Mathematician:Isaac Newton

Mathematician
Hugely influential English all-rounder famous for: and much more. It is suspected nowadays that he may have had Asperger's syndrome.
 * Inventing calculus, independently of
 * Successfully providing a mathematical model for the force of gravity
 * Formulating the Principle of Conservation of Momentum and Principle of Conservation of Angular Momentum
 * Building the first practical optical reflecting telescope
 * Developing a theory of colour based on the splitting of light with a prism

Because of a supposed feud between him and, over priority over the Calculus, fuelled unwisely by his colleagues and supposed friends, the cutting edge of analysis passed to the Continent, and England was left in a mathematical backwater.

Spent much of his childhood constructing functional mechanical toys which he shared with his friends in the village.

Nationality
English

History

 * Born: 25 December 1642 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England (4 January 1643 new style)
 * 1665: Returned home from Cambridge on closure of universities on account of plague
 * 1667: Returned to Cambridge
 * 1669: Accepted the position of, passed to him by , who stepped down in his favour
 * 1696: Became Warden of the Mint and was charged with reforming the national coinage
 * 1699: Promoted to Master of the Mint
 * 1701 -- 1702: Represented Cambridge University in Parliament
 * 1703: Elected President of the Royal Society
 * 1705: Knighted by Queen Anne
 * Died: 31 March 1727 in London, England (20 March 1726 according to the Old Style)

Mathematics

 * Newton Quotient
 * Newton-Mercator Series (independently of, also discovered by )
 * Newton's Method for approximating the zeroes of a function, also known as Newton-Raphson Method, independently of
 * Newtonian Notation for Derivatives
 * Newtonian Potential


 * The Gregory-Newton Forward Difference Formula (with ), also known as:
 * the Newton-Gregory Forward Difference Formula
 * Newton's Forward Difference Formula
 * the Forward Difference Formula


 * The Gregory-Newton Backward Difference Formula (with ), also known as:
 * the Newton-Gregory Backward Difference Formula
 * Newton's Backward Difference Formula
 * the Backward Difference Formula


 * General Binomial Theorem
 * Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
 * Newton-Girard Formulas (independently of ), also known as Newton's Identities

Physics

 * Newtonian Physics (also known as Newtonian Mechanics)


 * Newton (unit of force)
 * Newton-Metre (unit of torque)


 * Newton-Cotes Rule (with ) (also known as Newton-Cotes Formulas)


 * Newton's Laws of Motion
 * Newton's First Law of Motion
 * Newton's Second Law of Motion
 * Newton's Third Law of Motion


 * Newton's Law of Cooling
 * Newton's Law of Restitution
 * Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation


 * Principle of Conservation of Momentum
 * Principle of Conservation of Angular Momentum


 * Body behaves as Particle under Gravitation

Publications

 * c. 1664: Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae (Certain Philosophical Questions)
 * 1669:
 * 1684: De Motu Corporum in Gyrum
 * 1687: (usually referred to as the Principia)
 * 1704:
 * 1707:
 * 1720: (with  and ) (translation of )
 * 1736:

Notable Quotes

 * If I have seen a little farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.


 * I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
 * -- Quoted in : Chapter $\text{VI}$: On the Seashore


 * I do not frame hypotheses.


 * Absolute space, in its own nature, without regard to anything external, remains always similar and immovable ... Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and of its own nature, flows equably and without regard to anything external.

Critical View

 * I recognise the lion by his print.
 * --, on seeing Newton's solution to his brachistochrone problem


 * The method of Fluxions [i.e. the calculus] is the general key by help whereof the modern mathematicians unlock the secrets of Geometry, and consequently of Nature.


 * Nobody since Newton has been able to use geometrical methods to the same extent for the like purposes; and as we read the we feel as when we are in an ancient armoury where the weapons are of gigantic size; and as we look at them we marvel at what manner of man he was who could use as a weapon what we can scarcely lift as a burden.


 * Nature to him was an open book, whose letters he could read without effort.


 * Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
 * God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.