Isaac Newton

For other uses, seeIsaac Newton (disambiguation).

Sir Isaac Newton FRS
Portrait of Newton at 46, 1689
Born	(1643-01-04)4 January 1643 [O.S.25 December 1642] Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth,Lincolnshire, England
Died	31 March 1727(1727-03-31)(aged 84) [O.S.20 March 1726] Kensington,Middlesex, Great Britain
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Education	Trinity College, Cambridge(B.A.,1665;M.A.,1668)
Known for	List Newtonian mechanics universal gravitation calculus Newton's laws of motion optics binomial series Principia Newton's method Newton's law of cooling Newton's identities Newton's metal Newton line Newton–Gauss line Newtonian fluid Newton's rings Standing on the shoulders of giants List of all other works and concepts
Awards	FRS(1672) Knight Bachelor(1705)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics natural philosophy alchemy theology mathematics astronomy economics
Institutions	University of Cambridge Royal Society Royal Mint
Academic advisors	Isaac Barrow Benjamin Pulleyn
Notable students	Roger Cotes William Whiston
Member of Parliament forthe University of Cambridge
In office 1689–1690
Preceded by	Robert Brady
Succeeded by	Edward Finch
In office 1701–1702
Preceded by	Anthony Hammond
Succeeded by	Arthur Annesley, 5th Earl of Anglesey
12thPresident of the Royal Society
In office 1703–1727
Preceded by	John Somers
Succeeded by	Hans Sloane
Master of the Mint
In office 1699–1727
1696–1699	Warden of the Mint
Preceded by	Thomas Neale
Succeeded by	John Conduitt
2ndLucasian Professor of Mathematics
In office 1669–1702
Preceded by	Isaac Barrow
Succeeded by	William Whiston
Personal details
Political party	Whig
Signature

Sir Isaac NewtonFRS(25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an Englishpolymathactive as amathematician,physicist,astronomer,alchemist,theologian,and author who was described in his time as anatural philosopher.He was a key figure in theScientific Revolutionand theEnlightenmentthat followed. His pioneering bookPhilosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica(Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, consolidated many previous results and establishedclassical mechanics.Newton also made seminal contributions tooptics,andshares creditwith German mathematicianGottfried Wilhelm Leibnizfor formulatinginfinitesimal calculus,though he developed calculus years before Leibniz.

In thePrincipia,Newton formulated thelaws of motionanduniversal gravitationthat formed the dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was superseded by thetheory of relativity.He used his mathematical description ofgravityto deriveKepler's laws of planetary motion,account fortides,thetrajectoriesofcomets,theprecession of the equinoxesand other phenomena, eradicating doubt about theSolar System'sheliocentricity.He demonstrated that themotion of objectson Earth andcelestial bodiescould be accounted for by the same principles. Newton's inference that the Earth is anoblate spheroidwas later confirmed by the geodetic measurements ofMaupertuis,La Condamine,and others, convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.

He built thefirst practical reflecting telescopeand developed a sophisticatedtheory of colourbased on the observation that aprismseparateswhite lightinto the colours of thevisible spectrum.His work on light was collected in his highly influential bookOpticks,published in 1704. He formulated anempirical law of cooling,which was the first heat transfer formulation,made the first theoretical calculation of thespeed of sound,and introduced the notion of aNewtonian fluid.Furthermore, he made early investigations intoelectricity,with an idea from his bookOpticksarguably the beginning of thefield theory of the electric force.In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician, he contributed to the study of power series, generalised thebinomial theoremto non-integer exponents, developeda methodfor approximating theroots of a function,and classified most of thecubic plane curves.

Newton was a fellow ofTrinity Collegeand the secondLucasian Professor of Mathematicsat theUniversity of Cambridge.He was a devout but unorthodox Christian who privately rejected the doctrine of theTrinity.He refused to takeholy ordersin theChurch of England,unlike most members of the Cambridge faculty of the day. Beyond his work on themathematical sciences,Newton dedicated much of his time to the study ofalchemyandbiblical chronology,but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. Politically and personally tied to theWhig party,Newton served two brief terms asMember of Parliament for the University of Cambridge,in 1689–1690 and 1701–1702. He wasknightedbyQueen Annein 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving asWarden(1696–1699) andMaster(1699–1727) of theRoyal Mint,as well as president of theRoyal Society(1703–1727).

Early life

Main article:Early life of Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born (according to theJulian calendarin use in England at the time) on Christmas Day, 25 December 1642 (NS4 January 1643) atWoolsthorpe ManorinWoolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth,ahamletin the county of Lincolnshire.His father, also named Isaac Newton, had died three months before.Born prematurely,Newton was a small child; his mother Hannah Ayscough reportedly said that he could have fit inside aquartmug.When Newton was three, his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband, the Reverend Barnabas Smith, leaving her son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough (née Blythe). Newton disliked his stepfather and maintained some enmity towards his mother for marrying him, as revealed by this entry in a list of sins committed up to the age of 19: "Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them."Newton's mother had three children (Mary, Benjamin, and Hannah) from her second marriage.

The King's School

From the age of about twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated atThe King's SchoolinGrantham,which taughtLatinandAncient Greekand probably imparted a significant foundation of mathematics.He was removed from school by his mother and returned to Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth by October 1659. His mother, widowed for the second time, attempted to make him a farmer, an occupation he hated.Henry Stokes, master at The King's School, persuaded his mother to send him back to school. Motivated partly by a desire for revenge against a schoolyard bully, he became the top-ranked student,distinguishing himself mainly by buildingsundialsand models of windmills.

University of Cambridge

In June 1661, Newton was admitted toTrinity Collegeat theUniversity of Cambridge.His uncle the Reverend William Ayscough, who had studied at Cambridge, recommended him to the university. At Cambridge, Newton started as asubsizar,paying his way by performingvaletduties until he was awarded a scholarship in 1664, which covered his university costs for four more years until the completion of hisMA.At the time, Cambridge's teachings were based on those ofAristotle,whom Newton read along with then more modern philosophers, includingDescartesandastronomerssuch asGalileo GalileiandThomas Street.He set down in his notebook a series of "Quaestiones"aboutmechanical philosophyas he found it. In 1665, he discovered the generalisedbinomial theoremand began to develop a mathematical theory that later becamecalculus.Soon after Newton obtained his BA degree at Cambridge in August 1665, the university temporarily closed as a precaution against theGreat Plague.

Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student,Newton's private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the next two years saw the development of his theories on calculus,optics,and thelaw of gravitation.

In April 1667, Newton returned to the University of Cambridge, and in October he was elected as a fellow of Trinity.Fellows were required to takeholy ordersand be ordained asAnglicanpriests, although this was not enforced in theRestorationyears, and an assertion of conformity to theChurch of Englandwas sufficient. He made the commitment that "I will either set Theology as the object of my studies and will take holy orders when the time prescribed by these statutes [7 years] arrives, or I will resign from the college."Up until this point he had not thought much about religion and had twice signed his agreement to theThirty-nine Articles,the basis of Church of England doctrine. By 1675 the issue could not be avoided, and by then his unconventional views stood in the way.

His academic work impressed theLucasian professorIsaac Barrow,who was anxious to develop his own religious and administrative potential (he became master of Trinity College two years later); in 1669, Newton succeeded him, only one year after receiving his MA. The terms of the Lucasian professorship required that the holdernotbe active in the church – presumablyto leave more time for science. Newton argued that this should exempt him from the ordination requirement, and KingCharles II,whose permission was needed, accepted this argument; thus, a conflict between Newton's religious views and Anglican orthodoxy was averted.

Some of the figures added by Isaac Newton in his 1672 and 1681 editions of theGeographia Generalis.These figures appeared in subsequent editions as well.

The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge position included the responsibility of instructinggeography.In 1672, and again in 1681, Newton published a revised, corrected, and amended edition of theGeographia Generalis,a geography textbook first published in 1650 by the then-deceasedBernhardus Varenius.In theGeographia Generalis,Varenius attempted to create a theoretical foundation linking scientific principles to classical concepts in geography, and considered geography to be a mix between science and pure mathematics applied to quantifying features of the Earth.While it is unclear if Newton ever lectured in geography, the 1733 Dugdale and Shaw English translation of the book stated Newton published the book to be read by students while he lectured on the subject.TheGeographia Generalisis viewed by some as the dividing line between ancient and modern traditions in thehistory of geography,and Newton's involvement in the subsequent editions is thought to be a large part of the reason for this enduring legacy.

Newton was elected aFellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1672.

Mid-life

Calculus

Newton's work has been said "to distinctly advance every branch of mathematics then studied".His work on the subject, usually referred to as fluxions or calculus, seen in a manuscript of October 1666, is now published among Newton's mathematical papers.His workDe analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas,sent byIsaac BarrowtoJohn Collinsin June 1669, was identified by Barrow in a letter sent to Collins that August as the work "of an extraordinary genius and proficiency in these things".Newton laterbecame involved in a disputewithLeibnizover priority in the development of calculus. Most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz developed calculus independently, although with very differentmathematical notations.However, it is established that Newton came to develop calculus much earlier than Leibniz.Leibniz's notation and "differential Method", nowadays recognised as much more convenient notations, were adopted by continental European mathematicians, and after 1820 or so, also by British mathematicians.

His work extensively uses calculus in geometric form based on limiting values of the ratios of vanishingly small quantities: in thePrincipiaitself, Newton gave demonstration of this under the name of "the method of first and last ratios"and explained why he put his expositions in this form,remarking also that "hereby the same thing is performed as by the method of indivisibles."Because of this, thePrincipiahas been called "a book dense with the theory and application of the infinitesimal calculus" in modern timesand in Newton's time "nearly all of it is of this calculus."His use of methods involving "one or more orders of the infinitesimally small" is present in hisDe motu corporum in gyrumof 1684and in his papers on motion "during the two decades preceding 1684".

Newton in 1702 byGodfrey Kneller

Newton had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he feared controversy and criticism.He was close to the Swiss mathematicianNicolas Fatio de Duillier.In 1691, Duillier started to write a new version of Newton'sPrincipia,and corresponded with Leibniz.In 1693, the relationship between Duillier and Newton deteriorated and the book was never completed.Starting in 1699, other membersof theRoyal Societyaccused Leibniz of plagiarism.The dispute then broke out in full force in 1711 when the Royal Society proclaimed in a study that it was Newton who was the true discoverer and labelled Leibniz a fraud; it was later found that Newton wrote the study's concluding remarks on Leibniz. Thus began the bitter controversy which marred the lives of both Newton and Leibniz until the latter's death in 1716.

Newton is generally credited with thegeneralised binomial theorem,valid for any exponent. He discoveredNewton's identities,Newton's method,classifiedcubic plane curves(polynomialsof degree three in twovariables), made substantial contributions to the theory offinite differences,and was the first to use fractional indices and to employcoordinate geometryto derive solutions toDiophantine equations.He approximatedpartialsums of theharmonic seriesbylogarithms(a precursor toEuler's summation formula) and was the first to usepower serieswith confidence and to revert power series. Newton's work on infinite series was inspired bySimon Stevin's decimals.

Optics

A replica of the reflecting telescope Newton presented to theRoyal Societyin 1672 (the first one he made in 1668 was loaned to an instrument maker but there is no further record of what happened to it).

In 1666, Newton observed that the spectrum of colours exiting aprismin the position ofminimum deviationis oblong, even when the light ray entering the prism is circular, which is to say, the prism refracts different colours by different angles.This led him to conclude that colour is a property intrinsic to light – a point which had, until then, been a matter of debate.

From 1670 to 1672, Newton lectured on optics.During this period he investigated therefractionof light, demonstrating that the multicoloured image produced by a prism, which he named aspectrum,could be recomposed into white light by alensand a second prism.Modern scholarship has revealed that Newton's analysis and resynthesis of white light owes a debt tocorpuscularalchemy.

He showed that coloured light does not change its properties by separating out a coloured beam and shining it on various objects, and that regardless of whether reflected, scattered, or transmitted, the light remains the same colour. Thus, he observed that colour is the result of objects interacting with already-coloured light rather than objects generating the colour themselves. This is known asNewton's theory of colour.

Illustration of adispersive prismseparating white light into the colours of the spectrum, as discovered by Newton

From this work, he concluded that the lens of anyrefracting telescopewould suffer from thedispersionof light into colours (chromatic aberration). As a proof of the concept, he constructed a telescope using reflective mirrors instead of lenses as theobjectiveto bypass that problem.Building the design, the first known functional reflecting telescope, today known as aNewtonian telescope,involved solving the problem of a suitable mirror material and shaping technique. Newton ground his own mirrors out of a custom composition of highly reflectivespeculum metal,usingNewton's ringsto judge thequalityof the optics for his telescopes. In late 1668,he was able to produce this first reflecting telescope. It was about eight inches long and it gave a clearer and larger image. In 1671, the Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope.Their interest encouraged him to publish his notes,Of Colours,which he later expanded into the workOpticks.WhenRobert Hookecriticised some of Newton's ideas, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate. Newton and Hooke had brief exchanges in 1679–80, when Hooke, appointed to manage the Royal Society's correspondence, opened up a correspondence intended to elicit contributions from Newton to Royal Society transactions,which had the effect of stimulating Newton to work out a proof that the elliptical form of planetary orbits would result from a centripetal force inversely proportional to the square of the radius vector. But the two men remained generally on poor terms until Hooke's death.

Facsimile of a 1682 letter from Newton toWilliam Briggs,commenting on Briggs'A New Theory of Vision

Newton argued that light is composed of particles or corpuscles, which were refracted by accelerating into a denser medium. He verged on soundlike waves to explain the repeated pattern of reflection and transmission by thin films (OpticksBk. II, Props. 12), but still retained his theory of 'fits' that disposed corpuscles to be reflected or transmitted (Props.13). However, later physicists favoured a purely wavelike explanation of light to account for theinterferencepatterns and the general phenomenon ofdiffraction.Today'squantum mechanics,photons,and the idea ofwave–particle dualitybear only a minor resemblance to Newton's understanding of light.

In hisHypothesis of Lightof 1675, Newton posited the existence of theetherto transmit forces between particles. The contact with theCambridge PlatonistphilosopherHenry Morerevived his interest in alchemy.He replaced the ether with occult forces based onHermeticideas of attraction and repulsion between particles.John Maynard Keynes,who acquired many of Newton's writings on alchemy, stated that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason: He was the last of the magicians."Newton's contributions to science cannot be isolated from his interest in alchemy.This was at a time when there was no clear distinction between alchemy and science.

In 1704, Newton publishedOpticks,in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. He considered light to be made up of extremely subtle corpuscles, that ordinary matter was made of grosser corpuscles and speculated that through a kind of alchemical transmutation "Are not gross Bodies and Light convertible into one another,... and may not Bodies receive much of their Activity from the Particles of Light which enter their Composition?"Newton also constructed a primitive form of a frictionalelectrostatic generator,using a glass globe.

In his bookOpticks,Newton was the first to show a diagram using a prism as a beam expander, and also the use of multiple-prism arrays.Some 278 years after Newton's discussion,multiple-prism beam expandersbecame central to the development ofnarrow-linewidthtunable lasers.Also, the use of these prismatic beam expanders led to themultiple-prism dispersion theory.

Subsequent to Newton, much has been amended.YoungandFresneldiscarded Newton's particle theory in favour ofHuygens'wave theory to show that colour is the visible manifestation of light's wavelength. Science also slowly came to realise the difference between perception of colour and mathematisable optics. The German poet and scientist,Goethe,could not shake the Newtonian foundation but "one hole Goethe did find in Newton's armour,... Newton had committed himself to the doctrine that refraction without colour was impossible. He, therefore, thought that the object-glasses of telescopes must forever remain imperfect, achromatism and refraction being incompatible. This inference was proved byDollondto be wrong. "

Engraving ofPortrait of NewtonbyJohn Vanderbank

Gravity

Newton's own copy ofPrincipiawith Newton's hand-written corrections for the second edition, now housed in theWren LibraryatTrinity College, Cambridge

Newton had been developing his theory of gravitation as far back as 1665.In 1679, Newton returned to his work oncelestial mechanicsby considering gravitation and its effect on the orbits ofplanetswith reference toKepler's lawsof planetary motion. This followed stimulation by a brief exchange of letters in 1679–80 with Hooke, who had been appointed Secretary of the Royal Society,and who opened a correspondence intended to elicit contributions from Newton to Royal Society transactions.Newton's reawakening interest in astronomical matters received further stimulus by the appearance of a comet in the winter of 1680–1681, on which he corresponded withJohn Flamsteed.After the exchanges with Hooke, Newton worked out a proof that the elliptical form of planetary orbits would result from a centripetal force inversely proportional to the square of the radius vector. Newton communicated his results toEdmond Halleyand to the Royal Society inDe motu corporum in gyrum,a tract written on about nine sheets which was copied into the Royal Society's Register Book in December 1684.This tract contained the nucleus that Newton developed and expanded to form thePrincipia.

ThePrincipiawas published on 5 July 1687 with encouragement and financial help from Halley. In this work, Newton stated thethree universal laws of motion.Together, these laws describe the relationship between any object, the forces acting upon it and the resulting motion, laying the foundation forclassical mechanics.They contributed to many advances during theIndustrial Revolutionwhich soon followed and were not improved upon for more than 200 years. Many of these advances continue to be the underpinnings of non-relativistic technologies in the modern world. He used the Latin wordgravitas(weight) for the effect that would become known asgravity,and defined the law ofuniversal gravitation.

In the same work, Newton presented a calculus-like method of geometrical analysis using 'first and last ratios', gave the first analytical determination (based onBoyle's law) of the speed of sound in air, inferred the oblateness of Earth's spheroidal figure, accounted for the precession of the equinoxes as a result of the Moon's gravitational attraction on the Earth's oblateness, initiated the gravitational study of theirregularities in the motion of the Moon,provided a theory for the determination of the orbits of comets, and much more.Newton's biographerDavid Brewsterreported that the complexity of applying his theory of gravity to the motion of the moon was so great it affected Newton's health: "[H]e was deprived of his appetite and sleep" during his work on the problem in 1692–93, and told the astronomerJohn Machinthat "his head never ached but when he was studying the subject". According to Brewster,Edmund Halleyalso toldJohn Conduittthat when pressed to complete his analysis Newton "always replied that it made his head ache, andkept him awake so often, that he would think of it no more".[Emphasis in original]

Newton made clear hisheliocentricview of the Solar System—developed in a somewhat modern way because already in the mid-1680s he recognised the "deviation of the Sun" from the centre of gravity of the Solar System.For Newton, it was not precisely the centre of the Sun or any other body that could be considered at rest, but rather "the common centre of gravity of the Earth, the Sun and all the Planets is to be esteem'd the Centre of the World", and this centre of gravity "either is at rest or moves uniformly forward in a right line". (Newton adopted the "at rest" alternative in view of common consent that the centre, wherever it was, was at rest.)

Newton was criticised for introducing "occultagencies "into science because of his postulate of an invisibleforce able to act over vast distances.Later, in the second edition of thePrincipia(1713), Newton firmly rejected such criticisms in a concludingGeneral Scholium,writing that it was enough that the phenomena implied a gravitational attraction, as they did; but they did not so far indicate its cause, and it was both unnecessary and improper to frame hypotheses of things that were not implied by the phenomena. (Here Newton used what became his famous expression"Hypotheses non fingo".)

With thePrincipia,Newton became internationally recognised.He acquired a circle of admirers, including the Swiss-born mathematicianNicolas Fatio de Duillier.

In 1710, Newton found 72 of the 78 "species" of cubic curves and categorised them into four types.In 1717, and probably with Newton's help,James Stirlingproved that every cubic was one of these four types. Newton also claimed that the four types could be obtained byplane projectionfrom one of them, and this was proved in 1731, four years after his death.

Later life

Further information:Later life of Isaac Newton

Royal Mint

Isaac Newton in old age in 1712, portrait bySir James Thornhill

In the 1690s, Newton wrote a number ofreligious tractsdealing with the literal and symbolic interpretation of the Bible. A manuscript Newton sent toJohn Lockein which he disputed the fidelity of1 John 5:7—theJohannine Comma—and its fidelity to the original manuscripts of the New Testament, remained unpublished until 1785.

Newton was also a member of theParliament of EnglandforCambridge Universityin 1689 and 1701, but according to some accounts his only comments were to complain about a cold draught in the chamber and request that the window be closed.He was, however, noted by Cambridge diaristAbraham de la Prymeto have rebuked students who were frightening locals by claiming that a house was haunted.

Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of theRoyal Mintduring the reign ofKing William IIIin 1696, a position that he had obtained through the patronage ofCharles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax,thenChancellor of the Exchequer.He took charge of England's great recoining, trod on the toes of Lord Lucas, Governor of the Tower, and secured the job of deputycomptrollerof the temporary Chester branch for Edmond Halley. Newton became perhaps the best-knownMaster of the Mintupon the death ofThomas Nealein 1699, a position Newton held for the last 30 years of his life.These appointments were intended assinecures,but Newton took them seriously. He retired from his Cambridge duties in 1701, and exercised his authority to reform the currency and punishclippersand counterfeiters.

As Warden, and afterwards as Master, of the Royal Mint, Newton estimated that 20 percent of the coins taken in during theGreat Recoinage of 1696werecounterfeit.Counterfeiting washigh treason,punishable by the felon beinghanged, drawn and quartered.Despite this, convicting even the most flagrant criminals could be extremely difficult, but Newton proved equal to the task.

Disguised as ahabituéof bars and taverns, he gathered much of that evidence himself.For all the barriers placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of government,English lawstill had ancient and formidable customs of authority. Newton had himself made ajustice of the peacein all thehome counties.A draft letter regarding the matter is included in Newton's personal first edition ofPhilosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,which he must have been amending at the time.Then he conducted more than 100 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers, and suspects between June 1698 and Christmas 1699. Newton successfully prosecuted 28 coiners.

Coat of armsof the Newton family ofGreat Gonerby,Lincolnshire, afterwards used by Sir Isaac

Newton was made president of theRoyal Societyin 1703 and an associate of the FrenchAcadémie des Sciences.In his position at the Royal Society, Newton made an enemy ofJohn Flamsteed,theAstronomer Royal,by prematurely publishing Flamsteed'sHistoria Coelestis Britannica,which Newton had used in his studies.

Knighthood

In April 1705, Queen AnneknightedNewton during a royal visit to Trinity College, Cambridge. The knighthood is likely to have been motivated by political considerations connected with theparliamentary election in May 1705,rather than any recognition of Newton's scientific work or services as Master of the Mint.Newton was the second scientist to be knighted, afterFrancis Bacon.

As a result of a report written by Newton on 21 September 1717 to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, the bimetallic relationship between gold coins and silver coins was changed by royal proclamation on 22 December 1717, forbidding the exchange of gold guineas for more than 21 silver shillings.This inadvertently resulted in a silver shortage as silver coins were used to pay for imports, while exports were paid for in gold, effectively moving Britain from thesilver standardto its firstgold standard.It is a matter of debate as to whether he intended to do this or not.It has been argued that Newton conceived of his work at the Mint as a continuation of his alchemical work.

Newton was invested in theSouth Sea Companyand lost some £20,000 (£4.4 million in 2020) when it collapsed in around 1720.

Toward the end of his life, Newton took up residence atCranbury Park,nearWinchester,with his niece and her husband, until his death.His half-niece,Catherine Barton,served as his hostess in social affairs at his house onJermyn Streetin London; he was her "very loving Uncle",according to his letter to her when she was recovering fromsmallpox.

Death

Death mask of Newton, photographedc. 1906

Newton died in his sleep in London on 20 March 1727 (OS20 March 1726;NS31 March 1727).He was given a ceremonial funeral, attended by nobles, scientists, and philosophers, and was buried inWestminster Abbeyamong kings and queens. He was the first scientist to be buried in the abbey.Voltairemay have been present at his funeral.A bachelor, he had divested much of his estate to relatives during his last years, and diedintestate.His papers went toJohn ConduittandCatherine Barton.

Shortly after his death, a plasterdeath maskwas moulded of Newton. It was used byFlemishsculptorJohn Michael Rysbrackin making a sculpture of Newton.It is now held by theRoyal Society,who created a 3D scan of it in 2012.

Newton's hair was posthumously examined and found to containmercury,probably resulting from his alchemical pursuits.Mercury poisoningcould explain Newton's eccentricity in late life.

Personality

Although it was claimed that he was once engaged,Newton never married. The French writer and philosopherVoltaire,who was in London at the time of Newton's funeral, said that he "was never sensible to any passion, was not subject to the common frailties of mankind, nor had any commerce with women—a circumstance which was assured me by the physician and surgeon who attended him in his last moments.”There exists a widespread belief that Newton died avirgin,and writers as diverse as mathematicianCharles Hutton,economistJohn Maynard Keynes,and physicistCarl Saganhave commented on it.

Newton had a close friendship with the Swiss mathematicianNicolas Fatio de Duillier,whom he met in London around 1689—some of their correspondence has survived.Their relationship came to an abrupt and unexplained end in 1693, and at the same time Newton suffered anervous breakdown,which included sending wild accusatory letters to his friendsSamuel PepysandJohn Locke.His note to the latter included the charge that Locke had endeavoured to "embroil" him with "woemen & by other means".

Newton was relatively modest about his achievements, writing in a letter toRobert Hookein February 1676, "If I have seen further it is bystanding on the shoulders of giants."Two writers think that the sentence, written at a time when Newton and Hooke were in dispute over optical discoveries, was an oblique attack on Hooke (said to have been short and hunchbacked), rather than—or in addition to—a statement of modesty.On the other hand, the widely known proverb about standing on the shoulders of giants, published among others by seventeenth-century poetGeorge Herbert(a former orator of the University of Cambridge and fellow of Trinity College) in hisJacula Prudentum(1651), had as its main point that "a dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two", and so its effect as an analogy would place Newton himself rather than Hooke as the 'dwarf'.

In a later memoir, Newton wrote, "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 sea-shore, 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."

Theology

Religious views

Main articles:Religious views of Isaac NewtonandIsaac Newton's occult studies

Although born into anAnglicanfamily, by his thirties Newton held a Christian faith that, had it been made public, would not have been considered orthodox by mainstream Christianity,with one historian labelling him aheretic.

By 1672, he had started to record his theological researches in notebooks which he showed to no one and which have only been available for public examination since 1972.Over half of what Newton wrote concerned theology and alchemy, and most has never been printed.His writings demonstrate an extensive knowledge ofearly Churchwritings and show that in the conflict betweenAthanasiusandAriuswhich defined theCreed,he took the side of Arius, the loser, who rejected the conventional view of theTrinity.Newton "recognized Christ as a divine mediator between God and man, who was subordinate to the Father who created him."He was especially interested in prophecy, but for him, "thegreat apostasywas trinitarianism. "

Newton tried unsuccessfully to obtain one of the two fellowships that exempted the holder from the ordination requirement. At the last moment in 1675 he received a dispensation from the government that excused him and all future holders of the Lucasian chair.

In Newton's eyes, worshippingChristasGodwasidolatry,to him the fundamental sin.In 1999, historianStephen D. Snobelenwrote, "Isaac Newton was aheretic.But... he never made a public declaration of his private faith—which the orthodox would have deemed extremely radical. He hid his faith so well that scholars are still unraveling his personal beliefs. "Snobelen concludes that Newton was at least aSociniansympathiser (he owned and had thoroughly read at least eight Socinian books), possibly anArianand almost certainly ananti-trinitarian.

Newton(1795, detail) byWilliam Blake.Newton is depicted critically as a "divine geometer".

Although the laws of motion and universal gravitation became Newton's best-known discoveries, he warned against using them to view the Universe as a mere machine, as if akin to a great clock. He said, "So then gravity may put the planets into motion, but without the Divine Power it could never put them into such a circulating motion, as they have about the sun".

Along with his scientific fame, Newton's studies of the Bible and of the earlyChurch Fatherswere also noteworthy. Newton wrote works ontextual criticism,most notablyAn Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of ScriptureandObservations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John.He placed the crucifixion ofJesus Christat 3 April, AD 33, which agrees with one traditionally accepted date.

He believed in a rationallyimmanentworld, but he rejected thehylozoismimplicit inLeibnizandBaruch Spinoza.The ordered and dynamically informed Universe could be understood, and must be understood, by an active reason. In his correspondence, Newton claimed that in writing thePrincipia"I had an eye upon such Principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity".He saw evidence of design in the system of the world: "Such a wonderful uniformity in the planetary system must be allowed the effect of choice". But Newton insisted that divine intervention would eventually be required to reform the system, due to the slow growth of instabilities.For this, Leibniz lampooned him: "God Almighty wants to wind up his watch from time to time: otherwise it would cease to move. He had not, it seems, sufficient foresight to make it a perpetual motion."

Newton's position was vigorously defended by his followerSamuel Clarkein afamous correspondence.A century later,Pierre-Simon Laplace's workCelestial Mechanicshad a natural explanation for why the planet orbits do not require periodic divine intervention.The contrast between Laplace's mechanistic worldview and Newton's one is the most strident considering the famous answer which the French scientist gaveNapoleon,who had criticised him for the absence of the Creator in theMécanique céleste:"Sire, j'ai pu me passer de cette hypothèse" ( "Sir, I didn't need this hypothesis" ).

Scholars long debated whether Newton disputed the doctrine of theTrinity.His first biographer,David Brewster,who compiled his manuscripts, interpreted Newton as questioning the veracity of some passages used to support the Trinity, but never denying the doctrine of the Trinity as such.In the twentieth century, encrypted manuscripts written by Newton and bought byJohn Maynard Keynes(among others) were decipheredand it became known that Newton did indeed reject Trinitarianism.

Religious thought

Newton andRobert Boyle's approach to themechanical philosophywas promoted byrationalistpamphleteers as a viable alternative to thepantheistsandenthusiasts,and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like thelatitudinarians.The clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional andmetaphysicalsuperlatives of bothsuperstitiousenthusiasm and the threat ofatheism,and at the same time, the second wave of Englishdeistsused Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion".

The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment"magical thinking",and themystical elements of Christianity,were given their foundation with Boyle's mechanical conception of the universe. Newton gave Boyle's ideas their completion throughmathematical proofsand, perhaps more importantly, was very successful in popularising them.

Alchemy

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago. Isaac Newton, a posthumous child born with no father on Christmas Day, 1642, was the last wonderchild to whom the Magi could do sincere and appropriate homage.

–John Maynard Keynes,"Newton, the Man"

Of an estimated ten million words of writing in Newton's papers, about one million deal withalchemy.Many of Newton's writings on alchemy are copies of other manuscripts, with his own annotations.Alchemical texts mix artisanal knowledge with philosophical speculation, often hidden behind layers of wordplay, allegory, and imagery to protect craft secrets.Some of the content contained in Newton's papers could have been considered heretical by the church.

In 1888, after spending sixteen years cataloguing Newton's papers, Cambridge University kept a small number and returned the rest to the Earl of Portsmouth. In 1936, a descendant offered the papers for sale at Sotheby's.The collection was broken up and sold for a total of about £9,000.John Maynard Keyneswas one of about three dozen bidders who obtained part of the collection at auction. Keynes went on to reassemble an estimated half of Newton's collection of papers on alchemy before donating his collection to Cambridge University in 1946.

All of Newton's known writings on alchemy are currently being put online in a project undertaken byIndiana University:"The Chymistry of Isaac Newton"and summarised in a book.

Newton's fundamental contributions to science include the quantification of gravitational attraction, the discovery that white light is actually a mixture of immutable spectral colors, and the formulation of the calculus. Yet there is another, more mysterious side to Newton that is imperfectly known, a realm of activity that spanned some thirty years of his life, although he kept it largely hidden from his contemporaries and colleagues. We refer to Newton's involvement in the discipline of alchemy, or as it was often called in seventeenth-century England, "chymistry."

In June 2020, two unpublished pages of Newton's notes onJan Baptist van Helmont's book on plague,De Peste,were being auctioned online byBonhams.Newton's analysis of this book, which he made in Cambridge while protecting himself from London's 1665–1666infection,is the most substantial written statement he is known to have made about the plague, according to Bonhams. As far as the therapy is concerned, Newton writes that "the best is a toad suspended by the legs in a chimney for three days, which at last vomited up earth with various insects in it, on to a dish of yellow wax, and shortly after died. Combining powdered toad with the excretions and serum made into lozenges and worn about the affected area drove away the contagion and drew out the poison".

Legacy

See also:Isaac Newton in popular culture

Fame

Newton's tomb monument inWestminster AbbeybyJohn Michael Rysbrack

The mathematicianJoseph-Louis Lagrangesaid that Newton was the greatestgeniuswho ever lived, and once added that Newton was also "the most fortunate, for we cannot find more than once a system of the world to establish."English poetAlexander Popewrote the famousepitaph:

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

But this was not allowed to be inscribed in Newton's monument at Westminster. The epitaph added is as follows:

H. S. E. ISAACUS NEWTON Eques Auratus, / Qui, animi vi prope divinâ, / Planetarum Motus, Figuras, / Cometarum semitas, Oceanique Aestus. Suâ Mathesi facem praeferente / Primus demonstravit: / Radiorum Lucis dissimilitudines, / Colorumque inde nascentium proprietates, / Quas nemo antea vel suspicatus erat, pervestigavit. / Naturae, Antiquitatis, S. Scripturae, / Sedulus, sagax, fidus Interpres / Dei O. M. Majestatem Philosophiâ asseruit, / Evangelij Simplicitatem Moribus expressit. / Sibi gratulentur Mortales, / Tale tantumque exstitisse / HUMANI GENERIS DECUS. / NAT. XXV DEC. A.D. MDCXLII. OBIIT. XX. MAR. MDCCXXVI,

which can be translated as follows:

Here is buried Isaac Newton, Knight, who by a strength of mind almost divine, and mathematical principles peculiarly his own, explored the course and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, the tides of the sea, the dissimilarities in rays of light, and, what no other scholar has previously imagined, the properties of the colours thus produced. Diligent, sagacious and faithful, in his expositions of nature, antiquity and the holy Scriptures, he vindicated by his philosophy the majesty of God mighty and good, and expressed the simplicity of the Gospel in his manners. Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great an ornament of the human race! He was born on 25th December 1642, and died on 20th March 1726.

In a 2005 survey of members of Britain'sRoyal Society(formerly headed by Newton) asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton orAlbert Einstein,the members deemed Newton to have made the greater overall contribution.In 1999, an opinion poll of 100 of the day's leading physicists voted Einstein the "greatest physicist ever," with Newton the runner-up, while a parallel survey of rank-and-file physicists by the site PhysicsWeb gave the top spot to Newton.New Scientistcalled Newton "the supreme genius and most enigmatic character in the history of science".Newton has been called the "most influential figure in the history of Western science".Einstein kept a picture of Newton on his study wall alongside ones ofMichael FaradayandJames Clerk Maxwell.

PhysicistLev Landauranked physicists on a logarithmic scaleof productivity ranging from 0 to 5. The highest ranking, 0, was assigned to Newton.Albert Einsteinwas ranked 0.5. A rank of 1 was awarded to the "founding fathers" ofquantum mechanics,Niels Bohr,Werner Heisenberg,Paul DiracandErwin Schrödinger.Landau, a Nobel prize winner and discoverer ofsuperfluidity,ranked himself as 2.

TheSI derived unitofforceis named thenewtonin his honour.

Woolsthorpe Manoris a Grade Ilisted buildingbyHistoric Englandthrough being his birthplace and "where he discovered gravity and developed his theories regarding the refraction of light".

In 1816, a tooth said to have belonged to Newton was sold for £730in London to an aristocrat who had it set in a ring.Guinness World Records2002classified it as the most valuable tooth in the world, which would value approximately £25,000 (US$35,700) in late 2001.Who bought it and who currently has it has not been disclosed.

Apple incident

Main article:Isaac Newton's apple tree

Reputed descendants of Newton's apple tree at (from top to bottom):Trinity College, Cambridge,theCambridge University Botanic Garden,and theInstituto Balseirolibrary garden in Argentina

Newton himself often told the story that he was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a tree.The story is believed to have passed into popular knowledge after being related byCatherine Barton,Newton's niece, toVoltaire.Voltaire then wrote in hisEssay on Epic Poetry(1727), "Sir Isaac Newton walking in his gardens, had the first thought of his system of gravitation, upon seeing an apple falling from a tree."

Although it has been said that the apple story is a myth and that he did not arrive at his theory of gravity at any single moment,acquaintances of Newton (such asWilliam Stukeley,whose manuscript account of 1752 has been made available by the Royal Society) do in fact confirm the incident, though not the apocryphal version that the apple actually hit Newton's head. Stukeley recorded in hisMemoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Lifea conversation with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726:

we went into the garden, & drank thea under the shade of some appletrees, only he, & myself. amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. "why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground," thought he to him self: occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a comtemplative mood: "why should it not go sideways, or upwards? but constantly to the earths centre? assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. there must be a drawing power in matter. & the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the earth must be in the earths center, not in any side of the earth. therefore dos this apple fall perpendicularly, or toward the center. if matter thus draws matter; it must be in proportion of its quantity. therefore the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth draws the apple."

John Conduitt,Newton's assistant at the Royal Mint and husband of Newton's niece, also described the event when he wrote about Newton's life:

In the year 1666 he retired again from Cambridge to his mother in Lincolnshire. Whilst he was pensively meandering in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from a tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from earth, but that this power must extend much further than was usually thought. Why not as high as the Moon said he to himself & if so, that must influence her motion & perhaps retain her in her orbit, whereupon he fell a calculating what would be the effect of that supposition.

Awood engravingof Newton's famous steps under the apple tree

It is known from his notebooks that Newton was grappling in the late 1660s with the idea that terrestrial gravity extends, in an inverse-square proportion, to the Moon; however, it took him two decades to develop the full-fledged theory.The question was not whether gravity existed, but whether it extended so far from Earth that it could also be the force holding the Moon to its orbit. Newton showed that if the force decreased as the inverse square of the distance, one could indeed calculate the Moon's orbital period, and get good agreement. He guessed the same force was responsible for other orbital motions, and hence named it "universal gravitation".

Various trees are claimed to be "the" apple tree which Newton describes. TheKing's School, Granthamclaims that the tree was purchased by the school, uprooted and transported to the headmaster's garden some years later. The staff of the (now)National Trust-ownedWoolsthorpe Manordispute this, and claim that a tree present in their gardens is the one described by Newton. A descendant of the original treecan be seen growing outside the main gate of Trinity College, Cambridge, below the room Newton lived in when he studied there. TheNational Fruit CollectionatBrogdalein Kentcan supply grafts from their tree, which appears identical toFlower of Kent,a coarse-fleshed cooking variety.

Commemorations

Newton statue on display at theOxford University Museum of Natural History

Newton's monument (1731) can be seen inWestminster Abbey,at the north of the entrance to the choir against the choir screen, near his tomb. It was executed by the sculptorMichael Rysbrack(1694–1770) in white and grey marble with design by the architectWilliam Kent.The monument features a figure of Newton reclining on top of a sarcophagus, his right elbow resting on several of his great books and his left hand pointing to a scroll with a mathematical design. Above him is a pyramid and a celestial globe showing the signs of the Zodiac and the path of the comet of 1680. A relief panel depictsputtiusing instruments such as a telescope and prism.

From 1978 until 1988, an image of Newton designed by Harry Ecclestone appeared on Series D £1banknotesissued by theBank of England(the last £1 notes to be issued by the Bank of England). Newton was shown on the reverse of the notes holding a book and accompanied by a telescope, a prism and a map of theSolar System.

A statue of Isaac Newton, looking at an apple at his feet, can be seen at theOxford University Museum of Natural History.A large bronze statue,Newton, after William Blake,byEduardo Paolozzi,dated 1995 and inspired byBlake'setching,dominates the piazza of theBritish Libraryin London. A bronze statue of Newton was erected in 1858 in the centre ofGranthamwhere he went to school, prominently standing in front ofGrantham Guildhall.

The still-surviving farmhouse at Woolsthorpe By Colsterworth is a Grade Ilisted buildingbyHistoric Englandthrough being his birthplace and "where he discovered gravity and developed his theories regarding the refraction of light".

The Enlightenment

Enlightenmentphilosophers chose a short history of scientific predecessors—Galileo, Boyle, and Newton principally—as the guides and guarantors of their applications of the singular concept ofnatureandnatural lawto every physical and social field of the day. In this respect, the lessons of history and the social structures built upon it could be discarded.

It is held by European philosophers of the Enlightenment and by historians of the Enlightenment that Newton's publication of thePrincipiawas a turning point in theScientific Revolutionand started the Enlightenment. It was Newton's conception of the universe based upon natural and rationally understandable laws that became one of the seeds for Enlightenment ideology.Locke andVoltaireapplied concepts of natural law to political systems advocating intrinsic rights; thephysiocratsandAdam Smithapplied natural conceptions ofpsychologyand self-interest to economic systems; andsociologistscriticised the currentsocial orderfor trying to fit history into natural models ofprogress.MonboddoandSamuel Clarkeresisted elements of Newton's work, but eventually rationalised it to conform with their strong religious views of nature.

Works

Published in his lifetime

• De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas(1669, published 1711)
• Of Natures Obvious Laws & Processes in Vegetation(unpublished,c. 1671–75)
• De motu corporum in gyrum(1684)
• Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica(1687)
• Scala graduum Caloris. Calorum Descriptiones & signa(1701)
• Opticks(1704)
• Reports as Master of the Mint(1701–1725)
• Arithmetica Universalis(1707)

Published posthumously

• De mundi systemate(The System of the World) (1728)
• Optical Lectures(1728)
• The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended(1728)
• Observations on Daniel and The Apocalypse of St. John(1733)
• Method of Fluxions(1671, published 1736)
• An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture(1754)

See also

• Elements of the Philosophy of Newton,a book by Voltaire
• List of multiple discoveries: seventeenth century
• List of things named after Isaac Newton
• List of presidents of the Royal Society

References

Bibliography

• Ball, W. W. Rouse (1908).A Short Account of the History of Mathematics.New York: Dover.ISBN978-0-486-20630-1.
• Gjertsen, Derek (1986).The Newton Handbook.London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.ISBN0-7102-0279-2.
• Katz, David S. (1992). "Englishness and Medieval Anglo-Jewry". In Kushner, Tony (ed.).The Marginalization of Early Modern Jewish History.Frank Cass. pp. 42–59.ISBN0-7146-3464-6.
• Levenson, Thomas (2010).Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist.Mariner Books.ISBN978-0-547-33604-6.
• Manuel, Frank E. (1968).A Portrait of Isaac Newton.Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
• Numbers, R. L. (2015).Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science.Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-91547-3.Archivedfrom the original on 8 July 2023.Retrieved7 December2018.
• Stewart, James (2009).Calculus: Concepts and Contexts.Cengage Learning.ISBN978-0-495-55742-5.
• Westfall, Richard S.(1980).Never at Rest.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-27435-7.
• Westfall, Richard S. (2007).Isaac Newton.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-19-921355-9.
• Westfall, Richard S. (1994).The Life of Isaac Newton.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-47737-6.
• White, Michael(1997).Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer.Fourth Estate Limited.ISBN978-1-85702-416-6.

Further reading

Primary

• Newton, Isaac.The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.University of California Press,(1999)
  • Brackenridge, J. Bruce.The Key to Newton's Dynamics: The Kepler Problem and the Principia: Containing an English Translation of Sections 1, 2, and 3 of Book One from the First (1687) Edition of Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,University of California Press (1996)
• Newton, Isaac.The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton. Vol. 1: The Optical Lectures, 1670–1672,Cambridge University Press (1984)
  • Newton, Isaac.Opticks(4th ed. 1730)online edition
  • Newton, I. (1952). Opticks, or A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light. New York: Dover Publications.
• Newton, I.Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and His System of the World,tr. A. Motte, rev.Florian Cajori.Berkeley: University of California Press (1934)
• Whiteside, D. T.,ed. (1967–1982).The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-07740-8.– 8 volumes.
• Newton, Isaac.The correspondence of Isaac Newton,ed. H.W. Turnbull and others, 7 vols (1959–77)
• Newton's Philosophy of Nature: Selections from His Writingsedited by H.S. Thayer (1953; online edition)
• Isaac Newton, Sir; J Edleston;Roger Cotes,Correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton and Professor Cotes, including letters of other eminent men,London, John W. Parker, West Strand; Cambridge, John Deighton (1850, Google Books)
• Maclaurin, C. (1748).An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries, in Four Books.London: A. Millar and J. Nourse
• Newton, I. (1958).Isaac Newton's Papers and Letters on Natural Philosophy and Related Documents,eds. I.B. Cohen and R.E. Schofield. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
• Newton, I. (1962).The Unpublished Scientific Papers of Isaac Newton: A Selection from the Portsmouth Collection in the University Library, Cambridge,ed. A.R. Hall and M.B. Hall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Newton, I. (1975).Isaac Newton's 'Theory of the Moon's Motion'(1702). London: Dawson

Alchemy

• Craig, John (1946).Newton at the Mint.Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
• Craig, John (1953). "XII. Isaac Newton".The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948.Cambridge,England:Cambridge University Press.pp. 198–222.ASINB0000CIHG7.
• de Villamil, Richard(1931).Newton, the Man.London: G. D. Knox.– Preface by Albert Einstein. Reprinted by Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York (1972)
• Dobbs, B. J. T. (1975).The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy or "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon".Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Keynes, John Maynard(1963).Essays in Biography.W. W. Norton & Co.ISBN978-0-393-00189-1.Keynes took a close interest in Newton and owned many of Newton's private papers.
• Stukeley, W. (1936).Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life.London: Taylor and Francis.(edited by A.H. White; originally published in 1752)
• Trabue, J. "Ann and Arthur Storer of Calvert County, Maryland, Friends of Sir Isaac Newton,"The American Genealogist79 (2004): 13–27.

Religion

• Dobbs, Betty Jo Tetter.The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton's Thought.(1991), links the alchemy to Arianism
• Force, James E., and Richard H. Popkin, eds.Newton and Religion: Context, Nature, and Influence.(1999), pp. xvii, 325.; 13 papers by scholars using newly opened manuscripts
• Pfizenmaier, Thomas C. (1997). "Was Isaac Newton an Arian?".Journal of the History of Ideas.58(1): 57–80.doi:10.1353/jhi.1997.0001.JSTOR3653988.S2CID170545277.
• Ramati, Ayval (2001). "The Hidden Truth of Creation: Newton's Method of Fluxions".The British Journal for the History of Science.34(4): 417–38.doi:10.1017/S0007087401004484.JSTOR4028372.S2CID143045863.
• Snobelen, Stephen D. (2001). "'God of Gods, and Lord of Lords': The Theology of Isaac Newton's General Scholium to the Principia ".Osiris.16:169–208.Bibcode:2001Osir...16..169S.doi:10.1086/649344.JSTOR301985.S2CID170364912.
• Snobelen, Stephen D. (December 1999). "Isaac Newton, heretic: the strategies of a Nicodemite".The British Journal for the History of Science.32(4): 381–419.doi:10.1017/S0007087499003751.JSTOR4027945.S2CID145208136.

Science

• Bechler, Zev (2013).Contemporary Newtonian Research (Studies in the History of Modern Science)(Volume 9).Springer.ISBN978-94-009-7717-4.
• Berlinski, David.Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World.(2000);ISBN0-684-84392-7
• Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan(1995).Newton's Principia for the Common Reader.Oxford: Clarendon Press.ISBN978-0-19-851744-3.
• Cohen, I. Bernard and Smith, George E., ed.The Cambridge Companion to Newton.(2002). Focuses on philosophical issues only; excerpt and text search; complete edition online"The Cambridge Companion to Newton".Archived from the original on 8 October 2008.Retrieved13 October2008.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• Christianson, Gale (1984).In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton & His Times.New York: Free Press.ISBN978-0-02-905190-0.This well documented work provides, in particular, valuable information regarding Newton's knowledge ofPatristics
• Cohen, I. B. (1980).The Newtonian Revolution.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-22964-7.
• Craig, John (1958). "Isaac Newton – Crime Investigator".Nature.182(4629): 149–52.Bibcode:1958Natur.182..149C.doi:10.1038/182149a0.S2CID4200994.
• Craig, John (1963). "Isaac Newton and the Counterfeiters".Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London.18(2): 136–45.doi:10.1098/rsnr.1963.0017.S2CID143981415.
• Gleick, James (2003).Isaac Newton.Alfred A. Knopf.ISBN978-0-375-42233-1.
• Halley, E. (1687). "Review of Newton's Principia".Philosophical Transactions.186:291–97.
• Hawking, Stephen,ed.On the Shoulders of Giants.ISBN0-7624-1348-4Places selections from Newton'sPrincipiain the context of selected writings by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Einstein
• Herivel, J. W. (1965).The Background to Newton's Principia. A Study of Newton's Dynamical Researches in the Years 1664–84.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Newton, Isaac.Papers and Letters in Natural Philosophy,edited byI. Bernard Cohen.Harvard University Press,1958, 1978;ISBN0-674-46853-8.
• Pemberton, H. (1728). "A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy".The Physics Teacher.4(1): 8–9.Bibcode:1966PhTea...4....8M.doi:10.1119/1.2350900.
• Shamos, Morris H. (1959).Great Experiments in Physics.New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc.ISBN978-0-486-25346-6.

External links

• Enlightening Science digital projectArchived2 December 2016 at theWayback Machine:Texts of his papers, "Popularisations" and podcasts at the Newton Project
• "Archival material relating to Isaac Newton".UK National Archives.
• Portraits of Sir Isaac Newtonat theNational Portrait Gallery, London

Writings by Newton

• Newton's works – full texts, at the Newton ProjectArchived8 October 2012 at theWayback Machine
• Newton's papers in the Royal Society's archivesArchived28 September 2018 at theWayback Machine
• The Newton Manuscripts at the National Library of Israel – the collection of all his religious writingsArchived30 December 2014 at theWayback Machine
• Works by Isaac NewtonatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Isaac NewtonatInternet Archive
• Works by Isaac NewtonatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• "Newton Papers"Archived11 January 2012 at theWayback Machine– Cambridge Digital Library