Henrique - A Biography

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born in a calm neighborhood called Woolsthorpe Manor, in Lincolnshire, England on January, 4th, 1643. Unfortunately, his father died some months before Newton was born. He lived with his grandmother after his mother got marriage again. He was not a good student, so one day, after a fight with a classmate he decided to be the best student in his school. Newton’s mother took him out of school to take care of their farm, but his principal convinced her to let him came back to school. He did not like his stepfather and once he said to his mother: “I will put fire in your house with you and your husband inside it.”
Newton studied at Trinity College of Cambridge and graduated in 1665 but in 1666 the black pest made Newton come back to his mother’s house. However, he studied during this period and developed the Differential Calculus, theories about the light, the law of Universal Gravitation and a new kind of telescope.
He became Mathematics Professor in Cambridge in 1669 and a member of the Royal Society in 1672. Afterwards, from 1687 to 1690, he worked as member of the British parliament. Newton became the principal of the money house in 1701 and president of the Royal Society in 1703.
The Great Three Laws of Newton were published in 1687 in his famous book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. In 1704 he wrote his most important article about optics, called Opticks, about the ideas that he had had since 1670. Newton wrote several articles about philosophy, occultism, alchemy and religion.
In 1705, Queen Anne gave him the title of sir and he was the first scientist to receive it. Some biographers say that his unique love was a woman called Anne Storer, others say that Newton died virgin, although there is not good evidence to support this. In fact, he had an introspective personality, difficult temperament and frequently spent many hours alone, thinking about his theories and building objects. Newton died on March, 20th, 1727. His body is in the famous Westminster Abbey. Alexander Pope, one of his friends, wrote after Newton’s dead: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light".