Isaac Newton's Accomplishments

Born on January 4th, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, England, Sir Isaac Newton was an established physicist and mathematician, who is credited as one of the greatest minds of the 17th century Scientific Revolution. Through his myriad of discoveries and endless research in the fields of optics, motion, and mathematics, Newton ultimately developed the principles of modern physics. His advances in his field are considered by many as nothing short of extraordinary; in fact, one might even credit his success to the events in his life that inspired and helped him to do the work that he is so famous for. First, Newton disproved any preconceived misconceptions others had about him. Born on Christmas day as a premature and fragile infant, he was not expected
At age 12, he was reunited with his mother, who was now a widow for the second time. She returned with three young children from her second marriage. Meanwhile, Newton had been attending school while living with an apothecary, who introduced him to the mesmerizing world of chemistry; however, his mother clearly had different ideas about her son’s future. She pulled Newton out of school and planned to make him a farmer. Much to her dismay, he failed miserably, however Newton was now allowed to go back to school and finish his education. Perhaps sensing the young man’s intellectual ability, Newton’s uncle convinced his mother to enroll him in the University of Cambridge. Next, the current events and his love of knowledge helped Newton to excel in his studies. At the time he arrived at university, the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century was already in full force. The heliocentric view of the universe that was first theorized by astronomers Copernicus and Kepler was well known across Europe. During his first three years at university, Newton became bored with the trivial and standard curriculum that was being
The acrimonious exchange between the two men continued for several years thereafter. When Newton suffered a complete nervous breakdown in 1678, their correspondence abruptly ended. Moreover, the death of his mother the following year caused him to be even more isolated, and for a full six years he withdrew from most intellectual exchange. During this hiatus from public life, Newton returned to his study of gravity and its effects on the orbits of the planets. Ironically, the impetus that set him in the right direction came from Hooke, who brought up the question of planetary motion and suggested a formula that explained the attraction between planets and their orbits. Though the exchange was brief, Hooke’s idea was incorporated into Newton’s work on planetary motion and his well-known discovery of the “ellipse.” After 18 months of intense and nonstop work, Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principa Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy). Said to be the most influential book on physics, Principa contains information on nearly all the essential concepts of physics. It is here that Newton’s three basic laws of motion were first published. These laws are so significant because they explain every motion in the