saac Newton
Table of Contents
HomePhilosophy & ReligionReligious Personages & Scholars
Isaac Newton
English physicist and mathematician
Actions
Alternate titles: Sir Isaac Newton
By Richard S. Westfall • Edit History
Table of Contents
Top Questions
What is Isaac Newton most famous for?
How was Isaac Newton educated?
What was Isaac Newton’s childhood like?
What did Isaac Newton write?
Summary
Read a brief summary of this topic
1 second of 2 minutes, 12 seconds
01:44
Consider how Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity led to a better understanding of planetary motion
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.See all videos for this article
Isaac Newton, in full Sir Isaac Newton, (born December 25, 1642 [January 4, 1643, New Style], Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England—died March 20 [March 31], 1727, London), English physicist and mathematician, who was the culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century. In optics, his discovery of the composition of white light integrated the phenomena of colours into the science of light and laid the foundation for modern physical optics. In mechanics, his three laws of motion, the basic principles of modern physics, resulted in the formulation of the law of universal gravitation. In mathematics, he was the original discoverer of the infinitesimal calculus. Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687) was one of the most important single works in the history of modern science.
