Biography of Isaac Newton

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Isaac Newton was a key figure in the development of the age of reason. His achievements revolutionized physics and mathematics and he has been recognized as an undisputed genius (Gardner 13). Newton was a intriguing individual who played an important role in the advancement of the scientific community of his time and of today.

Newton was born on Christmas day in 1642 to a widowed farming mother. When he was three his mother left him in the care of his grandmother, so she could remarry (Westfall 1). After being widowed for a second time she came back to help care for her son. At the age of twelve he was sent to The King’s School in Grantham to continue his education. Here he began to develop a growing love for books and an interest in handcrafting objects and drawing (DA C. Andrade 27-30). After graduating from the King’s School, Newton went to the University of Cambridge to study at Trinity College. It was here that a professor named Isaac Barrow sparked his interests in mathematics and natural philosophy (science). When he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1665, Newton was forced to leave the university due to the plague rapidly spreading through Europe. He later returned in 1667 to pursue his master’s degree under a fellowship offered to him by the university. Afterreceiving his master’s degree in 1668, he became a Lucasian Professor, as was his peer Isaac Barrow, and resided at Cambridge until 1696 (White 222).

It was during this two-year break from the university that Newton first showed signs of his extreme genius. Spending most of his time in deep thought and meditation, he developed the beginnings, if not in total, the discoveries he would be accredited for the rest of his life and beyond. It was here that N...

... middle of paper ...

...sts, ...He was the last of the magicians, ...the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago." (Gardner 16).

Works Cited

- Da C. Andrade, E. N. Sir Isaac Newton: His Life and Work.

New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1976.

- Gardner, Martin. "Isaac Newton: Alchemist and Fundamentalist." Skeptical Inquirer

September/October 1996: 13-16.

- Weisstein, Eric W. "Isaac Newton" Scholarly Internet Biography. Online. LEXIS-NEXIS.

(10 February 1999).

- Westfall, Richard S. "Newton’s Life" 1994. Online. CompuServe. Available

http://www.newton.cam.ac.ut/newtlife.html. (10 February 1999).

- White, Michael. Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer. Great Britain: Fourth Estate

Limited, 1997.

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