Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton (/ˈnjuːtən/; 25 December 1642 – 20

March 1726/27[a]) was an English polymath active as a Sir Isaac Newton
FRS
mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist,
theologian, and author.[5] Newton was a key figure in
the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that
followed.[6] His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy), first published in 1687, achieved the first
great unification in physics and established classical
mechanics.[7][8] Newton also made seminal
contributions to optics, and shares credit with German
mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for
formulating infinitesimal calculus, though he
developed calculus years before Leibniz.[9][10] He
contributed to and refined the scientific method, and
his work is considered the most influential in bringing Portrait of Newton at 46, 1689
forth modern science.[11][12][13][14][15]
Born 4 January 1643 [O.S. 25
In the Principia, Newton formulated the laws of December 1642][a]
motion and universal gravitation that formed the Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth,
Lincolnshire, England
dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was
superseded by the theory of relativity. He used his Died 31 March 1727 (aged 84)
mathematical description of gravity to derive Kepler's [O.S. 20 March 1726][a]
laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the Kensington, Middlesex,
trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes England
and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the Resting place Westminster Abbey
Solar System's heliocentricity.[16] Newton solved the Education Trinity College, Cambridge
two-body problem, and introduced the three-body (BA, 1665; MA, 1668)[4]
problem.[17] He demonstrated that the motion of
Known for List
objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be
Newtonian mechanics
accounted for by the same principles. Newton's
inference that the Earth is an oblate spheroid was later universal gravitation
confirmed by the geodetic measurements of calculus
Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, thereby Newton's laws of motion
convincing most European scientists of the superiority optics
of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.
binomial series
Newton built the first reflecting telescope and Principia
developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on Newton's method
the observation that a prism separates white light into Newton's law of cooling
the colours of the visible spectrum. His work on light
was collected in his book Opticks, published in 1704. Newton's identities
He originated prisms as beam expanders and multiple- Newton's metal
prism arrays, which would later become integral to the Newton line
development of tunable lasers.[18] Newton also
Newton–Gauss line
formulated an empirical law of cooling, which was the
first heat transfer formulation and serves as the formal Newtonian fluid
basis of convective heat transfer,[19] made the first Newton's rings
theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and Standing on the shoulders of
introduced the notions of a Newtonian fluid and a giants
black body. Furthermore, he made early investigations List of all other works and
into electricity,[20][21] with an idea from his book concepts
Opticks arguably the beginning of the field theory of
Political party Whig
the electric force.[22] In addition to his creation of
calculus, as a mathematician, he generalized the Awards FRS (1672)[1]
binomial theorem to any real number, contributed to Knight Bachelor (1705)
the study of power series, developed a method for Scientific career
approximating the roots of a function, classified most
Fields Physics · natural philosophy ·
of the cubic plane curves, and also originated the
alchemy · theology ·
Newton-Cotes formulas for numerical integration.[23]
mathematics · astronomy ·
He further devised an early form of regression
economics
analysis.[24]
Institutions University of Cambridge ·
Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Royal Society · Royal Mint
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Academic Isaac Barrow[2]
Cambridge; he was appointed at the age of 26. He was advisors Benjamin Pulleyn[3]
a devout but unorthodox Christian who privately
rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. He refused to take Notable Roger Cotes
holy orders in the Church of England, unlike most students William Whiston
members of the Cambridge faculty of the day. Beyond
his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton Member of Parliament
for the University of Cambridge
dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and
biblical chronology, but most of his work in those In office
areas remained unpublished until long after his death. 1689–1690
Politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Preceded by Robert Brady
Newton served two brief terms as Member of Succeeded by Edward Finch
Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–
In office
1690 and 1701–1702. He was knighted by Queen Anne
1701–1702
in 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in
Preceded by Anthony Hammond
London, serving as Warden (1696–1699) and Master
(1699–1727) of the Royal Mint, in which he increased Succeeded by Arthur Annesley, 5th Earl of
the accuracy and security of British coinage,[25][26] as Anglesey
well as president of the Royal Society (1703–1727). 12th President of the Royal Society
In office
1703–1727
Early life Preceded by John Somers
Succeeded by Hans Sloane
Isaac Newton was born (according to the Julian Master of the Mint
calendar in use in England at the time) on Christmas In office
Day, 25 December 1642 (NS 4 January 1643 ) at [a]
1699–1727
Woolsthorpe Manor in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a 1696–1699 Warden of the Mint
hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire.[27] His father,
Preceded by Thomas Neale
also named Isaac Newton, had died three months
before. Born prematurely, Newton was a small child; Succeeded by John Conduitt
his mother Hannah Ayscough reportedly said that he 2nd Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
could have fit inside a quart mug. [28] When Newton In office
was three, his mother remarried and went to live with 1669–1702
her new husband, the Reverend Barnabas Smith, Preceded by Isaac Barrow
leaving her son in the care of his maternal
Succeeded by William Whiston
grandmother, Margery Ayscough (née Blythe). Newton
disliked his stepfather and maintained some enmity Signature
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."[29] Newton's mother
had three children (Mary, Benjamin, and Hannah) from her second marriage.[30]

The King's School

From the age of about twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated at The King's School in
Grantham, which taught Latin and Ancient Greek and probably imparted a significant foundation of
mathematics.[31] 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.[32] 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,[33] distinguishing himself mainly by building sundials and models of
windmills.[34]

University of Cambridge
In June 1661, Newton was admitted to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. His uncle the
Reverend William Ayscough, who had studied at Cambridge, recommended him to the university. At
Cambridge, Newton started as a subsizar, paying his way by performing valet duties until he was awarded
a scholarship in 1664, which covered his university costs for four more years until the completion of his
MA.[35] At the time, Cambridge's teachings were based on those of Aristotle, whom Newton read along
with then more modern philosophers, including Descartes and astronomers such as Galileo Galilei and
Thomas Street. He set down in his notebook a series of "Quaestiones" about mechanical philosophy as he
found it. In 1665, he discovered the generalised binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical
theory that later became calculus. Soon after Newton obtained his BA degree at Cambridge in August
1665, the university temporarily closed as a precaution against the Great Plague.[36]

Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student, his private studies and the years following
his bachelor's degree have been described as "the richest and most productive ever experienced by a
scientist".[37] The next two years alone saw the development of theories on calculus,[38] optics, and the
law of gravitation, at his home in Woolsthorpe. The physicist Louis T. More stated that "There are no
other examples of achievement in the history of science to compare with that of Newton during those two
golden years."[39]

Newton has been described as an "exceptionally organized" person when it came to note-taking, further
dog-earing pages he saw as important. Furthermore, Newton's "indexes look like present-day indexes:
They are alphabetical, by topic." His books showed his interests to be wide-ranging, with Newton himself
described as a "Janusian thinker, someone who could mix and combine seemingly disparate fields to
stimulate creative breakthroughs."[40]

In April 1667, Newton returned to the University of Cambridge, and in October he was elected as a
fellow of Trinity.[41][42] Fellows were required to take holy orders and be ordained as Anglican priests,
although this was not enforced in the Restoration years, and an assertion of conformity to the Church of
England was 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."[43] Up until this point he had not thought much about religion and had twice
signed his agreement to the Thirty-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.[44]

His academic work impressed the Lucasian Professor Isaac 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. Newton argued that this should exempt
him from the ordination requirement, and King Charles II, whose permission was needed, accepted this
argument; thus, a conflict between Newton's religious views and Anglican orthodoxy was averted.[45] He
was appointed at the age of 26.[46]

The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge position

included the responsibility of instructing geography.[47] In 1672,
and again in 1681, Newton published a revised, corrected, and
amended edition of the Geographia Generalis, a geography
textbook first published in 1650 by the then-deceased Bernhardus
Varenius.[48] In the Geographia 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.[47][49] While it is unclear if Newton ever
lectured in geography, the 1733 Dugdale and Shaw English
Some of the figures added by Isaac
translation of the book stated Newton published the book to be Newton in his 1672 and 1681
read by students while he lectured on the subject.[47] The editions of the Geographia
Geographia Generalis is viewed by some as the dividing line Generalis. These figures appeared
between ancient and modern traditions in the history of geography, in subsequent editions as well.[47]
and Newton's involvement in the subsequent editions is thought to
be a large part of the reason for this enduring legacy.[50]
Newton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1672.[1]

Mid-life

Calculus
Newton's work has been said "to distinctly advance every branch of mathematics then studied".[51] 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.[52] His work De analysi per aequationes numero
terminorum infinitas, sent by Isaac Barrow to John Collins in 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".[53] Newton later became involved in a dispute with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over priority in
the development of calculus. Both are now credited with independently developing calculus, though with
very different mathematical notations. However, it is established that Newton came to develop calculus
much earlier than Leibniz.[54][10] Leibniz's notation is recognized as the more convenient notation, being
adopted by continental European mathematicians, and after 1820, by British mathematicians.[55]

Historian of science A. Rupert Hall notes that while Leibniz deserves credit for his independent
formulation of calculus, Newton was undoubtedly the first to develop it, stating:[56]

But all these matters are of little weight in comparison with the central truth, which has indeed
long been universally recognized, that Newton was master of the essential techniques of the
calculus by the end of 1666, almost exactly nine years before Leibniz . . . Newton’s claim to
have mastered the new infinitesimal calculus long before Leibniz, and even to have written —
or at least made a good start upon — a publishable exposition of it as early as 1671, is certainly
borne out by copious evidence, and though Leibniz and some of his friends sought to belittle
Newton’s case, the truth has not been seriously in doubt for the last 250 years.

Hall further notes that in Principia, Newton was able to "formulate and resolve problems by the
integration of differential equations" and "in fact, he anticipated in his book many results that later
exponents of the calculus regarded as their own novel achievements."[57]

It has been noted that despite the convenience of Leibniz's notation, Newton's notation could still have
been used to develop multivariate techniques, with his dot notation still widely used in physics. Some
academics have noted the richness and depth of Newton's work, such as physicist Roger Penrose, stating
"in most cases Newton’s geometrical methods are not only more concise and elegant, they reveal deeper
principles than would become evident by the use of those formal methods of calculus that nowadays
would seem more direct." Mathematician Vladimir Arnold states "Comparing the texts of Newton with
the comments of his successors, it is striking how Newton’s original presentation is more modern, more
understandable and richer in ideas than the translation due to commentators of his geometrical ideas into
the formal language of the calculus of Leibniz."[58]

His work extensively uses calculus in geometric form based on limiting values of the ratios of
vanishingly small quantities: in the Principia itself, Newton gave demonstration of this under the name of
"the method of first and last ratios"[59] and explained why he put his expositions in this form,[60]
remarking also that "hereby the same thing is performed as by the method of indivisibles."[61] Because of
this, the Principia has been called "a book dense with the theory and application of the infinitesimal
calculus" in modern times[62] and in Newton's time "nearly all of it is of this calculus."[63] His use of
methods involving "one or more orders of the infinitesimally small" is present in his De motu corporum
in gyrum of 1684[64] and in his papers on motion "during the two decades preceding 1684".[65]

Newton had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he feared

controversy and criticism.[66] He was close to the Swiss mathematician
Nicolas Fatio de Duillier. In 1691, Duillier started to write a new version
of Newton's Principia, and corresponded with Leibniz.[67] In 1693, the
relationship between Duillier and Newton deteriorated and the book was
never completed.[68] Starting in 1699, Duillier accused Leibniz of
plagiarism.[69] Mathematician John Keill accused Leibniz of plagiarism in
1708 in the Royal Society journal, thereby deteriorating the situation even
more.[70] 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 Newton in 1702 by Godfrey
wrote the study's concluding remarks on Leibniz. Thus began the bitter Kneller
controversy which marred the lives of both men until Leibniz's death in
1716.[71]

Newton is credited with the generalised binomial theorem, valid for any exponent. He discovered
Newton's identities, Newton's method, classified cubic plane curves (polynomials of degree three in two
variables), made substantial contributions to the theory of finite differences, with Newton regarded as
"the single most significant contributor to finite difference interpolation", with many formulas created by
Newton.[72] He was the first to state Bézout's theorem, and was also the first to use fractional indices and
to employ coordinate geometry to derive solutions to Diophantine equations. He approximated partial
sums of the harmonic series by logarithms (a precursor to Euler's summation formula) and was the first to
use power series with confidence and to revert power series. His work on infinite series was inspired by
Simon Stevin's decimals.[73]

Optics
In 1666, Newton observed that the spectrum of colours exiting a prism in the position of minimum
deviation is oblong, even when the light ray entering the prism is circular, which is to say, the prism
refracts different colours by different angles.[75][76] 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.[77] During this period he investigated the refraction of
light, demonstrating that the multicoloured image produced by a prism, which he named a spectrum,
could be recomposed into white light by a lens and a second prism.[78] Modern scholarship has revealed
that Newton's analysis and resynthesis of white light owes a debt to corpuscular alchemy.[79]

In his work on Newton's rings in 1671, he used a method that was unprecedented in the 17th century, as
"he averaged all of the differences, and he then calculated the difference between the average and the
value for the first ring", in effect introducing a now standard method for reducing noise in measurements,
and which does not appear elsewhere at the time.[80] He extended his "error-slaying method" to studies of
equinoxes in 1700, which was described as an "altogether
unprecedented method" but differed in that here "Newtpn required
good values for each of the original equinoctial times, and so he
devised a method that allowed them to, as it were, self-
correct."[24] Newton is credited with introducing "an embryonic
linear regression analysis", as he averaged a set of data, 50 years
before Tobias Mayer, and also "summing the residuals to zero he
forced the regression line to pass through the average point". He
also "distinguished between two inhomogeneous sets of data and
might have thought of an optimal solution in terms of bias, though
not in terms of effectiveness".[81]

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, A replica of the reflecting telescope
the light remains the same colour. Thus, he observed that colour is Newton presented to the Royal
the result of objects interacting with already-coloured light rather Society in 1672 (the first one he
made in 1668 was loaned to an
than objects generating the colour themselves. This is known as
instrument maker but there is no
Newton's theory of colour.[82] further record of what happened to
it).[74]
From this work, he concluded that the lens of any refracting
telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colours
(chromatic aberration). As a proof of the concept, he constructed a
telescope using reflective mirrors instead of lenses as the objective
to bypass that problem. Building the design, the first known
functional reflecting telescope, today known as a Newtonian
telescope, involved solving the problem of a suitable mirror
material and shaping technique.[83] He grounded his own mirrors
out of a custom composition of highly reflective speculum metal,
using Newton's rings to judge the quality of the optics for his
telescopes. In late 1668,[84] he was able to produce this first
Illustration of a dispersive prism
reflecting telescope. It was about eight inches long and it gave a separating white light into the
clearer and larger image. In 1671, he was asked for a colours of the spectrum, as
demonstration of his reflecting telescope by the Royal Society.[85] discovered by Newton
Their interest encouraged him to publish his notes, Of Colours, [86]

which he later expanded into the work Opticks. When Robert

Hooke criticised some of Newton's ideas, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate.
However, the two had brief exchanges in 1679–80, when Hooke, who had been appointed Secretary of
the Royal Society,[87] opened a correspondence intended to elicit contributions from Newton to Royal
Society transactions,[88] 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. The two men remained generally on poor terms until Hooke's death.[89]

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 (Opticks Bk. II, Props. 12), but still retained his theory of 'fits' that disposed
corpuscles to be reflected or transmitted (Props.13). Physicists later favoured a purely wavelike
explanation of light to account for the interference patterns and the general
phenomenon of diffraction. Despite his known preference of a particle
theory, Newton in fact noted that light had both particle-like and wave-
like properties in Opticks, and was the first to attempt to reconcile the two
theories, thereby anticipating later developments of wave-particle duality,
which is the modern understanding of light.[90]

In his Hypothesis of Light of 1675, Newton posited the existence of the

ether to transmit forces between particles. The contact with the Cambridge
Platonist philosopher Henry More revived his interest in alchemy.[91] He
replaced the ether with occult forces based on Hermetic ideas of attraction
and repulsion between particles. His contributions to science cannot be
isolated from his interest in alchemy.[91] This was at a time when there Facsimile of a 1682 letter
was no clear distinction between alchemy and science.[92][93] from Newton to William
Briggs, commenting on
Briggs' A New Theory of
In 1704, Newton published Opticks, in which he expounded his
Vision
corpuscular theory of light, and included a set of queries at the end, which
were posed as unanswered questions and positive assertions. In line with
his corpuscle theory, he thought that normal matter was made of grosser corpuscles and speculated that
through a kind of alchemical transmutation, with query 30 stating "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?"[94] Query 6 introduced the concept of a black body.[95][96]

Newton investigated electricity by constructing a primitive form of a frictional electrostatic generator

using a glass globe,[97] and detailed an experiment in 1675 that showed when one side of a glass sheet is
rubbed to create an electric charge, it attracts "light bodies" to the opposite side. He interpreted this as
evidence that electric forces could pass through glass.[98] He also stated an idea in Opticks that is
regarded as the beginning of the field theory of electric force.[99]

In Opticks, he 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 expanders
became central to the development of narrow-linewidth tunable lasers. The use of these prismatic beam
expanders led to the multiple-prism dispersion theory.[18]

Subsequent to Newton, much has been amended. Thomas Young and Augustin-Jean Fresnel discarded
Newton's particle theory in favour of Christiaan Huygens' 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, Johann Wolfgang von
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 by Dollond to be wrong."[100]

Gravity
Newton had been developing his theory of gravitation as far back as 1665.[101] In 1679, he returned to his
work on celestial mechanics by considering gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets with
reference to Kepler's laws of planetary motion. 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 with John Flamsteed.[102] 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. He communicated his
results to Edmond Halley and to the Royal Society in De motu corporum
in gyrum, a tract written on about nine sheets which was copied into the
Royal Society's Register Book in December 1684.[103] This tract
contained the nucleus that Newton developed and expanded to form the
Principia.
Engraving of Portrait of
The Principia was published on 5 July 1687 with encouragement and
Newton by John
financial help from Halley. In this work, Newton stated the three universal Vanderbank
laws of motion. Together, these laws describe the relationship between
any object, the forces acting upon it and the resulting
motion, laying the foundation for classical mechanics.
They contributed to many advances during the Industrial
Revolution which 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
word gravitas (weight) for the effect that would become
known as gravity, and defined the law of universal
gravitation.[104]
Newton's own copy of Principia with Newton's
In the same work, Newton presented a calculus-like hand-written corrections for the second
method of geometrical analysis using 'first and last edition, now housed in the Wren Library at
ratios', gave the first analytical determination (based on Trinity College, Cambridge
Boyle'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 the irregularities in the motion of the Moon, provided a theory for the
determination of the orbits of comets, and much more.[104] Newton's biographer David Brewster reported
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 astronomer John Machin that "his head never ached but when he was studying the
subject". According to Brewster, Halley also told John Conduitt that when pressed to complete his
analysis Newton "always replied that it made his head ache, and kept him awake so often, that he would
think of it no more". [Emphasis in original][105]

Newton made clear his heliocentric view 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.[106] 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.)[107]
Newton was criticised for introducing "occult agencies" into science because of his postulate of an
invisible force able to act over vast distances.[108] Later, in the second edition of the Principia (1713),
Newton firmly rejected such criticisms in a concluding General 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 he used what became his famous expression "Hypotheses non fingo".[109])

With the Principia, Newton became internationally recognised.[110] He acquired a circle of admirers,
including the Swiss-born mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier.[111]

In 1710, Newton found 72 of the 78 "species" of cubic curves and categorised them into four types.[112]
In 1717, and probably with Newton's help, James Stirling proved that every cubic was one of these four
types. Newton also claimed that the four types could be obtained by plane projection from one of them,
and this was proved in 1731, four years after his death.[113]

Philosophy of Science
Starting with the second edition of his Principia, Newton included a final section on science philosophy
or method. It was here that he wrote his famous line, in Latin, "hypotheses non fingo", which can be
translated as "I don't make hypotheses," (the direct translation of "fingo" is "frame", but in context he was
advocating against the use of hypotheses in science). He went on to posit that if there is no data to explain
a finding, one should simply wait for that data, rather than guessing at an explanation. The quote in part
as translated is, "Hitherto I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from
phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses, for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called
an hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or
mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular propositions are
inferred from the phenomena, and afterwards rendered general by induction"[61]

Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method. In his work on the properties of light in the
1670s, he showed his rigorous method, which was conducting experiments, taking detailed notes, making
measurements, conducting more experiments that grew out of the initial ones, he formulated a theory,
created more experiments to test it, and finally described the entire process so other scientists could
replicate every step.[12]

In his 1687 Principia, he outlined four rules: the first is, 'Admit no more causes of natural things than are
both true and sufficient to explain their appearances'; the second is, 'To the same natural effect, assign the
same causes'; the third is, 'Qualities of bodies, which are found to belong to all bodies within
experiments, are to be esteemed universal'; and lastly, 'Propositions collected from observation of
phenomena should be viewed as accurate or very nearly true until contradicted by other phenomena'.
These rules have become the basis of the modern approaches to science.[13]

Later life

Royal Mint
In the 1690s, Newton wrote a number of religious tracts dealing with the
literal and symbolic interpretation of the Bible. A manuscript Newton sent
to John Locke in which he disputed the fidelity of 1 John 5:7—the
Johannine Comma—and its fidelity to the original manuscripts of the New
Testament, remained unpublished until 1785.[114]

Newton was also a member of the Parliament of England for Cambridge

University in 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.[115] He was, however, noted by
Cambridge diarist Abraham de la Pryme to have rebuked students who
were frightening locals by claiming that a house was haunted.[116]

Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of the Royal Mint Isaac Newton in old age in
during the reign of King William III in 1696, a position that he had 1712, portrait by Sir James
Thornhill
obtained through the patronage of Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax,
then Chancellor 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 deputy
comptroller of the temporary Chester branch for Edmond Halley. Newton became perhaps the best-
known Master of the Mint upon the death of Thomas Neale in 1699, a position he held for the last
30 years of his life.[117][118] These appointments were intended as sinecures, but Newton took them
seriously. He retired from his Cambridge duties in 1701, and exercised his authority to reform the
currency and punish clippers and counterfeiters.

As Warden, and afterwards as Master, of the Royal Mint, Newton estimated that 20 percent of the coins
taken in during the Great Recoinage of 1696 were counterfeit. Counterfeiting was high treason,
punishable by the felon being hanged, drawn and quartered. Despite this, convicting even the most
flagrant criminals could be extremely difficult, but Newton proved equal to the task.[119]

Disguised as a habitué of bars and taverns, he gathered much of that evidence himself.[120] For all the
barriers placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of government, English law still had ancient
and formidable customs of authority. Newton had himself made a justice of the peace in all the home
counties. A draft letter regarding the matter is included in Newton's personal first edition of Philosophiæ
Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which he must have been amending at the time.[121] Then he conducted
more than 100 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers, and suspects between June 1698 and
Christmas 1699. He successfully prosecuted 28 coiners, including serial counterfeiter William Chaloner,
who was subsequently hanged.[122]

Beyond prosecuting counterfeiters, he improved minting technology and reduced the standard deviation
of the weight of guineas from 1.3 grams to 0.75 grams. Starting in 1707, Newton introduced the practice
of testing a small sample of coins, a pound in weight, in the trial of the pyx, which helped to reduce the
size of admissible error. He ultimately saved the Treasury a then £41,510, roughly £3 million in
2012,[123] with his improvements lasting until the 1770s, thereby increasing the accuracy of British
coinage.[25]

Newton was made president of the Royal Society in 1703 and an associate of the French Académie des
Sciences. In his position at the Royal Society, Newton made an enemy of John Flamsteed, the
Astronomer Royal, by prematurely publishing Flamsteed's Historia Coelestis Britannica, which Newton
had used in his studies.[125]

Knighthood
In April 1705, Queen Anne knighted Newton during a royal visit to Trinity
College, Cambridge. The knighthood is likely to have been motivated by
political considerations connected with the parliamentary election in May
1705, rather than any recognition of Newton's scientific work or services
as Master of the Mint.[126] Newton was the second scientist to be
knighted, after Francis Bacon.[127]
Coat of arms of the Newton
family of Great Gonerby,
As a result of a report written by Newton on 21 September 1717 to the
Lincolnshire, afterwards
Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, the bimetallic
used by Sir Isaac[124]
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.[128] 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
the silver standard to its first gold standard. It is a matter of debate as to whether he intended to do this or
not.[129] It has been argued that Newton conceived of his work at the Mint as a continuation of his
alchemical work.[130]

Newton was invested in the South Sea Company and lost some £20,000 (£4.4 million in 2020[131]) when
it collapsed in around 1720.[132]

Toward the end of his life, Newton took up residence at Cranbury Park, near Winchester, with his niece
and her husband, until his death.[133] His half-niece, Catherine Barton,[134] served as his hostess in social
affairs at his house on Jermyn Street in London; he was her "very loving Uncle",[135] according to his
letter to her when she was recovering from smallpox.

Death
Newton died in his sleep in London on 20 March 1727 (OS 20 March 1726; NS 31 March 1727).[a] He
was given a ceremonial funeral, attended by nobles, scientists, and philosophers, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey among kings and queens. He was the first scientist to be buried in the abbey.[136]
Voltaire may have been present at his funeral.[137] A bachelor, he had divested much of his estate to
relatives during his last years, and died intestate.[138] His papers went to John Conduitt and Catherine
Barton.[139]

Shortly after his death, a plaster death mask was moulded of Newton. It was used by Flemish sculptor
John Michael Rysbrack in making a sculpture of Newton.[140] It is now held by the Royal Society,[141]
who created a 3D scan of it in 2012.[142]

Newton's hair was posthumously examined and found to contain mercury, probably resulting from his
alchemical pursuits. Mercury poisoning could explain Newton's eccentricity in late life.[138]

Personality
Although it was claimed that he was once engaged,[b] Newton never
married. The French writer and philosopher Voltaire, 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.”[144] There
exists a widespread belief that Newton died a virgin, and writers as
diverse as mathematician Charles Hutton,[145] economist John Maynard
Keynes,[146] and physicist Carl Sagan have commented on it.[147]

Newton had a close friendship with the Swiss mathematician Nicolas

Fatio de Duillier, whom he met in London around 1689;[111] some of their
correspondence has survived.[148][149] Their relationship came to an
abrupt and unexplained end in 1693, and at the same time Newton
suffered a nervous breakdown,[150] which included sending wild
accusatory letters to his friends Samuel Pepys and John Locke. His note to
Death mask of Newton,
the latter included the charge that Locke had endeavoured to "embroil"
photographed c. 1906
him with "woemen & by other means".[151]

Newton appeared to be relatively modest about his achievements, writing

in a later memoir, "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."[152]
Nonetheless, he could be fiercely competitive and did on occasion hold grudges against his intellectual
rivals, not abstaining from personal attacks when it suited him—a common trait found in many of his
contemporaries.[153] In a letter to Robert Hooke in February 1676, for instance, he confessed "If I have
seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."[154] Some historians argued that this, written at a
time when Newton and Hooke were disputing over optical discoveries, was an oblique attack on Hooke
who was presumably short and hunchbacked, rather than (or in addition to) a statement of modesty.[155]
On the other hand, the widely known proverb about standing on the shoulders of giants, found in 17th
century poet George Herbert's Jacula Prudentum (1651) among others, had as its main point that "a dwarf
on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two", and so in effect place Newton himself rather than Hooke as
the 'dwarf' who saw farther.[156]

Theology

Religious views
Although born into an Anglican family, by his thirties Newton held a Christian faith that, had it been
made public, would not have been considered orthodox by mainstream Christianity,[157] with historian
Stephen Snobelen labelling him a heretic.[158]

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.[159] Over half of what Newton wrote
concerned theology and alchemy, and most has never been printed.[159] His writings demonstrate an
extensive knowledge of early Church writings and show that in the conflict between Athanasius and Arius
which defined the Creed, he took the side of Arius, the loser, who rejected the conventional view of the
Trinity. Newton "recognized Christ as a divine mediator between God and man, who was subordinate to
the Father who created him."[160] He was especially interested in prophecy, but for him, "the great
apostasy was trinitarianism."[161]

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.[162]

Worshipping Jesus Christ as God was, in Newton's eyes, idolatry, an act he believed to be the
fundamental sin.[163] In 1999, Snobelen wrote, "Isaac Newton was a heretic. 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."[158] Snobelen concludes that
Newton was at least a Socinian sympathiser (he owned and had thoroughly read at least eight Socinian
books), possibly an Arian and almost certainly an anti-trinitarian.[158]

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".[165]

Along with his scientific fame, Newton's studies of the Bible and
of the early Church Fathers were also noteworthy. Newton wrote
Newton (1795, detail) by William
works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Blake. Newton is depicted critically
Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture and Observations upon the as a "divine geometer".[164]
Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John.[166] He
placed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at 3 April, AD 33, which
agrees with one traditionally accepted date.[167]

He believed in a rationally immanent world, but he rejected the hylozoism implicit in Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza. The ordered and dynamically informed Universe could be understood, and
must be understood, by an active reason. In his correspondence, he claimed that in writing the Principia
"I had an eye upon such Principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity".[168] 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.[169] 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."[170]

Newton's position was defended by his follower Samuel Clarke in a famous correspondence. A century
later, Pierre-Simon Laplace's work Celestial Mechanics had a natural explanation for why the planet
orbits do not require periodic divine intervention.[171] The contrast between Laplace's mechanistic
worldview and Newton's one is the most strident considering the famous answer which the French
scientist gave Napoleon, who had criticised him for the absence of the Creator in the Mécanique céleste:
"Sire, j'ai pu me passer de cette hypothèse" ("Sir, I didn't need this hypothesis").[172]
Scholars long debated whether Newton disputed the doctrine of the Trinity. 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.[173] In the
twentieth century, encrypted manuscripts written by Newton and bought by John Maynard Keynes
(among others) were deciphered[174] and it became known that Newton did indeed reject
Trinitarianism.[158]

Religious thought
Newton and Robert Boyle's approach to the mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist
pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by
orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians.[175] The clarity and simplicity
of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional and metaphysical superlatives of both superstitious
enthusiasm and the threat of atheism,[176] and at the same time, the second wave of English deists used
Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion".

The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment "magical thinking", and the mystical elements of
Christianity, were given their foundation with Boyle's mechanical conception of the universe. Newton
gave Boyle's ideas their completion through mathematical proofs and, perhaps more importantly, was
very successful in popularising them.[177]

Alchemy
Of an estimated ten million words of writing in Newton's papers, about one million deal with alchemy.
Many of Newton's writings on alchemy are copies of other manuscripts, with his own annotations.[139]
Alchemical texts mix artisanal knowledge with philosophical speculation, often hidden behind layers of
wordplay, allegory, and imagery to protect craft secrets.[179] Some of the content contained in Newton's
papers could have been considered heretical by the church.[139]

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.[180] The collection was broken up and sold for a total of about £9,000.[181] John Maynard
Keynes was 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.[180]

All of Newton's known writings on alchemy are currently being put online in a project undertaken by
Indiana University: "The Chymistry of Isaac Newton"[182] and has been summarised in a book.[183]

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."[182]
In June 2020, two unpublished pages of Newton's notes on Jan Baptist
van Helmont's book on plague, De Peste,[184] were being auctioned Newton was not the first of
online by Bonhams. Newton's analysis of this book, which he made in the age of reason. He was
Cambridge while protecting himself from London's 1665–1666 the last of the magicians,
infection, is the most substantial written statement he is known to have the last of the Babylonians
made about the plague, according to Bonhams. As far as the therapy is and Sumerians, the last
concerned, Newton writes that "the best is a toad suspended by the great mind which looked
legs in a chimney for three days, which at last vomited up earth with out on the visible and
various insects in it, on to a dish of yellow wax, and shortly after died. intellectual world with the
Combining powdered toad with the excretions and serum made into same eyes as those who
lozenges and worn about the affected area drove away the contagion began to build our
and drew out the poison".[185] intellectual inheritance
rather less than 10,000
years ago. Isaac Newton, a
Legacy posthumous child born with
no father on Christmas Day,
1642, was the last
wonderchild to whom the
Recognition
Magi could do sincere and
The mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange frequently appropriate homage.
asserted that Newton was the greatest genius who ever lived,[186] and
once added that Newton was also "the most fortunate, for we cannot –John Maynard Keynes,
find more than once a system of the world to establish."[187] English "Newton, the Man"[178]
poet Alexander Pope wrote the famous epitaph:

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:[188]

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 Newton's tomb monument in Westminster
Philosophiâ asseruit, / Evangelij Simplicitatem Abbey by John Michael Rysbrack
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:[188]

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.

Newton has been called "the most influential figure in the history of Western science",[189] and has been
regarded as "the central figure in the history of science", who "more than anyone else is the source of our
great confidence in the power of science."[190] New Scientist called Newton "the supreme genius and
most enigmatic character in the history of science".[191] The philosopher and historian David Hume also
declared that Newton was "the greatest and rarest genius that ever arose for the ornament and instruction
of the species".[192] In his home of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father and President of the
United States, kept portraits of John Locke, Sir Francis Bacon, and Newton, whom he described as "the
three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception", and who he credited with laying "the
foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral sciences".[193]

Newton has further been called "the towering figure of the Scientific Revolution" and that "In a period
rich with outstanding thinkers, Newton was simply the most outstanding." The polymath Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe labeled Newton's birth as the "Christmas of the modern age".[6] In the Italian
polymath Vilfredo Pareto's estimation, Newton was the greatest human being who ever lived.[194] On the
bicentennial of Newton's death in 1927, astronomer James Jeans stated that he "was certainly the greatest
man of science, and perhaps the greatest intellect, the human race has seen".[195] Newton ultimately
conceived four revolutions—in optics, mathematics, mechanics, and gravity—but also foresaw a fifth in
electricity, though he lacked the time and energy in old age to fully accomplish it.[196][197]

The physicist Ludwig Boltzmann called Newton's Principia "the first and greatest work ever written
about theoretical physics".[198] Physicist Stephen Hawking similarly called Principia "probably the most
important single work ever published in the physical sciences".[199] Lagrange called Principia "the
greatest production of the human mind", and noted that "he felt dazed at such an illustration of what
man's intellect might be capable".[200]

Physicist Edward Andrade stated that Newton "was capable of greater sustained mental effort than any
man, before or since", and noted earlier the place of Isaac Newton in history, stating:[201]

From time to time in the history of mankind a man arises who is of universal significance,
whose work changes the current of human thought or of human experience, so that all that
comes after him bears evidence of his spirit. Such a man was Shakespeare, such a man was
Beethoven, such a man was Newton, and, of the three, his kingdom is the most widespread.

The French physicist and mathematician Jean-Baptiste Biot praised Newton's genius, stating that:[202]
 Never was the supremacy of intellect so justly established and so fully confessed . . . In
mathematical and in experimental science without an equal and without an example; combining
the genius for both in its highest degree.

Despite his rivalry with Gottfried Wilhem Leibniz, Leibniz still praised the work of Newton, with him
responding to a question at a dinner in 1701 from Sophia Charlotte, the Queen of Prussia, about his view
of Newton with:[203][204]

Taking mathematics from the beginning of the world to the time of when Newton lived, what
he had done was much the better half.

Mathematician E.T. Bell ranked Newton alongside Carl Friedrich Gauss and Archimedes as the three
greatest mathematicians of all time.[205] In The Cambridge Companion to Isaac Newton (2016), he is
described as being "from a very young age, an extraordinary problem-solver, as good, it would appear, as
humanity has ever produced".[206] He is ultimately ranked among the top two or three greatest theoretical
scientists ever, alongside James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein, the greatest mathematician ever
alongside Carl F. Gauss, and among the best experimentalists ever, thereby "putting Newton in a class by
himself among empirical scientists, for one has trouble in thinking of any other candidate who was in the
first rank of even two of these categories." Also noted is "At least in comparison to subsequent scientists,
Newton was also exceptional in his ability to put his scientific effort in much wider perspective".[207]
Gauss himself had Archimedes and Newton as his heroes,[208] and used terms such as clarissimus or
magnus to describe other intellectuals such as great mathematicians and philosophers, but reserved
summus for Newton only, and once remarked that "Newton remains forever the master of all
masters!"[200][209]

Albert Einstein kept a picture of Newton on his study wall alongside ones of Michael Faraday and of
James Clerk Maxwell.[210] Einstein stated that Newton's creation of calculus in relation to his laws of
motion was "perhaps the greatest advance in thought that a single individual was ever privileged to
make."[211] He also noted the influence of Newton, stating that:[212]

The whole evolution of our ideas about the processes of nature, with which we have been
concerned so far, might be regarded as an organic development of Newton's ideas.

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 ranked Newton as the
greatest.[213][214] In 2005, a dual survey of both the public and of members of Britain's Royal Society
(formerly headed by Newton) asking who had the greater effect on both the history of science and on the
history of mankind, Newton or Einstein, both the public and the Royal Society deemed Newton to have
made the greater overall contributions for both.[215][216]

In 1999, Time named Newton the Person of the Century for the 17th century.[196] Newton placed sixth in
the 100 Greatest Britons poll conducted by BBC in 2002. However, in 2003, he was voted as the greatest
Briton in a poll conducted by BBC World, with Winston Churchill second.[217] He was voted as the
greatest Cantabrigian by University of Cambridge students in 2009.[218]
Physicist Lev Landau ranked physicists on a logarithmic scale of productivity and genius ranging from 0
to 5. The highest ranking, 0, was assigned to Newton. Einstein was ranked 0.5. A rank of 1 was awarded
to the fathers of quantum mechanics, such as Werner Heisenberg and Paul Dirac. Landau, a Nobel prize
winner and the discoverer of superfluidity, ranked himself as 2.[219][220]

The SI derived unit of force is named the Newton in his honour.

Apple incident
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.[221][222] The story is believed to have passed
into popular knowledge after being related by Catherine Barton,
Newton's niece, to Voltaire.[223] Voltaire then wrote in his Essay
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."[224][225]

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,[226] acquaintances of Newton (such as William 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 his Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life a
conversation with Newton in Kensington on 15 April
1726:[227][228]

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: Reputed descendants of Newton's
occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a apple tree at (from top to bottom):
comtemplative mood: "why should it not go sideways, Trinity College, Cambridge, the
Cambridge University Botanic
or upwards? but constantly to the earths centre?
Garden, and the Instituto Balseiro
assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. there library garden in Argentina
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:[229]

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.

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.[230] 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. The King's School, Grantham
claims 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-owned Woolsthorpe Manor dispute this, and claim
that a tree present in their gardens is the one described by Newton. A descendant of the original tree[231]
can be seen growing outside the main gate of Trinity College, Cambridge, below the room Newton lived
in when he studied there. The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Kent[232] can supply grafts from
their tree, which appears identical to Flower of Kent, a coarse-fleshed cooking variety.[233]

Commemorations
Newton's monument (1731) can be seen in Westminster Abbey, at the
north of the entrance to the choir against the choir screen, near his tomb. It
was executed by the sculptor Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770) in white and
grey marble with design by the architect William Kent.[234] 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 depicts putti using instruments such as a
telescope and prism.[235]

From 1978 until 1988, an image of Newton designed by Harry Ecclestone Newton statue on display at
appeared on Series D £1 banknotes issued by the Bank of England (the the Oxford University
last £1 notes to be issued by the Bank of England). Newton was shown on Museum of Natural History
the reverse of the notes holding a book and accompanied by a telescope, a
prism and a map of the Solar System.[236]
A statue of Isaac Newton, looking at an apple at his feet, can be seen at the Oxford University Museum of
Natural History. A large bronze statue, Newton, after William Blake, by Eduardo Paolozzi, dated 1995 and
inspired by Blake's etching, dominates the piazza of the British Library in London. A bronze statue of
Newton was erected in 1858 in the centre of Grantham where he went to school, prominently standing in
front of Grantham Guildhall.

The still-surviving farmhouse at Woolsthorpe By Colsterworth is a Grade I listed building by Historic

England through being his birthplace and "where he discovered gravity and developed his theories
regarding the refraction of light".[237]

The Enlightenment
Enlightenment philosophers chose a short history of scientific predecessors—Galileo, Boyle, and Newton
principally—as the guides and guarantors of their applications of the singular concept of nature and
natural law to 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.[238]

It is held by European philosophers of the Enlightenment and by historians of the Enlightenment that
Newton's publication of the Principia was a turning point in the Scientific Revolution and 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.[239] Locke and Voltaire
applied concepts of natural law to political systems advocating intrinsic rights; the physiocrats and Adam
Smith applied natural conceptions of psychology and self-interest to economic systems; and sociologists
criticised the current social order for trying to fit history into natural models of progress. Monboddo and
Samuel Clarke resisted 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)[240]
Of Natures Obvious Laws & Processes in Vegetation (unpublished, c. 1671–75)[241]
De motu corporum in gyrum (1684)[242]
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)[243]
Scala graduum Caloris. Calorum Descriptiones & signa (1701)[244]
Opticks (1704)[245]
Reports as Master of the Mint (1701–1725)[246]
Arithmetica Universalis (1707)[246]

Published posthumously
De mundi systemate (The System of the World) (1728)[246]
 Optical Lectures (1728)[246]
The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728)[246]
Observations on Daniel and The Apocalypse of St. John (1733)[246]
Method of Fluxions (1671, published 1736)[247]
An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1754)[246]

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

Notes
a. During Newton's lifetime, two calendars were in use in Europe: the Julian ("Old Style")
calendar in Protestant and Orthodox regions, including Britain; and the Gregorian ("New
Style") calendar in Roman Catholic Europe. At Newton's birth, Gregorian dates were ten
days ahead of Julian dates; thus, his birth is recorded as taking place on 25 December 1642
Old Style, but it can be converted to a New Style (modern) date of 4 January 1643. By the
time of his death, the difference between the calendars had increased to eleven days.
Moreover, he died in the period after the start of the New Style year on 1 January but before
that of the Old Style new year on 25 March. His death occurred on 20 March 1726,
according to the Old Style calendar, but the year is usually adjusted to 1727. A full
conversion to New Style gives the date 31 March 1727.
b. This claim was made by William Stukeley in 1727, in a letter about Newton written to
Richard Mead. Charles Hutton, who in the late eighteenth century collected oral traditions
about earlier scientists, declared that there "do not appear to be any sufficient reason for his
never marrying, if he had an inclination so to do. It is much more likely that he had a
constitutional indifference to the state, and even to the sex in general."[143]

Citations
1. "Fellows of the Royal Society" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150316060617/https://royalso
ciety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows). London: Royal Society. Archived from the original (http
s://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows) on 16 March 2015.
2. Feingold, Mordechai. Barrow, Isaac (1630–1677) (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15
41) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130129154554/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/
article/1541) 29 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, May 2007. Retrieved 24
February 2009; explained further in Feingold, Mordechai (1993). "Newton, Leibniz, and
Barrow Too: An Attempt at a Reinterpretation". Isis. 84 (2): 310–338.
Bibcode:1993Isis...84..310F (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1993Isis...84..310F).
doi:10.1086/356464 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F356464). ISSN 0021-1753 (https://search.w
orldcat.org/issn/0021-1753). JSTOR 236236 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/236236).
S2CID 144019197 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:144019197).
 3. "Dictionary of Scientific Biography" (https://web.archive.org/web/20050225223812/http://ww
w.chlt.org/sandbox/lhl/dsb/page.50.a.php). Notes, No. 4. Archived from the original (http://w
ww.chlt.org/sandbox/lhl/dsb/page.50.a.php) on 25 February 2005.
4. Kevin C. Knox, Richard Noakes (eds.), From Newton to Hawking: A History of Cambridge
University's Lucasian Professors of Mathematics, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 61.
5. Alex, Berezow (4 February 2022). "Who was the smartest person in the world?" (https://bigt
hink.com/the-past/smartest-person-world-isaac-newton/). Big Think. Archived (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20230928161012/https://bigthink.com/the-past/smartest-person-world-isaac-n
ewton/) from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
6. Matthews, Michael R. (2000). Time for Science Education: How Teaching the History and
Philosophy of Pendulum Motion Can Contribute to Science Literacy (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=JrcqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA181). New York: Springer Science+Business Media,
LLC. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-306-45880-4.
7. Rynasiewicz, Robert A. (22 August 2011), "Newton's Views on Space, Time, and Motion" (ht
tps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-stm/), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford
University, retrieved 15 November 2024
8. Klaus Mainzer (2 December 2013). Symmetries of Nature: A Handbook for Philosophy of
Nature and Science (https://books.google.com/books?id=QekhAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA8).
Walter de Gruyter. p. 8. ISBN 978-3-11-088693-1.
9. Grattan-Guinness, Ivor (1980). From the Calculus to Set Theory 1630-1910: An Introductory
History (https://books.google.com/books?id=oej5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4). Princeton
University Press. pp. 4, 49–51. ISBN 978-0-691-07082-7.
10. Hall 1980, pp. 1, 15, 21.
11. Westfall, Richard S. (1981). "The Career of Isaac Newton: A Scientific Life in the
Seventeenth Century" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41210741). The American Scholar. 50
(3): 341–353. ISSN 0003-0937 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0003-0937).
JSTOR 41210741 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41210741).
12. Tyson, Peter (15 November 2005). "Newton's Legacy" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/articl
e/newton-legacy/). www.pbs.org. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
13. Carpi, Anthony; Egger, Anne E. (2011). The Process of Science (https://archive.org/details/p
rocessofscience0000carp/page/91) (Revised ed.). Visionlearning. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-1-
257-96132-0.
14. Iliffe & Smith 2016, pp. 1, 4, 12–16.
15. Snobelen, Stephen D. (24 February 2021), "Isaac Newton" (https://oxfordbibliographies.co
m/view/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0462.xml), Renaissance and
Reformation, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0462 (https://doi.or
g/10.1093%2Fobo%2F9780195399301-0462), ISBN 978-0-19-539930-1, retrieved
15 November 2024
16. More, Louis Trenchard (1934). Isaac Newton: A Biography (https://archive.org/details/isaacn
ewtonbiogr0000loui/page/327). Dover Publications. p. 327.
17. Musielak, Zdzislaw; Quarles, Billy (2017). Three Body Dynamics and Its Applications to
Exoplanets (https://books.google.com/books?id=D90tDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3). Springer
International Publishing. p. 3. Bibcode:2017tbdi.book.....M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/ab
s/2017tbdi.book.....M). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-58226-9 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-3
19-58226-9). ISBN 978-3-319-58225-2.
18. Duarte, F. J. (2000). "Newton, prisms, and the 'opticks' of tunable lasers" (http://www.tunable
lasers.com/F.J.DuarteOPN%282000%29.pdf) (PDF). Optics and Photonics News. 11 (5):
24–25. Bibcode:2000OptPN..11...24D (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000OptPN..11...2
4D). doi:10.1364/OPN.11.5.000024 (https://doi.org/10.1364%2FOPN.11.5.000024).
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150217223512/http://www.tunablelasers.com/F.J.D
uarteOPN%282000%29.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved
17 February 2015.
19. Cheng, K. C.; Fujii, T. (1998). "Isaac Newton and Heat Transfer" (http://www.tandfonline.co
m/doi/abs/10.1080/01457639808939932). Heat Transfer Engineering. 19 (4): 9–21.
doi:10.1080/01457639808939932 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F01457639808939932).
ISSN 0145-7632 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0145-7632).
20. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: Or, Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=dmNVAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA524). Vol. VIII. Adam and Charles
Black. 1855. p. 524.
21. Sanford, Fernando (1921). "Some Early Theories Regarding Electrical Forces – The Electric
Emanation Theory" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/6312). The Scientific Monthly. 12 (6): 544–
550. Bibcode:1921SciMo..12..544S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1921SciMo..12..544
S). ISSN 0096-3771 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0096-3771).
22. Rowlands, Peter (2017). Newton – Innovation And Controversy (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=u0NBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109). World Scientific Publishing. p. 109.
ISBN 9781786344045.
23. Iliffe & Smith 2016, pp. 382–394, 411.
24. Buchwald, Jed Z.; Feingold, Mordechai (2013). Newton and the Origin of Civilization.
Princeton University Press. pp. 90–93, 101–103. ISBN 978-0-691-15478-7.
25. Belenkiy, Ari (1 February 2013). "The Master of the Royal Mint: How Much Money did Isaac
Newton Save Britain?" (https://academic.oup.com/jrsssa/article/176/2/481/7077810).
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society. 176 (2): 481–498.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01037.x (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1467-985X.2012.0103
7.x). hdl:10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01037.x (https://hdl.handle.net/10.1111%2Fj.1467-985
X.2012.01037.x). ISSN 0964-1998 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0964-1998).
26. Marples, Alice (20 September 2022). "The science of money: Isaac Newton's mastering of
the Mint" (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0033). Notes and
Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science. 76 (3): 507–525.
doi:10.1098/rsnr.2021.0033 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsnr.2021.0033). ISSN 0035-9149
(https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0035-9149).
27. Hatch, Robert A. (1988). "Sir Isaac Newton" (http://users.clas.ufl.edu//ufhatch/pages/01-cour
ses/current-courses/08sr-newton.htm). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20221105011
958/http://users.clas.ufl.edu/ufhatch/pages/01-Courses/current-courses/08sr-newton.htm)
from the original on 5 November 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
28. Storr, Anthony (December 1985). "Isaac Newton" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC1419183). British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition). 291 (6511): 1779–84.
doi:10.1136/bmj.291.6511.1779 (https://doi.org/10.1136%2Fbmj.291.6511.1779).
JSTOR 29521701 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/29521701). PMC 1419183 (https://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1419183). PMID 3936583 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39
36583).
29. Keynes, Milo (20 September 2008). "Balancing Newton's Mind: His Singular Behaviour and
His Madness of 1692–93" (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsnr.2007.0025). Notes and Records
of the Royal Society of London. 62 (3): 289–300. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2007.0025 (https://doi.or
g/10.1098%2Frsnr.2007.0025). JSTOR 20462679 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20462679).
PMID 19244857 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19244857).
30. Westfall 1980, p. 55.
31. "Newton the Mathematician" Z. Bechler, ed., Contemporary Newtonian Research(Dordrecht
1982) pp. 110–111
32. Westfall 1994, pp. 16–19.
33. White 1997, p. 22.
34. Westfall 1980, pp. 60–62.
35. Westfall 1980, pp. 71, 103.
36. Taylor, Henry Martyn (1911). "Newton, Sir Isaac" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyc
lop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Newton,_Sir_Isaac). In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia
Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 583.
37. Connor, Elizabeth (1 January 1942). "Sir Isaac Newton, the Pioneer of Astrophysics" (http
s://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1942ASPL....4...55C/abstract). Leaflet of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific. 4: 55. ISSN 0004-6272 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0004-6272).
38. Newton, Isaac. "Waste Book" (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-04004). Cambridge
University Digital Library. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120108205159/http://cudl.
lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-04004/) from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved
10 January 2012.
39. More, Louis Trenchard (1934). Isaac Newton: A Biography (https://archive.org/details/b2997
7800/page/41). Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 41.
40. Mochari, Ilan (19 October 2015). "Here's How Isaac Newton Remembered Everything He
Read: The scientific genius had very specific habits when he pored over books in his
favorite library" (https://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/how-isaac-newton-remembered-everythin
g-he-read.html). Inc. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
41. "Newton, Isaac (NWTN661I)" (http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search-2018.pl?sur=&suro=
w&fir=&firo=c&cit=&cito=c&c=all&z=all&tex=NWTN661I&sye=&eye=&col=all&maxcount=5
0). A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
42. Westfall 1980, p. 178.
43. Westfall 1980, p. 179.
44. Westfall 1980, pp. 330–331.
45. White 1997, p. 151.
46. Ackroyd, Peter (2007). Isaac Newton (https://archive.org/details/isaacnewton0000ackr/page/
39). Brief Lives. London: Vintage Books. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-0-09-928738-4.
47. Warntz, William (1989). "Newton, the Newtonians, and the Geographia Generalis Varenii" (h
ttps://www.jstor.org/stable/2563251). Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
79 (2): 165–191. doi:10.2307/621272 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F621272). JSTOR 621272
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/621272). Retrieved 9 June 2024.
48. Baker, J. N. L. (1955). "The Geography of Bernhard Varenius". Transactions and Papers
(Institute of British Geographers). 21 (21): 51–60. doi:10.2307/621272 (https://doi.org/10.23
07%2F621272). JSTOR 621272 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/621272).
49. Schuchard, Margret (2008). "Notes On Geographia Generalis And Its Introduction To
England And North America". In Schuchard, Margret (ed.). Bernhard Varenius (1622–1650)
(https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789047432197/Bej.9789004163638.i-351_013.xml).
Brill. pp. 227–237. ISBN 978-90-04-16363-8. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
50. Mayhew, Robert J. (2011). "Geography's Genealogies". In Agnew, John A.; Livingstone,
David N. (eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Geographical Knowledge. SAGE Publications Inc.
ISBN 978-1-4129-1081-1.
51. Ball 1908, p. 319.
52. Newton, Isaac (1967). "The October 1666 tract on fluxions" (https://archive.org/details/Math
ematicsIsaacNewtonVol1_1664-66Whiteside1967/MathematicsIsaacNewtonVol1_1664-66
Whiteside1967_144x75/page/400/mode/1up). In Whiteside, Derek Thomas (ed.). The
Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton Volume 1 from 1664 to 1666. Cambridge University
Press. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-521-05817-9.
53. Gjertsen 1986, p. 149.
54. Newman, James Roy (1956). The World of Mathematics: A Small Library of the Literature of
Mathematics from Aʻh-mosé the Scribe to Albert Einstein (https://archive.org/details/world1of
mathemati00newm/page/58). Simon and Schuster. p. 58.
55. H. Jerome Keisler (2013). Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=8NTCAgAAQBAJ) (3rd ed.). Courier Corporation. p. 903. ISBN 978-0-
486-31046-6. Extract of page 903 (https://books.google.com/books?id=8NTCAgAAQBAJ&p
g=PA903)
56. Hall 1980, pp. 15, 21.
57. Hall 1980, p. 30.
58. Rowlands, Peter (2017). Newton – Innovation And Controversy (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=u0NBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48). World Scientific Publishing. pp. 48–49.
ISBN 9781786344045.
59. Newton, Principia, 1729 English translation, p. 41 (https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm0
FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA41) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20151003114205/https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=Tm0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA41) 3 October 2015 at the Wayback
Machine.
60. Newton, Principia, 1729 English translation, p. 54 (https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm0
FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA54) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160503022921/https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=Tm0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA54) 3 May 2016 at the Wayback
Machine.
61. Newton, Sir Isaac (1850). Newton's Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy (https://books.google.com/books?id=N-hHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA102). Geo. P.
Putnam. p. 102. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190626230020/https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=N-hHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA102) from the original on 26 June 2019.
Retrieved 9 March 2019.
62. Clifford Truesdell, Essays in the History of Mechanics (1968), p. 99.
63. In the preface to the Marquis de L'Hospital's Analyse des Infiniment Petits (Paris, 1696).
64. Starting with De motu corporum in gyrum, see also (Latin) Theorem 1 (https://books.google.
com/books?id=uvMGAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA2) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2016
0512135306/https://books.google.com/books?id=uvMGAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA2) 12 May
2016 at the Wayback Machine.
65. Whiteside, D.T., ed. (1970). "The Mathematical principles underlying Newton's Principia
Mathematica". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 1. Cambridge University Press.
pp. 116–138.
66. Stewart 2009, p. 107.
67. Westfall 1980, pp. 538–539.
68. Westfall 1994, p. 108.
69. Palomo, Miguel (2 January 2021). "New insight into the origins of the calculus war" (https://
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033790.2020.1794038). Annals of Science. 78 (1):
22–40. doi:10.1080/00033790.2020.1794038 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00033790.2020.1
794038). ISSN 0003-3790 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0003-3790). PMID 32684104 (ht
tps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32684104).
70. Iliffe & Smith 2016, p. 414.
71. Ball 1908, p. 356.
72. Roy, Ranjan (2021). Series and Products in the Development of Mathematics (https://books.
google.com/books?id=KyYhEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA190). Vol. I (2nd ed.). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. pp. 190–191. ISBN 978-1-108-70945-3.
73. Błaszczyk, P.; et al. (March 2013). "Ten misconceptions from the history of analysis and their
debunking". Foundations of Science. 18 (1): 43–74. arXiv:1202.4153 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1
202.4153). doi:10.1007/s10699-012-9285-8 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10699-012-9285-
8). S2CID 119134151 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:119134151).
74. King, Henry C. (1955). The History of the Telescope (https://books.google.com/books?id=K
AWwzHlDVksC&q=history+of+the+telescope). Courier Corporation. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-486-
43265-6. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20240226144328/https://books.google.com/
books?id=KAWwzHlDVksC&q=history+of+the+telescope#v=snippet&q=history%20of%20th
e%20telescope&f=false) from the original on 26 February 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
75. Whittaker, E.T., A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity, Dublin University Press,
1910.
76. Darrigol, Olivier (2012). A History of Optics from Greek Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century
(https://books.google.com/books?id=Ye_1AAAAQBAJ&pg=PAPA81). Oxford University
Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-19-964437-7.
77. Newton, Isaac. "Hydrostatics, Optics, Sound and Heat" (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-A
DD-03970/). Cambridge University Digital Library. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
20108215515/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-03970/) from the original on 8 January
2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
78. Ball 1908, p. 324.
79. William R. Newman, "Newton's Early Optical Theory and its Debt to Chymistry", in Danielle
Jacquart and Michel Hochmann, eds., Lumière et vision dans les sciences et dans les arts
(Geneva: Droz, 2010), pp. 283–307. A free access online version of this article can be found
at the Chymistry of Isaac Newton project (http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/html/Newt
on_optics-alchemy_Jacquart_paper.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2016052802
0600/http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/html/Newton_optics-alchemy_Jacquart_paper.
pdf) 28 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine (PDF)
80. Drum, Kevin (10 May 2013). "The Groundbreaking Isaac Newton Invention You've Never
Heard Of" (https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/05/groundbreaking-isaac-newton
-invention-youve-never-heard/). Mother Jones. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
81. Belenkiy, Ari; Echague, Eduardo Vila (2008). "Groping Toward Linear Regression Analysis:
Newton's Analysis of Hipparchus' Equinox Observations". arXiv:0810.4948 (https://arxiv.org/
abs/0810.4948) [physics.hist-ph (https://arxiv.org/archive/physics.hist-ph)].
82. Ball 1908, p. 325.
83. White 1997, p. 170
84. Hall, Alfred Rupert (1996). Isaac Newton: adventurer in thought (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=7R8LsvMcUioC). Cambridge University Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-521-56669-8.
OCLC 606137087 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/606137087). "This is the one dated 23
February 1669, in which Newton described his first reflecting telescope, constructed (it
seems) near the close of the previous year."
85. White 1997, p. 168.
86. Newton, Isaac. "Of Colours" (http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/
NATP00004). The Newton Project. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20141009051407/
http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00004) from the original
on 9 October 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
87. Inwood, Stephen (2003). The Forgotten Genius (https://archive.org/details/forgottengeniusb
00inwo/page/246). San Francisco: MacAdam/Cage Pub. pp. 246–247. ISBN 978-1-931561-
56-3. OCLC 53006741 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/53006741).
88. See 'Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol. 2, 1676–1687' ed. H.W. Turnbull, Cambridge
University Press 1960; at p. 297, document No. 235, letter from Hooke to Newton dated 24
November 1679.
89. Iliffe, Robert (2007) Newton. A very short introduction, Oxford University Press 2007
90. Bacciagaluppi, Guido; Valentini, Antony (2009). Quantum Theory at the Crossroads:
Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay Conference (https://books.google.com/books?id=EAPX3JfQ
AgIC&pg=PA31). Cambridge University Press. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-0-521-81421-8.
OCLC 227191829 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/227191829).
 91. Westfall, Richard S. (1983) [1980]. Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (https://archi
ve.org/details/neveratrestbiogr00west/page/530). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
pp. 530–31 (https://archive.org/details/neveratrestbiogr00west/page/530). ISBN 978-0-521-
27435-7.
92. Allison B. Kaufman; James C. Kaufman (2019). Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against
Science (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLT4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9) (illustrated ed.).
MIT Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-262-53704-9.
93. Márcia Lemos (2017). Exchanges between Literature and Science from the 1800s to the
2000s: Converging Realms (https://books.google.com/books?id=6xNUDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8
3) (reprinted ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4438-7605-6.
94. Dobbs, J. T. (December 1982). "Newton's Alchemy and His Theory of Matter". Isis. 73 (4):
523. doi:10.1086/353114 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F353114). S2CID 170669199 (https://a
pi.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:170669199). quoting Opticks
95. Bochner, Salomon (1981). Role of Mathematics in the Rise of Science (https://books.google.
com/books?id=naH_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA221). Princeton University Press. pp. 221, 347.
ISBN 978-0-691-08028-4.
96. Rowlands, Peter (2017). Newton – Innovation And Controversy (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=u0NBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA69). World Scientific Publishing. p. 69.
ISBN 9781786344045.
97. Opticks, 2nd Ed 1706. Query 8.
98. Sanford, Fernando (1921). "Some Early Theories Regarding Electrical Forces – The Electric
Emanation Theory" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/6312). The Scientific Monthly. 12 (6): 544–
550. Bibcode:1921SciMo..12..544S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1921SciMo..12..544
S). ISSN 0096-3771 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0096-3771).
99. Rowlands, Peter (2017). Newton – Innovation And Controversy (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=u0NBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109). World Scientific Publishing. p. 109.
ISBN 9781786344045.
100. Tyndall, John. (1880). Popular Science Monthly Volume 17, July. s:Popular Science
Monthly/Volume 17/July 1880/Goethe's Farbenlehre: Theory of Colors II
101. Struik, Dirk J. (1948). A Concise History of Mathematics (https://archive.org/details/concisehi
storyof02stru/page/154). Dover Publications. pp. 151, 154.
102. Westfall 1980, pp. 391–392.
103. Whiteside, D.T., ed. (1974). Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton, 1684–1691. 6.
Cambridge University Press. p. 30.
104. Schmitz, Kenneth S. (2018). Physical Chemistry: Multidisciplinary Applications in Society (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=4WGdBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
p. 251. ISBN 978-0-12-800599-6. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200310132426/h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=4WGdBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251) from the original on 10
March 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
105. Brewster, Sir David (22 March 1860). "Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir
Isaac Newton" (https://books.google.com/books?id=acBV7QHgMIAC&q=head+ache&pg=P
A3). Edmonston and Douglas. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230419215520/http
s://books.google.com/books?id=acBV7QHgMIAC&q=head+ache&pg=PA3) from the original
on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023 – via Google Books.
106. See Curtis Wilson, "The Newtonian achievement in astronomy", pp. 233–274 in R Taton & C
Wilson (eds) (1989) The General History of Astronomy, Volume, 2A', at p. 233 (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=rkQKU-wfPYMC&pg=PA233) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/
20151003121307/https://books.google.com/books?id=rkQKU-wfPYMC&pg=PA233) 3
October 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
107. Text quotations are from 1729 translation of Newton's Principia, Book 3 (1729 vol.2) at pp.
232–33 [233] (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_6EqxPav3vIsC/page/n257).
108. Edelglass et al., Matter and Mind, ISBN 0-940262-45-2. p. 54
109. On the meaning and origins of this expression, see Kirsten Walsh, Does Newton feign an
hypothesis? (https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/2010/10/does-newton-feign-an-hypothesis/)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140714120054/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/20
10/10/does-newton-feign-an-hypothesis/) 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Early
Modern Experimental Philosophy (https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/) Archived (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20110721051523/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/) 21 July 2011 at the
Wayback Machine, 18 October 2010.
110. Westfall 1980, Chapter 11.
111. Hatch, Professor Robert A. "Newton Timeline" (https://web.archive.org/web/2012080207102
6/http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/13-NDFE/newton/05-newton-timeline-m.htm).
Archived from the original (http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/13-NDFE/newton/05-
newton-timeline-m.htm) on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
112. Bloye, Nicole; Huggett, Stephen (2011). "Newton, the geometer" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20230308041757/http://stephenhuggett.com/Newton.pdf) (PDF). Newsletter of the
European Mathematical Society (82): 19–27. MR 2896438 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/math
scinet-getitem?mr=2896438). Archived from the original (https://stephenhuggett.com/Newto
n.pdf) (PDF) on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
113. Conics and Cubics, Robert Bix. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics, 2nd ed., 2006,
Springer Verlag.
114. "John Locke Manuscripts – Chronological Listing: 1690" (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/loc
ke/mss/c1690.html). psu.edu. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170709035722/http
s://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/locke/mss/c1690.html) from the original on 9 July 2017.
Retrieved 20 January 2013.; and John C. Attig, John Locke Bibliography — Chapter 5,
Religion, 1751–1900 (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/locke/bib/ch5c.html#01160) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20121112070820/http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/locke/bib/ch5
c.html#01160) 12 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
115. White 1997, p. 232.
116. Sawer, Patrick (6 September 2016). "What students should avoid during fresher's week
(100 years ago and now)" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/06/what-students-sho
uld-avoid-during-freshers-week-100-years-ago-an/). The Daily Telegraph. Archived (https://g
hostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/06/what-stude
nts-should-avoid-during-freshers-week-100-years-ago-an/) from the original on 10 January
2022. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
117. "Isaac Newton: Physicist And ... Crime Fighter?" (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p
hp?storyId=105012144). Science Friday. 5 June 2009. NPR. Archived (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20141101074330/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105012144)
from the original on 1 November 2014. Transcript (https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/tr
anscript.php?storyId=105012144). Retrieved 1 August 2014.
118. Levenson 2010.
119. White 1997, p. 259.
120. White 1997, p. 267.
121. Newton, Isaac. "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/vie
w/PR-ADV-B-00039-00001/). Cambridge University Digital Library. pp. 265–66. Archived (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20120108031556/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-ADV-B-00039-
00001/) from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
122. Westfall 2007, p. 73.
123. Aron, Jacob (29 May 2012). "Newton saved the UK economy £10 million" (https://www.news
cientist.com/article/dn21856-newton-saved-the-uk-economy-10-million/). New Scientist.
Retrieved 25 January 2025.
124. Wagner, Anthony (1972). Historic Heraldry of Britain (https://archive.org/details/historicheral
dry0000wagn/page/85) (2nd ed.). London and Chichester: Phillimore. p. 85 (https://archive.o
rg/details/historicheraldry0000wagn/page/85). ISBN 978-0-85033-022-9.; and Genealogical
Memoranda Relating to the Family of Newton (https://archive.org/details/genealogicalmemo
00inlond). London: Taylor and Co. 1871.
125. White 1997, p. 317.
126. "The Queen's 'great Assistance' to Newton's election was his knighting, an honor bestowed
not for his contributions to science, nor for his service at the Mint, but for the greater glory of
party politics in the election of 1705." Westfall 1994, p. 245
127. Barnham, Kay (2014). Isaac Newton (https://books.google.com/books?id=2f5LAgAAQBAJ).
Raintree. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-4109-6235-5.
128. On the Value of Gold and Silver in European Currencies and the Consequences on the
Worldwide Gold- and Silver-Trade (http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1701-25-mint-re
ports/report-1717-09-25.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170406191205/http://
www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1701-25-mint-reports/report-1717-09-25.html) 6 April
2017 at the Wayback Machine, Sir Isaac Newton, 21 September 1717; "By The King, A
Proclamation Declaring the Rates at which Gold shall be current in Payments" (https://archiv
e.org/details/numismaticser1v05royauoft). Royal Numismatic Society. V. April 1842 –
January 1843.
129. Fay, C. R. (1 January 1935). "Newton and the Gold Standard". Cambridge Historical
Journal. 5 (1): 109–17. doi:10.1017/S1474691300001256 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS147
4691300001256). JSTOR 3020836 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020836).
130. "Sir Isaac Newton's Unpublished Manuscripts Explain Connections He Made Between
Alchemy and Economics" (https://archive.today/20130217100410/http://gtresearchnews.gat
ech.edu/newsrelease/newton.htm). Georgia Tech Research News. 12 September 2006.
Archived from the original (http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/newton.htm) on
17 February 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
131. Eric W. Nye, Pounds Sterling to Dollars: Historical Conversion of Currency (https://www.uwy
o.edu/numimage/currency.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210815124946/http
s://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/Currency.htm) 15 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
Retrieved: 5 October 2020
132. Holodny, Elena (21 January 2016). "Isaac Newton was a genius, but even he lost millions in
the stock market" (https://www.businessinsider.com/isaac-newton-lost-a-fortune-on-england
s-hottest-stock-2016-1). Business Insider. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201603251
91327/http://www.businessinsider.com.au/isaac-newton-lost-a-fortune-on-englands-hottest-s
tock-2016-1) from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
133. Yonge, Charlotte M. (1898). "Cranbury and Brambridge" (http://www.online-literature.com/ch
arlotte-yonge/john-keble/6/). John Keble's Parishes – Chapter 6. online-literature.com.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20081208223436/http://www.online-literature.com/ch
arlotte-yonge/john-keble/6/) from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 23 September
2009.
134. Westfall 1980, p. 44.
135. Westfall 1980, p. 595.
136. "No. 6569" (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/6569/page/7). The London Gazette.
1 April 1727. p. 7.
137. Dobre and Nyden suggest that there is no clear evidence that Voltaire was present; see p.
89 of Dobre, Mihnea; Nyden, Tammy (2013). Cartesian Empiricism. Springer. ISBN 978-94-
007-7690-6.
138. "Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)" (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html).
Eric Weisstein's World of Biography. Eric W. Weisstein. Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20060428081045/http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html) from the
original on 28 April 2006. Retrieved 30 August 2006.
139. Mann, Adam (14 May 2014). "The Strange, Secret History of Isaac Newton's Papers" (http
s://www.wired.com/2014/05/newton-papers-q-and-a/). Wired. Archived (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20170911221912/https://www.wired.com/2014/05/newton-papers-q-and-a/) from the
original on 11 September 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
140. Vining, John (2 August 2011). "Newton's Death Mask" (https://huntington.org/verso/newtons
-death-mask). The Huntington. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230807122527/http
s://huntington.org/verso/newtons-death-mask) from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved
7 August 2023.
141. "Death mask of Isaac Newton" (https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-8492). Royal
Society Picture Library. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230807122526/https://pictu
res.royalsociety.org/image-rs-8492) from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August
2023.
142. "Newton's death mask scanned in 3D" (https://royalsociety.org/news/2012/newton-death-ma
sk-3D/). Royal Society. 1 October 2012. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2023060920
4741/https://royalsociety.org/news/2012/newton-death-mask-3D/) from the original on 9
June 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
143. Hutton, Charles (1795/6). A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary. vol. 2. p. 100.
144. Voltaire (1894). "14" (https://archive.org/stream/lettersonenglan00voltgoog#page/n102).
Letters on England. Cassell. p. 100.
145. Hutton, Charles (1815). A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary Containing ... Memoirs
of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Authors, Volume 2 (https://books.google.com/
books?id=_xk2AAAAQAAJ&pg=PAPA100). p. 100. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
240226144934/https://books.google.com/books?id=_xk2AAAAQAAJ&pg=PAPA100#v=onep
age&q&f=false) from the original on 26 February 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
146. Keynes, John Maynard. "Newton: the Man" (http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Key
nes_Newton.html). University of St Andrews School of Mathematics and Statistics. Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20190617095839/http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/K
eynes_Newton.html) from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
147. Sagan, Carl (1980). Cosmos (https://books.google.com/books?id=Cl06FjKX6doC&pg=PA8
0). New York: Random House. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-394-50294-6.
148. "Duillier, Nicholas Fatio de (1664–1753) mathematician and natural philosopher" (http://janu
s.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=CV%2FPers%2FDuillier%2C%20Nicholas%20Fatio%20d
e%20%281664-1753%29%20mathematician%20and%20natural%20philosopher). Janus
database. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130701114749/http://janus.lib.cam.ac.u
k/db/node.xsp?id=CV%2FPers%2FDuillier%2C%20Nicholas%20Fatio%20de%20%281664-
1753%29%20mathematician%20and%20natural%20philosopher) from the original on 1 July
2013. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
149. "Collection Guide: Fatio de Duillier, Nicolas [Letters to Isaac Newton]" (http://www.oac.cdlib.
org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UCLA::Clark%20%28William%20Andrews%29%20Memo
rial%20Library;idT=4859632). Online Archive of California. Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20130531055908/http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UCLA::Clar
k%20%28William%20Andrews%29%20Memorial%20Library;idT=4859632) from the original
on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
150. Westfall 1980, pp. 493–497 on the friendship with Fatio, pp. 531–540 on Newton's
breakdown.
151. Manuel 1968, p. 219.
152. Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) by Sir David
Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27)
153. Rowlands, Peter (2017). Newton And Modern Physics (https://books.google.com/books?id=
CRM0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50). World Scientific. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-1-78634-332-1.
154. Letter from Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1676, as transcribed in Maury, Jean-
Pierre (1992) [1990]. Newton: Understanding the Cosmos (https://books.google.com/books?
id=8N5tQgAACAAJ). "New Horizons" series. Translated by Paris, I. Mark. London: Thames
& Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-30023-7. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2020122117471
6/https://books.google.com/books?id=8N5tQgAACAAJ) from the original on 21 December
2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
155. John Gribbin (2002) Science: A History 1543–2001, p. 164.
156. White 1997, p. 187.
157. Richard S. Westfall – Indiana University The Galileo Project (http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/
NewFiles/newton.html). (Rice University). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/202009291
33323/http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/newton.html) from the original on 29
September 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2008.
158. 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 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0007087499003751).
JSTOR 4027945 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4027945). S2CID 145208136 (https://api.sem
anticscholar.org/CorpusID:145208136).
159. Katz 1992, p. 63.
160. Westfall 1980, p. 315.
161. Westfall 1980, p. 321.
162. Westfall 1980, pp. 331–34.
163. Westfall 1994, p. 124.
164. "Newton, object 1 (Butlin 306) "Newton" " (https://web.archive.org/web/20130927214741/htt
p://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copyinfo.xq?copyid=but306.1). William Blake
Archive. 25 September 2013. Archived from the original (http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/bl
ake/archive/copyinfo.xq?copyid=but306.1) on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 25 September
2013.
165. Newton, Isaac (1782). Isaaci Newtoni Opera quae exstant omnia (https://books.google.com/
books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&q=%22gravity%20may%20put%20the%20planets%20into%20
motion%22&pg=PA436). London: Joannes Nichols. pp. 436–37. Archived (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20210414055022/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&q=%22gr
avity%20may%20put%20the%20planets%20into%20motion%22&pg=PA436) from the
original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
166. Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (http://www.gut
enberg.org/ebooks/16878) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170120113904/http://w
ww.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16878) 20 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine 1733
167. John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, v. 1, pp. 382–402. after narrowing the years to 30 or 33,
provisionally judges 30 most likely.
168. Newton to Richard Bentley 10 December 1692, in Turnbull et al. (1959–77), vol 3, p. 233.
169. Opticks, 2nd Ed 1706. Query 31.
170. H.G. Alexander (ed) The Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, Manchester University Press,
1998, p. 11.
171. Tyson, Neil Degrasse (1 November 2005). "The Perimeter of Ignorance" (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20180906154623/http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2005/11/01/the-p
erimeter-of-ignorance). Natural History Magazine. Archived from the original (http://www.hay
denplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2005/11/01/the-perimeter-of-ignorance) on 6 September
2018. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
172. Dijksterhuis, E. J. The Mechanization of the World Picture, IV 329–330, Oxford University
Press, 1961. The author's final comment on this episode is:"The mechanization of the world
picture led with irresistible coherence to the conception of God as a sort of 'retired engineer',
and from here to God's complete elimination it took just one more step".
173. Brewster states that Newton was never known as an Arian during his lifetime, it was William
Whiston, an Arian, who first argued that "Sir Isaac Newton was so hearty for the Baptists, as
well as for the Eusebians or Arians, that he sometimes suspected these two were the two
witnesses in the Revelations," while others like Hopton Haynes (a Mint employee and
Humanitarian), "mentioned to Richard Baron, that Newton held the same doctrine as
himself". David Brewster. Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac
Newton. p. 268.
174. Keynes, John Maynard (1972). "Newton, The Man". The Collected Writings of John
Maynard Keynes Volume X. MacMillan St. Martin's Press. pp. 363–66.
175. Jacob, Margaret C. (1976). The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689–1720 (https://
archive.org/details/newtoniansenglis00jaco). Cornell University Press. pp. 37 (https://archiv
e.org/details/newtoniansenglis00jaco/page/37), 44. ISBN 978-0-85527-066-7.
176. Westfall, Richard S. (1958). Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England. New
Haven: Yale University Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-208-00843-5.
177. Haakonssen, Knud (1996). "The Enlightenment, politics and providence: some Scottish and
English comparisons". In Martin Fitzpatrick (ed.). Enlightenment and Religion: Rational
Dissent in Eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 64.
ISBN 978-0-521-56060-3.
178. "John Maynard Keynes: Newton, the Man" (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Ke
ynes_Newton/). Maths History. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190617095839/htt
p://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Keynes_Newton.html) from the original on 17 June
2019. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
179. Meyer, Michal (2014). "Gold, secrecy and prestige" (https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillatio
ns/magazine/gold-secrecy-and-prestige). Chemical Heritage Magazine. 32 (1): 42–43.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180320230826/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distil
lations/magazine/gold-secrecy-and-prestige) from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved
20 March 2018.
180. Kean, Sam (2011). "Newton, The Last Magician" (http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/janu
aryfebruary/feature/newton-the-last-magician). Humanities. 32 (1). Archived (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20160413235352/http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/januaryfebruary/featur
e/newton-the-last-magician) from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
181. Greshko, Michael (4 April 2016). "Isaac Newton's Lost Alchemy Recipe Rediscovered" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20160426031049/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160
404-isaac-newton-alchemy-mercury-recipe-chemistry-science/). National Geographic.
Archived from the original (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160404-isaac-newt
on-alchemy-mercury-recipe-chemistry-science/) on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
182. "The Chymistry of Isaac Newton" (https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/). Indiana
University, Bloomington. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160426013127/http://web
app1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/) from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
183. Newman, William R. (2018). Newton the Alchemist Science, Enigma, and the Quest for
Nature's "Secret Fire" (https://books.google.com/books?id=NT9hDwAAQBAJ). Princeton
University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17487-7.
184. Van Helmont, Iohannis Baptistae, Opuscula Medica Inaudita: IV. De Peste, Editor
Hieronymo Christian Paullo (Frankfurt am Main) Publisher Sumptibus Hieronimi Christiani
Pauli, typis Matthiæ Andreæ, 1707.
185. Flood, Alison (2 June 2020). "Isaac Newton proposed curing plague with toad vomit, unseen
papers show" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/02/isaac-newton-plague-cure-t
oad-vomit). The Guardian. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200606192933/https://w
ww.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/02/isaac-newton-plague-cure-toad-vomit) from the
original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
186. Andrade, Edward (2000). "Isaac Newton" (https://books.google.com/books?id=UQqLHyd8K
0IC&pg=PA275). In Newman, James R. (ed.). The World of Mathematics: Volume 1
(Reprint ed.). Dover Publications. p. 275. ISBN 9780486411538.
187. Fred L. Wilson, History of Science: Newton citing: Delambre, M. "Notice sur la vie et les
ouvrages de M. le comte J.L. Lagrange", Oeuvres de Lagrange I. Paris, 1867, p. xx.
188. Westminster Abbey. "Sir Isaac Newton Scientist, Mathematician and Astronomer" (https://w
ww.westminster-abbey.org/ko/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/sir-isaac-newton).
Westminster Abbey. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20220809191135/https://www.we
stminster-abbey.org/ko/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/sir-isaac-newton) from
the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
189. Simmons, John G. (1996). The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists,
Past and Present (https://archive.org/details/scientific100ran0000simm/page/3). Secaucus,
New Jersey: Citadel Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8065-1749-0.
190. Rowlands, Peter (2017). Newton and Modern Physics (https://books.google.com/books?id=
CRM0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20). World Scientific Publishing. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-78634-332-1.
191. "Isaac Newton" (https://www.newscientist.com/people/isaac-newton/). New Scientist.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230928162212/https://www.newscientist.com/peopl
e/isaac-newton/) from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
192. Schmidt, Claudia M. (2003). David Hume: Reason in History (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=ZSXlNY6xIMoC&pg=PA101). University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press.
pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-0-271-02264-2.
193. Hayes, Kevin J. (2012). The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=9eDQCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA370). Thomas Jefferson. Oxford
University Press. p. 370. ISBN 978-0-19-989583-0.
194. Turner, Jonathan H.; Beeghley, Leonard; Powers, Charles H. (1989). The Emergence of
Sociological Theory (https://archive.org/details/emergenceofsocio0000turn_f1q7/page/366)
(2nd ed.). Dorsey Press. p. 366. ISBN 978-0-256-06208-3.
195. Jeans, J. H. (26 March 1927). "Isaac Newton" (https://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/11
9028a0x). Nature. 119 (2995supp): 28–30. doi:10.1038/119028a0x (https://doi.org/10.103
8%2F119028a0x). ISSN 0028-0836 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0028-0836).
196. Morrow, Lance (31 December 1999). "17th Century: Isaac Newton (1642-1727)" (https://tim
e.com/archive/6737426/17th-century-isaac-newton-1642-1727/). Time. Retrieved
19 December 2024.
197. Rowlands, Peter (2017). Newton And Modern Physics (https://books.google.com/books?id=
CRM0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24). World Scientific. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-1-78634-332-1.
198. Boltzmann, Ludwig (1974). McGuinness, Brian (ed.). Theoretical Physics and Philosophical
Problems: Selected Writings (https://archive.org/details/theoretical-physics-and-philosophica
l-problems-selected-writings/page/157). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. ISBN 978-90-277-
0250-0.
199. Pask, Colin (2013). Magnificent Principia: Exploring Isaac Newton's Masterpiece (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=lRhnAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA11). Amherst, New York: Prometheus
Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-61614-746-4.
200. Rouse Ball, W. W. (1915). A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=kIxsAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA352) (6th ed.). Macmillan & Co. p. 352.
201. Andrade, Edward (2000). "Isaac Newton" (https://books.google.com/books?id=UQqLHyd8K
0IC&pg=PA255). In Newman, James R. (ed.). The World of Mathematics: Volume 1
(Reprint ed.). Dover Publications. pp. 255, 275. ISBN 9780486411538.
202. King, Edmund Fillingham (1858). A Biographical Sketch of Sir Isaac Newton (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=5O49AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA97) (2nd ed.). S. Ridge & Son. p. 97.
203. Schorling, Raleigh; Reeve, William David (1919). General Mathematics (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=qMZXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA418). Ginn & Company. p. 418.
204. Westfall 1994, p. 282.
205. Bell, Eric Temple (2000). "Gauss, the Prince of Mathematicians" (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=UQqLHyd8K0IC&pg=PA295). In Newman, James R. (ed.). The World of
Mathematics: Volume 1 (Reprint ed.). Dover Publications. pp. 294–295.
ISBN 9780486411538.
206. Iliffe & Smith 2016, p. 30.
207. Iliffe & Smith 2016, pp. 15–16.
208. Goldman, Jay R. (1998). The Queen of Mathematics: A Historically Motivated Guide to
Number Theory. A.K. Peters. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-56881-006-5.
209. Dunnington, Guy Waldo (2004). Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=MMH2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57). Spectrum series. Mathematical Association
of America. pp. 57, 232. ISBN 978-0-88385-547-8.
210. Gleeson-White, Jane (10 November 2003). "Einstein's Heroes" (https://www.smh.com.au/en
tertainment/books/einsteins-heroes-20031110-gdhr3v.html). The Sydney Morning Herald.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20191128115406/https://www.smh.com.au/entertain
ment/books/einsteins-heroes-20031110-gdhr3v.html) from the original on 28 November
2019. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
211. Capra, Fritjof (1975). The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern
Physics and Eastern Mysticism. Berkeley: Shambhala. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-87773-078-1.
212. Pask, Colin (2013). Magnificent Principia: Exploring Isaac Newton's Masterpiece (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=lRhnAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA11). Amherst, New York: Prometheus
Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-61614-746-4.
213. "Opinion poll. Einstein voted 'greatest physicist ever' by leading physicists; Newton runner-
up" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/541840.stm). BBC News. 29 November 1999.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170812011359/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5
41840.stm) from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
214. "Newton tops PhysicsWeb poll" (https://physicsworld.com/a/newton-tops-physicsweb-poll/).
Physics World. 29 November 1999. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
215. "Newton beats Einstein in polls of scientists and the public" (https://royalsociety.org/news/20
12/newton-einstein/). Royal Society. 23 November 2005. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
216. "Newton beats Einstein in new poll" (https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2005/11/24/151
5693.htm). www.abc.net.au. 24 November 2005. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
217. "Newton voted greatest Briton" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3151333.stm).
BBC News. 13 August 2003. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
218. "Newton voted Greatest Cantabrigian" (https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/1609). Varsity. 20
November 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
219. Mitra, Asoke (1 November 2006). "New Einsteins need positive environment, independent
spirit" (https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/59/11/12/395831/New-Einsteins-need-positiv
e-environment). Physics Today. 59 (11): 12. Bibcode:2006PhT....59k..12M (https://ui.adsab
s.harvard.edu/abs/2006PhT....59k..12M). doi:10.1063/1.4797321 (https://doi.org/10.1063%2
F1.4797321). ISSN 0031-9228 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0031-9228).
220. Goldberg, Elkhonon (2018). Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=Rr9EDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166). New York, NY: Oxford University
Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-19-046649-7.
221. White 1997, p. 86.
222. Numbers 2015, pp. 48–56.
223. Malament, David B. (2002). Reading Natural Philosophy: Essays in the History and
Philosophy of Science and Mathematics (https://books.google.com/books?id=TqcMQy-Ioc4
C&q=catherine+barton+apple&pg=PA118). Open Court Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8126-9507-
6. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210414055334/https://books.google.com/books?
id=TqcMQy-Ioc4C&q=catherine+barton+apple&pg=PA118) from the original on 14 April
2021. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
224. Voltaire (1727). An Essay upon the Civil Wars of France, extracted from curious Manuscripts
and also upon the Epick Poetry of the European Nations, from Homer down to Milton (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=0o5bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA104). London, England: Samuel
Jallasson. p. 104. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210614182518/https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=0o5bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA104) from the original on 14 June 2021.
Retrieved 14 June 2021. From p. 104: 'In the like Manner Pythagoras ow'd the Invention of
Musik to the noise of the Hammer of a Blacksmith. And thus in our Days Sir Isaak Newton
walking in his Garden had the first Thought of his System of Gravitation, upon seeing an
apple falling from a Tree.'
225. Voltaire (1786) heard the story of Newton and the apple tree from Newton's niece, Catherine
Conduit (née Barton) (1679–1740): Voltaire (1786). Oeuvres completes de Voltaire (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=NKWTGHiZSm4C&pg=PA175) [The complete works of Voltaire]
(in French). Vol. 31. Basel, Switzerland: Jean-Jacques Tourneisen. p. 175. Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20210709192112/https://books.google.com/books?id=NKWTGHiZSm4
C&pg=PA175) from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2021. From p. 175: "Un
jour en l'année 1666, Newton retiré à la campagne, et voyant tomber des fruits d'un arbre, à
ce que m'a conté sa nièce, (Mme Conduit) se laissa aller à une méditation profonde sur la
cause qui entraine ainsi tous les corps dans une ligne, qui, si elle était prolongée, passerait
à peu près par le centre de la terre." (One day in the year 1666 Newton withdrew to the
country, and seeing the fruits of a tree fall, according to what his niece (Madame Conduit)
told me, he entered into a deep meditation on the cause that draws all bodies in a [straight]
line, which, if it were extended, would pass very near to the center of the Earth.)
226. Berkun, Scott (2010). The Myths of Innovation (https://books.google.com/books?id=kPCgnc
70MSgC&pg=PAPA4). O'Reilly Media, Inc. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4493-8962-8. Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20200317084422/https://books.google.com/books?id=kPCgnc70MSg
C&pg=PAPA4) from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
227. "Newton's apple: The real story" (https://archive.today/20100121073908/http://www.newscie
ntist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/newtons-apple-the-real-story.php). New Scientist. 18
January 2010. Archived from the original (https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/201
0/01/newtons-apple-the-real-story.php) on 21 January 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
228. "Revised Memoir of Newton (Normalized Version)" (http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/
texts/normalized/OTHE00001). The Newton Project. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0170314064817/http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00001)
from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
229. Conduitt, John. "Keynes Ms. 130.4:Conduitt's account of Newton's life at Cambridge" (http://
www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00167). Newtonproject.
Imperial College London. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20091107101632/http://ww
w.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00167) from the original on 7
November 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2006.
230. I. Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Newton (2002)
p. 6
231. Alberto A. Martinez Science Secrets: The Truth about Darwin's Finches, Einstein's Wife, and
Other Myths, p. 69 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011); ISBN 978-0-8229-4407-2
232. "Brogdale – Home of the National Fruit Collection" (https://web.archive.org/web/2008120103
5839/http://www.brogdale.org/). Brogdale.org. Archived from the original (http://www.brogdal
e.org) on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
233. "From the National Fruit Collection: Isaac Newton's Tree" (http://www.brogdale.org.uk/image
1.php?varietyid=1089). Retrieved 10 January 2009. Alternate Page (http://www.nationalfruitc
ollection.org.uk/full2.php?varid=2946&&acc=1948729) Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20220705225956/http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?varid=2946&&acc=19
48729) 5 July 2022 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 5 July 2022.
234. 'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p13: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966
235. "Famous People & the Abbey: Sir Isaac Newton" (http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-hist
ory/people/sir-isaac-newton). Westminster Abbey. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200
91016081238/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/sir-isaac-newton) from
the original on 16 October 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2009.
236. "Withdrawn banknotes reference guide" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100505053927/htt
p://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/denom_guide/nonflash/1-SeriesD-Revised.htm).
Bank of England. Archived from the original (http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/den
om_guide/nonflash/1-SeriesD-Revised.htm) on 5 May 2010. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
237. Historic England. "Woolsthorpe Manor House, Colsterworth (1062362)" (https://HistoricEngl
and.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062362?section=official-list-entry). National Heritage List
for England. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
238. Cassels, Alan. Ideology and International Relations in the Modern World. p. 2.
239. "Although it was just one of the many factors in the Enlightenment, the success of
Newtonian physics in providing a mathematical description of an ordered world clearly
played a big part in the flowering of this movement in the eighteenth century" by John
Gribbin, Science: A History 1543–2001 (2002), p. 241 ISBN 978-0-7139-9503-9
240. Anders Hald 2003 – A history of probability and statistics and their applications before 1750
– 586 pages Volume 501 of Wiley series in probability and statistics Wiley-IEEE, 2003 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=pOQy6-qnVx8C&q=de%20analysi%20per%20aequatione
s%20numero%20terminorum%20infinitas&pg=PA563) Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20220602024647/https://books.google.com/books?id=pOQy6-qnVx8C&pg=PA563&q=d
e%20analysi%20per%20aequationes%20numero%20terminorum%20infinitas) 2 June 2022
at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 27 January 2012 ISBN 0-471-47129-1
241. "Natures obvious laws & processes in vegetation – Introduction" (http://webapp1.dlib.indian
a.edu/newton/mss/intro/ALCH00081/query/field1=text&text1=Of%20Natures%20obvious%2
0laws%20&%20processes%20in%20vegetation). The Chymistry of Isaac Newton. Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20210117172142/http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/mss/i
ntro/ALCH00081/query/) from the original on 17 January 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
Transcribed and online at Indiana University.
242. Whiteside, D.T., ed. (1974). Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton, 1684–1691. 6.
Cambridge University Press. pp. 30–91. (https://books.google.com/books?id=lIZ0v23iqRgC
&pg=PA30) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160610163025/https://books.google.co
m/books?id=lIZ0v23iqRgC&pg=PA30) 10 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine
243. "Museum of London exhibit including facsimile of title page from John Flamsteed's copy of
1687 edition of Newton's Principia" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120331192529/http://ww
w.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/pepys/pages/largeImage.asp?id=101&size=3&n
av=none). Museumoflondon.org.uk. Archived from the original (http://www.museumoflondon.
org.uk/archive/exhibits/pepys/pages/largeImage.asp?id=101&size=3&nav=none) on 31
March 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
244. Published anonymously as "Scala graduum Caloris. Calorum Descriptiones & signa." in
Philosophical Transactions, 1701, 824 (https://books.google.com/books?id=x8NeAAAAcAAJ
&pg=PA824) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200121085937/https://books.google.c
om/books?id=x8NeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA824) 21 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine–829;
ed. Joannes Nichols, Isaaci Newtoni Opera quae exstant omnia, vol. 4 (1782), 403 (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&pg=PA403) Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20160617115723/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&pg=PA403) 17
June 2016 at the Wayback Machine–407. Mark P. Silverman, A Universe of Atoms, An Atom
in the Universe, Springer, 2002, p. 49. (https://books.google.com/books?id=-Er5pIsYe_AC&
pg=PA49) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160624011536/https://books.google.co
m/books?id=-Er5pIsYe_AC&pg=PA49) 24 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine
245. Newton, Isaac (1704). Opticks or, a Treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and
colours of light. Also two treatises of the species and magnitude of curvilinear figures (http://
gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3362k). Sam. Smith. and Benj. Walford. Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20210224021530/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3362k) from the
original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
246. Pickover, Clifford (2008). Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds
Behind Them (https://books.google.com/books?id=SQXcpvjcJBUC&pg=PAPA117). Oxford
University Press. pp. 117–18. ISBN 978-0-19-979268-9. Archived (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20240226145626/https://books.google.com/books?id=SQXcpvjcJBUC&pg=PAPA117#v=
onepage&q&f=false) from the original on 26 February 2024. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
247. Swetz, Frank J. "Mathematical Treasure: Newton's Method of Fluxions" (https://www.maa.or
g/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-newtons-method-of-fluxions).
Convergence. Mathematical Association of America. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0170628213844/http://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-
newtons-method-of-fluxions) from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2018.

Bibliography
Ball, W. W. Rouse (1908). A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (https://archive.or
g/details/shortaccountofhi0000ball). New York: Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-20630-1.
Gjertsen, Derek (1986). The Newton Handbook. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-
7102-0279-2.
Hall, Alfred Rupert (1980). Philosophers at War: The Quarrel Between Newton and Leibniz
(https://archive.org/details/a.-rupert-hall-philosophers-at-war-the-quarrel-between-newton-an
d-leibniz). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22732-2.
Iliffe, Rob; Smith, George E., eds. (2016). The Cambridge Companion to Newton (2nd ed.).
Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cco9781139058568 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2Fc
co9781139058568). ISBN 978-1-139-05856-8.
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. ISBN 0-7146-3464-
6.
Levenson, Thomas (2010). Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career
of the World's Greatest Scientist. Mariner Books. ISBN 978-0-547-33604-6.
Manuel, Frank E. (1968). A Portrait of Isaac Newton (https://archive.org/details/portraitofisaa
cn00manu). Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Numbers, R. L. (2015). Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=pWouCwAAQBAJ). Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-91547-3.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20230708151321/https://books.google.com/books?id
=pWouCwAAQBAJ) from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
Stewart, James (2009). Calculus: Concepts and Contexts. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-
495-55742-5.
 Westfall, Richard S. (1980). Never at Rest (https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3
A%28westfall%29%20newton). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27435-7.
Westfall, Richard S. (2007). Isaac Newton. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-
921355-9.
Westfall, Richard S. (1994). The Life of Isaac Newton (https://archive.org/search.php?query
=creator%3A%28westfall%29%20newton). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-
47737-6.
White, Michael (1997). Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer. Fourth Estate Limited. ISBN 978-
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 (https://archive.org/details/opticksor
atreat00newtgoog)
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. ISBN 978-0-521-07740-8. – 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 Writings edited 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.
ASIN B0000CIHG7 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CIHG7).
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 (https://archive.org/details/essaysinbiog
raph0000keyn). W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-00189-1. 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 Genealogist 79 (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 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fjhi.1997.0001).
JSTOR 3653988 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3653988). S2CID 170545277 (https://api.sem
anticscholar.org/CorpusID:170545277).
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
(https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0007087401004484). JSTOR 4028372 (https://www.jstor.org/s
table/4028372). S2CID 143045863 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143045863).
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 (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001Osir...16..169S).
doi:10.1086/649344 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F649344). JSTOR 301985 (https://www.jstor.
org/stable/301985). S2CID 170364912 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:17036491
2).
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 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0007087499003751).
JSTOR 4027945 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4027945). S2CID 145208136 (https://api.sem
anticscholar.org/CorpusID:145208136).

Science
Bechler, Zev (2013). Contemporary Newtonian Research (Studies in the History of Modern
Science)(Volume 9). Springer. ISBN 978-94-009-7717-4.
Berlinski, David. Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World.
(2000); ISBN 0-684-84392-7
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan (1995). Newton's Principia for the Common Reader.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-851744-3.
 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" (https://web.archive.org/web/20081008010311/http://ww
w.questia.com/read/105054986). Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved
13 October 2008.
Christianson, Gale (1984). In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton & His Times (http
s://archive.org/details/inpresenceofcr00chri). New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-905190-
0. This well documented work provides, in particular, valuable information regarding
Newton's knowledge of Patristics
Cohen, I. B. (1980). The Newtonian Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-22964-7.
Craig, John (1958). "Isaac Newton – Crime Investigator". Nature. 182 (4629): 149–52.
Bibcode:1958Natur.182..149C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1958Natur.182..149C).
doi:10.1038/182149a0 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F182149a0). S2CID 4200994 (https://api.s
emanticscholar.org/CorpusID:4200994).
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 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Fr
snr.1963.0017). S2CID 143981415 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143981415).
Gleick, James (2003). Isaac Newton. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-42233-1.
Halley, E. (1687). "Review of Newton's Principia". Philosophical Transactions. 186: 291–97.
Hawking, Stephen, ed. On the Shoulders of Giants. ISBN 0-7624-1348-4 Places selections
from Newton's Principia in 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 (https://archive.org/details/backgroundtonewt0
000heri). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Newton, Isaac. Papers and Letters in Natural Philosophy, edited by I. Bernard Cohen.
Harvard University Press, 1958, 1978; ISBN 0-674-46853-8.
Pemberton, H. (1728). "A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy". The Physics Teacher. 4
(1): 8–9. Bibcode:1966PhTea...4....8M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1966PhTea...4....8
M). doi:10.1119/1.2350900 (https://doi.org/10.1119%2F1.2350900).
Shamos, Morris H. (1959). Great Experiments in Physics (https://archive.org/details/greatex
periments0000unse). New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-486-25346-6.

External links
Enlightening Science digital project (http://www.enlighteningscience.sussex.ac.uk/home)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20161202133956/http://www.enlighteningscience.sus
sex.ac.uk/home) 2 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine: Texts of his papers,
"Popularisations" and podcasts at the Newton Project
"Archival material relating to Isaac Newton" (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/detail
s/c/F257055). UK National Archives.
Portraits of Sir Isaac Newton (https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID
=mp03286) at the National Portrait Gallery, London
Writings by Newton

Newton's works – full texts, at the Newton Project (http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/pr

ism.php?id=43) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20121008062012/http://www.newtonp
roject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=43) 8 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
 Newton's papers in the Royal Society's archives (https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/s/rs/
people/fst01801333) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180928003316/https://making
science.royalsociety.org/s/rs/people/fst01801333) 28 September 2018 at the Wayback
Machine
The Newton Manuscripts at the National Library of Israel – the collection of all his religious
writings (http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/Humanities/Pages/newton.aspx)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20141230155741/http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/english/
collections/humanities/pages/newton.aspx) 30 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
Works by Isaac Newton (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6288) at Project
Gutenberg
Works by or about Isaac Newton (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3
A%22Newton%2C%20Isaac%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Isaac%20Newton%22%20O
R%20creator%3A%22Newton%2C%20Isaac%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Isaac%20Ne
wton%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Newton%2C%20I%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Is
aac%20Newton%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Newton%2C%20Isaac%22%20OR%2
0description%3A%22Isaac%20Newton%22%29%20OR%20%28%221642-1727%22%20A
ND%20Newton%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the Internet Archive
Works by Isaac Newton (https://librivox.org/author/2836) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
"Newton Papers" (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/newton) Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20120111150235/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/newton) 11 January 2012 at
the Wayback Machine – Cambridge Digital Library

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isaac_Newton&oldid=1273429186"