askabiologist.asu.edu. (2017). *Sir Isaac Newton: Discoveries | ASU - Ask A Biologist*. [online] Available at: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/sir-isaac-newton [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].