Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was an English mathematician, physicist and astronomer whose work laid the foundations of classical mechanics. When plague closed the University of Cambridge in 1665–1666, he returned to his family farm at Woolsthorpe, and in that quiet period developed early forms of calculus, began his experiments on light and formed his first ideas on gravitation. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) set out the three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, uniting the motion of falling bodies on Earth with the orbits of the planets. In Opticks (1704) he showed that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors, and he built the first practical reflecting telescope. He later served as Master of the Royal Mint and President of the Royal Society, and was knighted in 1705. A devout believer, he also wrote extensively on theology and the study of Scripture.