Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
Set out the laws of motion and universal gravitation; publication paid for by Edmond Halley
Science · Physics
Isaac Newton
1642/43–1727 · English
Physics, mathematics and optics; Scientific Revolution
Isaac Newton, born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, set out the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation in his Principia (1687), uniting terrestrial and celestial mechanics. He co-invented calculus, showed that white light is a mixture of colours and built the first practical reflecting telescope. He later ran the Royal Mint and presided over the Royal Society.
How to spot them
- ▸Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica; three laws of motion; universal gravitation
- ▸The falling apple at Woolsthorpe Manor; the plague years 1665–66
- ▸Calculus ('fluxions') and the bitter priority dispute with Leibniz
- ▸'If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants' (letter to Hooke, 1676)
- ▸Warden and Master of the Royal Mint; President of the Royal Society
Key discoveries & works
Opticks (1704)
Experiments with prisms showing white light is composed of colours; written in English
Method of fluxions (1660s)
His version of calculus, developed independently of Leibniz, who published first
First practical reflecting telescope (1668)
Used a mirror rather than a lens to avoid chromatic aberration; shown to the Royal Society in 1671
Three laws of motion (1687)
Inertia; force equals rate of change of momentum; action and reaction
Law of universal gravitation (1687)
Attraction proportional to the product of masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance
Key ideas
- The same force that makes an apple fall keeps the Moon in its orbit
- White light is a mixture of colours separated by refraction
- Generalised binomial theorem
- Newton's law of cooling
- Absolute space and time, later overturned by Einstein
Quick-fire facts
- •Born on 25 December 1642 (Old Style), or 4 January 1643 (New Style), the year Galileo died; died on 20 March 1727 (New Style: 31 March)
- •Succeeded Isaac Barrow as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1669
- •Warden of the Royal Mint from 1696 and Master from 1699 or 1700, pursuing counterfeiters
- •President of the Royal Society from 1703 until his death
- •Knighted by Queen Anne at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1705, during an election campaign rather than for his science
- •Twice sat as MP for Cambridge University
- •Buried in Westminster Abbey; Alexander Pope wrote 'Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; God said, Let Newton be! and all was light'
- •Wrote extensively on alchemy and theology; Keynes called him 'the last of the magicians'
- •The SI unit of force, the newton, is named after him; he appeared on the Bank of England £1 note
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Sources
- MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews — Isaac Newton
- Richard S. Westfall — Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton