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Birth
Newton was born on Christmas Day in 1642 (on the Julian Calendar. On a more modern calendar he was born on January 4th, 1643) in the Woolstrope Manor. -
Sent Away
Newton’s father died three months before his son’s birth and his wife remarried. After she remarried, she sent her son to live with his grandmother. -
Education & Farming
Newton lived with an apothecary, William Clarke, from age twelve through seventeen, where he became interested in chemistry. During his stay with the Clarkes, he went to The King’s School in Grantham. He didn’t do quite well in school because he was more worried about personal affairs. At age seventeen, his now widowed mother, tried to get him to become a farmer like his late father. -
Back to Education
The master of The King’s School convinced Newton’s mother to let Newton go back to school. By the time he was eighteen he was an exemplary student. He was sent to Trinity College in Cambridge where he was a sizar or a work-study student. His college studied the works of Aristotle but he also studied more recent philosophers such as Galileo, Descartes, Kepler and Copernicus. -
Rainbows and Spectrums
Newton after reading books about geometry and angles, discovered how to see rainbows and what makes them appear. He even wrote about it. -
The 3 Laws of Motion
Newton, during his stay away from Cambridge because of the plague, came up with the three laws of motion. -
Calculus
Newton came up with a mathmatical theory which is now known as calculus. He soon after graduated college in 1655 -
The Law of Gravity
It is said that Newton became fascinated with what makes things fall when an apple fell from a tree and onto his head. He then came up with the law of gravity. -
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Newton wrote a booked called Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. He later wrote two other books adding on and correcting his first. -
His Death
Newton died on March 31, 1727 in Kensington, London. He died in his sleep but mercury was found in his hair, most likely from one of his alchemy experiments. He had died from mercury poisoning.
