Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

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Isaac Newton is one of the greatest men in the history of science. He was born in a small village of Woolsthorpe in England. His father was a poor farmer. When the boy was fourteen his father died. Newton left school and helped his mother on the farm. But the boy did not like farming, he was fond of poetry and mathematics. So Newton was sent back to school where he studied well and made his first scientific experiments. After he left school Newton studied at Cambridge University.

In the autumn of 1660, Cambridge University was closed. The Great Plague spread in England and Newton had to return to his village and stay there for eighteen months. At home he went on with his studies. When he was twenty-one Newton formulated the binomial theorem.

After graduating Newton lectured on mathematics at Cambridge University. Newton’s greatest discovery is the law of gravitation.

In 1703 his countrymen elected Newton President of the Royal Society. On February 28, 1727 he attended his last meeting of the Royal Society. On March 20, 1727 he died and was buried in Westminster Abbey. There is a monument to Newton in Trinity College at Cambridge with the inscription:

Newton, Who Surpassed All Men of Science.