View source for Biography:Isaac Newton

{{Short description|English mathematician and physicist (1642–1727)}}
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{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = Sir
| name              = Isaac Newton
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}}
| image             = Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, 1689 (brightened).jpg
| alt               = 
| caption           = Portrait of Newton at 46, 1689
| birth_date        = {{OldStyleDateNY|{{Birth date|df=y|1643|01|04}}|25 December 1642}}{{efn|name=OSNS}}
| birth_place       = {{nowrap|Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth,}} Lincolnshire, England
| death_date        = {{OldStyleDateNY|{{Death date and age|df=y|1727|03|31|1643|01|04}}|20 March 1726}}{{efn|name=OSNS}}
| death_place       = Kensington, Middlesex, Great Britain
| resting_place     = Westminster Abbey
| fields            = {{hlist| [[Physics:Physics|Physics]]| [[Philosophy:Natural philosophy|natural philosophy]]| [[Philosophy:Alchemy|alchemy]]| theology| mathematics| [[Astronomy:Astronomy|astronomy]]| economics}}
| workplaces        = {{unbulleted list| [[Organization:University of Cambridge|University of Cambridge]]| Royal Society| Royal Mint}}
| education         = Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1665; M.A., 1668)<ref>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.</ref>
| academic_advisors = {{unbulleted list | Isaac Barrow<ref>Feingold, Mordechai. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1541 Barrow, Isaac (1630–1677)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130129154554/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1541 |date=29 January 2013 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', [[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]], September 2004; online edn, May 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2009; explained further in {{Cite journal |last=Feingold |first=Mordechai |date=1993 |title=Newton, Leibniz, and Barrow Too: An Attempt at a Reinterpretation |journal=Isis |volume=84 |issue=2 |pages=310–338 |bibcode=1993Isis...84..310F |doi=10.1086/356464 |jstor=236236 |s2cid=144019197}}</ref> | Benjamin Pulleyn<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography |url=http://www.chlt.org/sandbox/lhl/dsb/page.50.a.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050225223812/http://www.chlt.org/sandbox/lhl/dsb/page.50.a.php |archive-date=25 February 2005 |at=Notes, No. 4}}</ref><ref name="The Newton Handbook">{{harvnb|Gjertsen|1986|page={{page needed|date=August 2014}}}}</ref>}}
| notable_students  = {{unbulleted list| [[Biography:Roger Cotes|Roger Cotes]]| [[Biography:William Whiston|William Whiston]]}}
| awards            = {{unbulleted list | FRS&nbsp;(1672)<ref name="frs">{{Cite web |title=Fellows of the Royal Society |url=https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316060617/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows |archive-date=16 March 2015 |publisher=Royal Society |location=London}}</ref> | Knight Bachelor&nbsp;(1705)}}
| known_for         = {{collapsible list|[[Physics:Classical mechanics|Newtonian mechanics]]| universal gravitation| [[Calculus|calculus]]| [[Physics:Newton's laws of motion|Newton's laws of motion]]| [[Physics:Optics|optics]]| [[Binomial series|binomial series]]| ''[[Physics:Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]''| [[Newton's method]] | [[Physics:Newton's law of cooling|Newton's law of cooling]]| [[Newton's identities]]| [[Chemistry:Newton's metal|Newton's metal]]| [[Newton line]]| [[Newton–Gauss line]]| [[Physics:Newtonian fluid|Newtonian fluid]]| [[Physics:Newton's rings|Newton's rings]]|''Standing on the shoulders of giants'' |List of all other works and concepts|}}
| signature         = [[File:Isaac Newton signature ws.svg|200px]]
| signature_alt     = Signature written in ink in a flowing script
| module            = {{Infobox officeholder| embed = yes
| office            = Member of Parliament<br />for the University of Cambridge
| term_start        = 1689
| term_end          = 1690
| party             = Whig
| predecessor       = Robert Brady
| successor         = Edward Finch
| term_start1       = 1701
| term_end1         = 1702
| predecessor1      = Anthony Hammond
| successor1        = Arthur Annesley, 5th Earl of Anglesey
| office2           = President of the Royal Society
| order2            = 12th
| term_start2       = 1703
| term_end2         = 1727
| predecessor2      = John Somers
| successor2        = Hans Sloane
| office3           = Master of the Mint
| term_start3       = 1699
| term_end3         = 1727
| predecessor3      = Thomas Neale
| successor3        = John Conduitt
| suboffice3        = Warden of the Mint
| subterm3          = 1696–1699
| office4           = Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
| order4            = 2nd
| term_start4       = 1669
| term_end4         = 1702
| predecessor4      = Isaac Barrow
| successor4        = [[Biography:William Whiston|William Whiston]]
}}
}}

'''Sir Isaac Newton''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}} (25 December 1642&nbsp;– 20 March 1726/27<!-- This is the generally accepted manner of recording Newton's death date. Please do not change without discussion. -->{{efn|name=OSNS|During Newton's lifetime, two calendars were in use in Europe: the Julian ("[[Old Style and New Style dates|Old Style]]") calendar in Protestant and [[Religion:Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] regions, including Britain; and the Gregorian ("[[Old Style and New Style dates|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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thony |first=Christie |year=2015 |title=Calendrical confusion or just when did Newton die? |url=https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/calendrical-confusion-or-just-when-did-newton-die/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402203630/https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/calendrical-confusion-or-just-when-did-newton-die/ |archive-date=2 April 2015 |access-date=20 March 2015 |publisher=The Renaissance Mathematicus}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=January 2023}}}}) was an English [[History:Polymath|polymath]] active as a [[Biography:Mathematician|mathematician]], [[Physicist|physicist]], [[Astronomy:Astronomer|astronomer]], alchemist, theologian, and author who was described in his time as a [[Philosophy:Natural philosophy|natural philosopher]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Alex |first=Berezow |date=4 February 2022 |title=Who was the smartest person in the world? |url=https://bigthink.com/the-past/smartest-person-world-isaac-newton/ |access-date=28 September 2023 |website=Big Think}}</ref> He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the [[Philosophy:Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] that followed. His pioneering book {{lang|la|[[Physics:Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]}} (''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy''), first published in 1687, consolidated many previous results and established [[Physics:Classical mechanics|classical mechanics]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Whiteside |first=D.&nbsp;T. |date=1991 |title=The Prehistory of the 'Principia' from 1664 to 1686 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/531520 |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=11–61 |doi=10.1098/rsnr.1991.0002 |issn=0035-9149 |jstor=531520 |s2cid=145338571}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gandt |first=F.&nbsp;D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kkoABAAAQBAJ |title=Force and Geometry in Newton's Principia |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4008-6412-6 |pages=ix–xii}}</ref> Newton also made seminal contributions to [[Physics:Optics|optics]], and [[History:Multiple discovery|shares credit]] with German mathematician [[Biography:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] for developing [[Calculus|infinitesimal calculus]], though he developed calculus years before Leibniz.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> He is considered one of the greatest and most influential scientists in history.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/100mostinfluenti0000simm |title=The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present |publisher=Carol Publishing Group |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8065-1749-0 |location=Secaucus, New Jersey}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tyson |first=Peter |date=15 November 2005 |title=Newton's Legacy |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/newton-legacy/ |access-date=28 September 2023 |publisher=PBS |website=NOVA }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=23 November 2005 |title=Newton beats Einstein in polls of scientists and the public |url=https://royalsociety.org/news/2012/newton-einstein/ |access-date=28 September 2023 |website=Royal Society}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Isaac Newton |url=https://www.newscientist.com/people/isaac-newton/ |access-date=28 September 2023 |website=New Scientist}}</ref>

In the {{lang|la|Principia}}, Newton formulated the [[Physics:Newton's laws of motion|laws of motion]] and [[Physics:Newton's law of universal gravitation|universal gravitation]] that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was superseded by the [[Physics:Theory of relativity|theory of relativity]]. Newton used his mathematical description of [[Physics:Gravity|gravity]] to derive [[Kepler's laws of planetary motion]], account for [[Astronomy:Tide|tide]]s, the [[Physics:Trajectory|trajectories]] of [[Astronomy:Comet|comet]]s, the [[Astronomy:Axial precession|precession of the equinoxes]] and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the [[Astronomy:Solar System|Solar System]]'s [[Astronomy:Heliocentrism|heliocentricity]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=More |first=Louis Trenchard |url=https://archive.org/details/isaacnewtonbiogr0000loui/mode/1up |title=Isaac Newton, a Biography |publisher=Dover Publications |year=1934 |pages=327 |language=en}}</ref> He demonstrated that the [[Physics:Dynamics (mechanics)|motion of objects]] on Earth and [[Astronomy:Astronomical object|celestial bodies]] could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton's inference that the Earth is an [[Spheroid#Oblate spheroids|oblate spheroid]] was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements of [[Biography:Pierre Louis Maupertuis|Maupertuis]], La Condamine, and others, convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.

Newton built the [[Astronomy:Newtonian telescope|first practical reflecting telescope]] and developed a sophisticated [[Color theory|theory of colour]] based on the observation that a [[Dispersive prism|prism]] separates [[Physics:Electromagnetic spectrum#Visible radiation (light)|white light]] into the colours of the [[Physics:Visible spectrum|visible spectrum]]. His work on light was collected in his highly influential book ''[[Physics:Opticks|Opticks]]'', published in 1704. He also formulated an [[Physics:Newton's law of cooling|empirical law of cooling]], made the first theoretical calculation of the [[Physics:Speed of sound|speed of sound]], and introduced the notion of a [[Physics:Newtonian fluid|Newtonian fluid]]. In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the [[Binomial theorem|binomial theorem]] to non-integer exponents, developed [[Newton's method|a method]] for approximating the [[Zero of a function|roots of a function]], and classified most of the [[Cubic plane curve|cubic plane curve]]s.

Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the [[Organization:University of Cambridge|University of Cambridge]]. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian who privately rejected the doctrine of the [[Religion:Trinity|Trinity]]. He refused to take [[Religion:Holy orders|holy orders]] in the Church of England, unlike most members of the Cambridge faculty of the day. Beyond his work on the [[Mathematical sciences|mathematical sciences]], Newton dedicated much of his time to the study of [[Philosophy:Alchemy|alchemy]] and [[Religion:Chronology of the Bible|biblical chronology]], but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. Politically and personally tied to the Whig party, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–1690 and 1701–1702. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden (1696–1699) and Master (1699–1727) of the Royal Mint, as well as president of the Royal Society (1703–1727).

== Early life ==
Isaac Newton was born (according to the [[Julian calendar]] in use in England at the time) on Christmas Day, 25 December 1642 ([[Old Style and New Style dates|NS]] 4 January 1643{{efn|name=OSNS}}) at Woolsthorpe Manor in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hatch |first=Robert&nbsp;A. |date=1988 |title=Sir Isaac Newton |url=http://users.clas.ufl.edu//ufhatch/pages/01-courses/current-courses/08sr-newton.htm |access-date=13 June 2023}}</ref> His father, also named Isaac Newton, had died three months before. Born prematurely, Newton was a small child; his mother Hannah Ayscough reportedly said that he could have fit inside a [[Quart|quart]] mug.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Storr |first=Anthony |date=December 1985 |title=Isaac Newton |journal=British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition) |volume=291 |issue=6511 |pages=1779–84 |doi=10.1136/bmj.291.6511.1779 |jstor=29521701 |pmc=1419183 |pmid=3936583}}</ref> When Newton was three, his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband, the Reverend Barnabas Smith, leaving her son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough (née Blythe). Newton disliked his stepfather and maintained some enmity 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."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keynes |first=Milo |date=20 September 2008 |title=Balancing Newton's Mind: His Singular Behaviour and His Madness of 1692–93 |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=289–300 |doi=10.1098/rsnr.2007.0025 |jstor=20462679 |pmid=19244857 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Newton's mother had three children (Mary, Benjamin, and Hannah) from her second marriage.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|p=55}}

=== 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 [[Social:Latin|Latin]] and [[Social:Ancient Greek|Ancient Greek]] and probably imparted a significant foundation of mathematics.<ref>"Newton the Mathematician" Z. Bechler, ed., Contemporary Newtonian Research(Dordrecht 1982) pp. 110–111</ref> He was removed from school 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.{{sfn|Westfall|1994|pp=16–19}} 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,{{sfn|White|1997|p=22}} distinguishing himself mainly by building [[Engineering:Sundial|sundial]]s and models of windmills.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|pp=60–62}}

=== University of Cambridge ===
In June 1661, Newton was admitted to Trinity College at the [[Organization:University of Cambridge|University of Cambridge]]. His uncle 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.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|pp=71, 103}} At the time, Cambridge's teachings were based on those of [[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]], whom Newton read along with then more modern philosophers, including [[Biography:René Descartes|Descartes]] and [[Astronomy:Astronomer|astronomer]]s such as [[Biography:Galileo Galilei|Galileo Galilei]] and Thomas Street. He set down in his notebook a series of "[[Physics:Quaestiones quaedam philosophicae|''Quaestiones'']]" about [[Philosophy:Mechanical philosophy|mechanical philosophy]] as he found it. In 1665, he discovered the generalised [[Binomial theorem|binomial theorem]] and began to develop a mathematical theory that later became [[Calculus|calculus]]. Soon after Newton obtained his BA degree at Cambridge in August 1665, the university temporarily closed as a precaution against the Great Plague.

Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy |date=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-41158-5 |editor-last=Hoskins |editor-first=Michael |page=159}}</ref> Newton's private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the next two years saw the development of his theories on calculus,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Newton |first=Isaac |title=Waste Book |url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-04004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108205159/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-04004/ |archive-date=8 January 2012 |access-date=10 January 2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Digital Library}}</ref> [[Physics:Optics|optics]], and the law of gravitation.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />

In April 1667, Newton returned to the University of Cambridge, and in October he was elected as a fellow of Trinity.<ref>{{acad|id=NWTN661I|name=Newton, Isaac}}</ref>{{sfn|Westfall|1980|p=178}} Fellows were required to take [[Religion:Holy orders|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&nbsp;years] arrives, or I will resign from the college."{{sfn|Westfall|1980|p=179}} Up until this point he had not thought much about religion and had twice signed his agreement to the [[Religion:Thirty-nine Articles|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.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|pp=330–331}}

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. The terms of the Lucasian professorship required that the holder {{em|not}} be active in the church – presumably{{weasel inline|date=December 2018}} to leave more time for science. 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.{{sfn|White|1997|p=151}}

Newton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1672.<ref name="frs" />

== Mid-life ==
=== Calculus ===
Newton's work has been said "to distinctly advance every branch of mathematics then studied".{{sfn|Ball|1908|p=319}} 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.<ref>Whiteside, D.T., ed. (1967). "Part 7: The October 1666 Tract on Fluxions". ''The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton''. '''1'''. Cambridge University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZcYsNBptfYC&pg=PA400 p.&nbsp;400.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512135610/https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZcYsNBptfYC&pg=PA400 |date=12 May 2016 }}.</ref> 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".{{sfn|Gjertsen|1986|p=149}} Newton later became involved in a dispute with [[Biography:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] over priority in the development of calculus (the Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy). Most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz developed calculus independently, although with very different [[Mathematical notation|mathematical notation]]s. However, it is established that Newton came to develop calculus much earlier than Leibniz.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=James Roy |url=https://archive.org/details/world1ofmathemati00newm/page/57/mode/1up?q=Newton |title=The World of Mathematics: A Small Library of the Literature of Mathematics from Aʻh-mosé the Scribe to Albert Einstein |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1956 |pages=58 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Citation |last=Sastry |first=S.Subramanya |title=The Newton-Leibniz controversy over the invention of the calculus |url=https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~sastry/hs323/calculus.pdf |pages=3 |access-date=12 October 2023 |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison |doi=10.1214/ss/1028905930 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=17 July 2017 |title=How and Why did Newton Develop Such Complicated Mathematics? |url=https://futurism.com/how-and-why-did-newton-develop-such-a-complicated-math |access-date=12 October 2023 |website=Futurism}}</ref> Leibniz's notation and "differential Method", nowadays recognised as much more convenient notations, were adopted by continental European mathematicians, and after 1820 or so, also by British mathematicians.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

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"<ref>Newton, ''Principia'', 1729 English translation, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA41 p.&nbsp;41] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003114205/https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA41 |date=3 October 2015 }}.</ref> and explained why he put his expositions in this form,<ref>Newton, ''Principia'', 1729 English translation, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA54 p.&nbsp;54] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503022921/https://books.google.com/books?id=Tm0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA54 |date=3 May 2016 }}.</ref> remarking also that "hereby the same thing is performed as by the method of indivisibles."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newton |first=Sir Isaac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N-hHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA102 |title=Newton's Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy |date=1850 |publisher=Geo. P. Putnam |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626230020/https://books.google.com/books?id=N-hHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA102 |archive-date=26 June 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> Because of this, the ''Principia'' has been called "a book dense with the theory and application of the infinitesimal calculus" in modern times<ref>Clifford Truesdell, ''Essays in the History of Mechanics'' (1968), p.&nbsp;99.</ref> and in Newton's time "nearly all of it is of this calculus."<ref>In the preface to the Marquis de L'Hospital's ''Analyse des Infiniment Petits'' (Paris, 1696).</ref> His use of methods involving "one or more orders of the infinitesimally small" is present in his ''De motu corporum in gyrum'' of 1684<ref>Starting with [[Physics:De motu corporum in gyrum#Contents|De motu corporum in gyrum]], see also [https://books.google.com/books?id=uvMGAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA2 (Latin) Theorem 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512135306/https://books.google.com/books?id=uvMGAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA2 |date=12 May 2016 }}.</ref> and in his papers on motion "during the two decades preceding 1684".<ref>Whiteside, D.T., ed. (1970). "The Mathematical principles underlying Newton's Principia Mathematica". ''Journal for the History of Astronomy''. '''1'''. Cambridge University Press. pp.&nbsp;116–138.</ref>

[[File:Sir Isaac Newton by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Newton in 1702 by Godfrey Kneller]]

Newton had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he feared controversy and criticism.{{sfn|Stewart|2009|p=107}} He was close to the Swiss mathematician [[Biography:Nicolas Fatio de Duillier|Nicolas Fatio de Duillier]]. In 1691, Duillier started to write a new version of Newton's ''Principia'', and corresponded with Leibniz.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|pp=538–539}} In 1693, the relationship between Duillier and Newton deteriorated and the book was never completed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stern |first=Keith |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/317453194 |title=Queers in history : the comprehensive encyclopedia of historical gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders |date=2009 |publisher=BenBella |isbn=978-1-933771-87-8 |location=Dallas, Tex. |oclc=317453194}}</ref> Starting in 1699, other members{{who|date=December 2018}} of the Royal Society accused Leibniz of plagiarism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nowlan |first=Robert |title=Masters of Mathematics: The Problems They Solved, Why These Are Important, and What You Should Know about Them |publisher=Sense Publishers |year=2017 |isbn=978-94-6300-891-4 |location=Rotterdam |page=136}}</ref> 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 wrote the study's concluding remarks on Leibniz. Thus began the bitter controversy which marred the lives of both Newton and Leibniz until the latter's death in 1716.{{sfn|Ball|1908|p=356}}

Newton is generally credited with the [[Binomial theorem#Newton's generalized binomial theorem|generalised binomial theorem]], valid for any exponent. He discovered [[Newton's identities]], [[Newton's method]], classified [[Cubic plane curve|cubic plane curve]]s (polynomials of degree three in two [[Variable (mathematics)|variables]]), made substantial contributions to the theory of finite differences, and was the first to use fractional indices and to employ coordinate geometry to derive solutions to Diophantine equations. He approximated [[Series (mathematics)|partial]] sums of the [[Harmonic series (mathematics)|harmonic series]] by logarithms (a precursor to Euler's summation formula) and was the first to use [[Power series|power series]] with confidence and to revert power series. Newton's work on infinite series was inspired by Simon Stevin's decimals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Błaszczyk |first1=P. |last2=Katz |first2=M.&nbsp;G. |last3=Sherry |first3=D. |display-authors=1 |date=March 2013 |title=Ten misconceptions from the history of analysis and their debunking |journal=[[Philosophy:Foundations of Science|Foundations of Science]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=43–74 |arxiv=1202.4153 |doi=10.1007/s10699-012-9285-8 |s2cid=119134151}}</ref>

=== Optics ===
[[File:Newton telescope replica 1668.jpg|thumb|A replica of the reflecting telescope Newton presented to the Royal Society in 1672 (the first one he made in 1668 was loaned to an instrument maker but there is no further record of what happened to it).<ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=Henry&nbsp;C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KAWwzHlDVksC&q=history+of+the+telescope |title=The History of the Telescope |publisher=Courier Corporation |year=1955 |isbn=978-0-486-43265-6 |page=74 |access-date=1 August 2013}}</ref>]]

In 1666, Newton observed that the spectrum of colours exiting a prism in the position of [[Physics:Minimum deviation|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.<ref name="Whittaker" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Darrigol |first=Olivier |url={{Google books|Ye_1AAAAQBAJ|page=PA81|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=A History of Optics from Greek Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-964437-7 |page=81}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Newton |first=Isaac |title=Hydrostatics, Optics, Sound and Heat |url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-03970/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108215515/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-03970/ |archive-date=8 January 2012 |access-date=10 January 2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Digital Library}}</ref> During this period he investigated the [[Physics:Refraction|refraction]] of light, demonstrating that the multicoloured image produced by a prism, which he named a [[Spectrum|spectrum]], could be recomposed into white light by a [[Physics:Lens (optics)|lens]] and a second prism.{{sfn|Ball|1908|p=324}} Modern scholarship has revealed that Newton's analysis and resynthesis of white light owes a debt to [[Philosophy:Corpuscularianism|corpuscular]] alchemy.<ref>[[Biography:William R. Newman|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 [http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/html/Newton_optics-alchemy_Jacquart_paper.pdf the ''Chymistry of Isaac Newton'' project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528020600/http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/html/Newton_optics-alchemy_Jacquart_paper.pdf |date=28 May 2016 }} (PDF)</ref>

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, the light remains the same colour. Thus, he observed that colour is the result of objects interacting with already-coloured light rather than objects generating the colour themselves. This is known as Newton's theory of colour.{{sfn|Ball|1908|p=325}}

[[File:Dispersive Prism Illustration.jpg|thumb|Illustration of a [[Dispersive prism|dispersive prism]] separating white light into the colours of the spectrum, as discovered by Newton]]

From this work, he concluded that the lens of any [[Astronomy:Refracting telescope|refracting telescope]] would suffer from the [[Physics:Dispersion (optics)|dispersion]] of light into colours ([[Physics:Chromatic aberration|chromatic aberration]]). As a proof of the concept, he constructed a telescope using reflective mirrors instead of lenses as the [[Physics:Objective (optics)|objective]] to bypass that problem.<ref name="The Early Period (1608–1672)" /><ref name="White 1997, p170" /> Building the design, the first known functional reflecting telescope, today known as a [[Astronomy:Newtonian telescope|Newtonian telescope]],<ref name="White 1997, p170" /> involved solving the problem of a suitable mirror material and shaping technique. Newton ground his own mirrors out of a custom composition of highly reflective [[Physics:Speculum metal|speculum metal]], using [[Physics:Newton's rings|Newton's rings]] to judge the [[Philosophy:Quality|quality]] of the optics for his telescopes. In late 1668,<ref name="books.google.com" /> he was able to produce this first reflecting telescope. It was about eight inches long and it gave a clearer and larger image. In 1671, the Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope.{{sfn|White|1997|p=168}} Their interest encouraged him to publish his notes, ''Of Colours'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Newton |first=Isaac |title=Of Colours |url=http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009051407/http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/NATP00004 |archive-date=9 October 2014 |access-date=6 October 2014 |website=The Newton Project}}</ref> which he later expanded into the work ''[[Physics:Opticks|Opticks]]''. When Robert Hooke criticised some of Newton's ideas, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate. Newton and Hooke had brief exchanges in 1679–80, when Hooke, appointed to manage the Royal Society's correspondence, opened up a correspondence intended to elicit contributions from Newton to Royal Society transactions,<ref name="hooke1679nov24" /> 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. But the two men remained generally on poor terms until Hooke's death.<ref>Iliffe, Robert (2007) Newton. A very short introduction, Oxford University Press 2007</ref>

[[File:Newton-letter-to-briggs 03.jpg|thumb|upright|Facsimile of a 1682 letter from Newton to William Briggs, commenting on Briggs' ''A New Theory of Vision'']]

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). However, later physicists favoured a purely wavelike explanation of light to account for the interference patterns and the general phenomenon of [[Physics:Diffraction|diffraction]]. Today's [[Physics:Quantum mechanics|quantum mechanics]], [[Physics:Photons|photons]], and the idea of [[Physics:Wave–particle duality|wave–particle duality]] bear only a minor resemblance to Newton's understanding of light.

In his ''Hypothesis of Light'' of 1675, Newton posited the existence of the [[Physics:Luminiferous aether|ether]] to transmit forces between particles. The contact with the [[Philosophy:Cambridge Platonists|Cambridge Platonist]] philosopher [[Biography:Henry More|Henry More]] revived his interest in alchemy.<ref name="More" /> He replaced the ether with occult forces based on [[Philosophy:Hermeticism|Hermetic]] ideas of attraction and repulsion between particles. [[Biography:John Maynard Keynes|John Maynard Keynes]], who acquired many of Newton's writings on alchemy, stated that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason: He was the last of the magicians."<ref name="The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes Volume X" /> Newton's contributions to science cannot be isolated from his interest in alchemy.<ref name="More" /> This was at a time when there was no clear distinction between alchemy and science, and had he not relied on the [[Philosophy:Occult|occult]] idea of [[Physics:Action at a distance|action at a distance]], across a vacuum, he might not have developed his theory of gravity.

In 1704, Newton published ''[[Physics:Opticks|Opticks]]'', in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. He considered light to be made up of extremely subtle corpuscles, that ordinary matter was made of grosser corpuscles and speculated that through a kind of alchemical transmutation "Are not gross Bodies and Light convertible into one another,&nbsp;... and may not Bodies receive much of their Activity from the Particles of Light which enter their Composition?"<ref name="Newton's Alchemy and His Theory of Matter" /> Newton also constructed a primitive form of a frictional [[Physics:Electrostatic generator|electrostatic generator]], using a glass globe.<ref>Opticks, 2nd Ed 1706. Query 8.</ref>

In his book ''Opticks'', Newton was the first to show a diagram using a prism as a beam expander, and also the use of multiple-prism arrays.<ref name="OPN1" /> Some 278 years after Newton's discussion, [[Physics:Beam expander#Multiple-prism beam expanders|multiple-prism beam expanders]] became central to the development of [[Physics:Laser linewidth|narrow-linewidth]] [[Physics:Tunable laser|tunable laser]]s. Also, the use of these prismatic beam expanders led to the [[Multiple-prism dispersion theory|multiple-prism dispersion theory]].<ref name=OPN1 />

Subsequent to Newton, much has been amended. [[Biography:Thomas Young (scientist)|Young]] and [[Biography:Augustin-Jean Fresnel|Fresnel]] discarded Newton's particle theory in favour of [[Biography:Christiaan Huygens|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, [[Biography:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], could not shake the Newtonian foundation but "one hole Goethe did find in Newton's armour,&nbsp;... 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."<ref>Tyndall, John. (1880). ''Popular Science Monthly'' Volume 17, July. s:Popular Science Monthly/Volume 17/July 1880/Goethe's Farbenlehre: Theory of Colors II</ref>
[[File:Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton (4670220).jpg|thumb|upright|Engraving of ''Portrait of Newton'' by John Vanderbank]]

=== Gravity ===
[[File:NewtonsPrincipia.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Newton's own copy of ''Principia'' with Newton's hand-written corrections for the second edition, now housed in the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge]]

Newton had been developing his theory of gravitation as far back as 1665.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Struik |first=Dirk J. |url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof02stru/mode/1up |title=A Concise History of Mathematics |publisher=Dover Publications |year=1948 |pages=151, 154 |language=en |author-link=Dirk Jan Struik}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=McDonald |first=Kerry |date=27 March 2020 |title=How Isaac Newton Turned Isolation From the Great Plague Into a "Year of Wonders" |url=https://fee.org/articles/how-isaac-newton-turned-isolation-from-the-great-plague-into-a-year-of-wonders/ |access-date=14 October 2023 |website=fee.org |language=en}}</ref> In 1679, Newton returned to his work on [[Physics:Celestial mechanics|celestial mechanics]] by considering gravitation and its effect on the orbits of [[Astronomy:Planet|planet]]s with reference to Kepler's laws of planetary motion. This followed stimulation by a brief exchange of letters in 1679–80 with Hooke, who had been appointed to manage the Royal Society's correspondence, and who opened a correspondence intended to elicit contributions from Newton to Royal Society transactions.<ref name=hooke1679nov24 /> 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.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|pp=391–392}} 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. Newton communicated his results to [[Biography:Edmond Halley|Edmond Halley]] and to the Royal Society in ''[[Physics:De motu corporum in gyrum|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.<ref>Whiteside, D.T., ed. (1974). ''Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton, 1684–1691''. '''6'''. Cambridge University Press. p.&nbsp;30.</ref> This tract contained the nucleus that Newton developed and expanded to form the ''Principia''.

The ''[[Physics:Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]'' was published on 5 July 1687 with encouragement and financial help from Halley. In this work, Newton stated the [[Physics:Newton's laws of motion|three universal 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 [[Physics:Classical mechanics|classical mechanics]]. They contributed to many advances during the [[History:Industrial Revolution|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 [[Physics:Gravity|gravity]], and defined the law of [[Physics:Newton's law of universal gravitation|universal gravitation]].<ref name="Schmitz2018">{{Cite book |last=Schmitz |first=Kenneth&nbsp;S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WGdBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251 |title=Physical Chemistry: Multidisciplinary Applications in Society |publisher=Elsevier |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-12-800599-6 |location=Amsterdam |page=251 |access-date=1 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310132426/https://books.google.com/books?id=4WGdBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251 |archive-date=10 March 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the same work, Newton presented a calculus-like method of geometrical analysis using 'first and last ratios', gave the first analytical determination (based on [[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 [[Physics:Lunar theory#Newton|irregularities in the motion of the Moon]], provided a theory for the determination of the orbits of comets, and much more.<ref name="Schmitz2018" /> Newton's biographer [[Biography:David Brewster|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, Edmund 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]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brewster |first=Sir David |date=22 March 1860 |title=Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=acBV7QHgMIAC&q=head+ache&pg=PA3 |publisher=Edmonston and Douglas |via=Google Books}}</ref>

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.<ref>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', [https://books.google.com/books?id=rkQKU-wfPYMC&pg=PA233 at p. 233] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003121307/https://books.google.com/books?id=rkQKU-wfPYMC&pg=PA233 |date=3 October 2015 }}.</ref> 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.)<ref>Text quotations are from 1729 translation of Newton's ''Principia'', Book 3 (1729 vol.2) [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_6EqxPav3vIsC/page/n257 at pp. 232–33 &#91;233&#93;].</ref>

Newton's postulate of an invisible [[Physics:Action at a distance|force able to act over vast distances]] led to him being criticised for introducing "[[Philosophy:Occult|occult]] agencies" into science.<ref>Edelglass et al., ''Matter and Mind'', {{isbn|0-940262-45-2}}. p. 54</ref> 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 Newton used what became his famous expression ''"[[Physics:Hypotheses non fingo|Hypotheses non fingo]]"''.<ref>On the meaning and origins of this expression, see Kirsten Walsh, [https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/2010/10/does-newton-feign-an-hypothesis/ Does Newton feign an hypothesis?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714120054/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/2010/10/does-newton-feign-an-hypothesis/ |date=14 July 2014 }}, [https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/ Early Modern Experimental Philosophy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721051523/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/ |date=21 July 2011 }}, 18 October 2010.</ref>)

With the ''Principia'', Newton became internationally recognised.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|loc=Chapter 11}} He acquired a circle of admirers, including the Swiss-born mathematician [[Biography:Nicolas Fatio de Duillier|Nicolas Fatio de Duillier]].<ref name="Hatch">{{Cite web |last=Hatch |first=Professor Robert&nbsp;A. |title=Newton Timeline |url=http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/13-NDFE/newton/05-newton-timeline-m.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802071026/http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/13-NDFE/newton/05-newton-timeline-m.htm |archive-date=2 August 2012 |access-date=13 August 2012}}</ref>

In 1710, Newton found 72 of the 78 "species" of cubic curves and categorised them into four types.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bloye |first1=Nicole |last2=Huggett |first2=Stephen |year=2011 |title=Newton, the geometer |url=https://stephenhuggett.com/Newton.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Newsletter of the European Mathematical Society |issue=82 |pages=19–27 |mr=2896438 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308041757/http://stephenhuggett.com/Newton.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2023 |access-date=19 February 2023}}</ref> In 1717, and probably with Newton's help, [[Biography:James Stirling (mathematician)|James Stirling]] proved that every cubic was one of these four types. Newton also claimed that the four types could be obtained by [[Projective plane|plane projection]] from one of them, and this was proved in 1731, four years after his death.<ref>''Conics and Cubics,'' Robert Bix. ''[[Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics]]'', 2nd ed., 2006, Springer Verlag.</ref>

== Later life ==
=== Royal Mint ===
[[File:Newton 25.jpg|thumb|upright|Isaac Newton in old age in 1712, portrait by Sir James Thornhill]]
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 [[Biography:John Locke|John Locke]] in which he disputed the fidelity of 1 John 5:7—the [[Religion:Johannine Comma|Johannine Comma]]—and its fidelity to the original manuscripts of the New Testament, remained unpublished until 1785.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Locke Manuscripts&nbsp;– Chronological Listing: 1690 |url=http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/locke/mss/c1690.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709035722/https://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/locke/mss/c1690.html |archive-date=9 July 2017 |access-date=20 January 2013 |website=psu.edu}}; and John C. Attig, [http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/locke/bib/ch5c.html#01160 John Locke Bibliography&nbsp;— Chapter 5, Religion, 1751–1900] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112070820/http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/locke/bib/ch5c.html#01160 |date=12 November 2012 }}</ref>

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.{{sfn|White|1997|p=232}} 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sawer |first=Patrick |date=6 September 2016 |title=What students should avoid during fresher's week (100&nbsp;years ago and now) |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/06/what-students-should-avoid-during-freshers-week-100-years-ago-an/ |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=7 September 2016 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/06/what-students-should-avoid-during-freshers-week-100-years-ago-an/ |archive-date=10 January 2022}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, a position that he had 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 [[Social:Comptroller|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 Newton held for the last 30&nbsp;years of his life.<ref name="Mint">{{Cite episode |title=Isaac Newton: Physicist And&nbsp;... Crime Fighter? |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105012144 |access-date=1 August 2014 |series=Science Friday |network=NPR |transcript=Transcript |transcript-url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=105012144 |air-date=5 June 2009 |archive-date=1 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101074330/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105012144 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Levenson |2010}} 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&nbsp;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.{{sfn|White|1997|p=259}}

Disguised as a habitué of bars and taverns, he gathered much of that evidence himself.{{sfn|White|1997|p=267}} 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 [[Social:Justice of the peace|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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Newton |first=Isaac |title=Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica |url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-ADV-B-00039-00001/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108031556/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-ADV-B-00039-00001/ |archive-date=8 January 2012 |access-date=10 January 2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Digital Library |pages=265–66}}</ref> Then he conducted more than 100&nbsp;cross-examinations of witnesses, informers, and suspects between June 1698 and Christmas 1699. Newton successfully prosecuted 28&nbsp;coiners.{{sfn|Westfall|2007|p=73}}

[[File:ENG COA Newton.svg|thumb|upright|Coat of arms of the Newton family of Great Gonerby, Lincolnshire, afterwards used by Sir Isaac<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wagner |first=Anthony |url=https://archive.org/details/historicheraldry0000wagn/page/85 |title=Historic Heraldry of Britain |publisher=Phillimore |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-85033-022-9 |edition=2nd |location=London and Chichester |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicheraldry0000wagn/page/85 85] |author-link=Anthony Wagner}}; and {{cite book|title=Genealogical Memoranda Relating to the Family of Newton|place=London|publisher=Taylor and Co.|year=1871|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogicalmemo00inlond }}</ref>]]

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.{{sfn|White|1997|p=317}}

=== 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.<ref>"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." {{harvnb|Westfall|1994|p=245}}</ref> Newton was the second scientist to be knighted, after [[Biography:Francis Bacon|Francis Bacon]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 June 2016 |title=This Day in History: Isaac Newton is Knighted |url=http://www.historychannel.com.au/classroom/day-in-history/553/isaac-newton-is-knighted |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819103011/http://www.historychannel.com.au/classroom/day-in-history/553/isaac-newton-is-knighted |archive-date=19 August 2014 |access-date=18 August 2014 |website=History Channel |publisher=A&E Television Networks |postscript=;}} and {{cite book|last=Barnham|first=Kay|title=Isaac Newton|year=2014|publisher=Raintree|isbn=978-1-4109-6235-5|page=26|url={{google books|2f5LAgAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref>

As a result of a report written by Newton on 21 September 1717 to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, the bimetallic 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&nbsp;silver shillings.<ref>[http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1701-25-mint-reports/report-1717-09-25.html ''On the Value of Gold and Silver in European Currencies and the Consequences on the Worldwide Gold- and Silver-Trade''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406191205/http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1701-25-mint-reports/report-1717-09-25.html |date=6 April 2017 }}, Sir Isaac Newton, 21 September 1717; [https://archive.org/details/numismaticser1v05royauoft "By The King, A Proclamation Declaring the Rates at which Gold shall be current in Payments"]. ''Royal Numismatic Society''. '''V'''. April 1842&nbsp;– January 1843.</ref> 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 [[Chemistry:Silver standard|silver standard]] to its first [[Chemistry:Gold standard|gold standard]]. It is a matter of debate as to whether he intended to do this or not.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fay |first=C.&nbsp;R. |date=1 January 1935 |title=Newton and the Gold Standard |journal=Cambridge Historical Journal |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=109–17 |doi=10.1017/S1474691300001256 |jstor=3020836}}</ref> It has been argued that Newton conceived of his work at the Mint as a continuation of his alchemical work.<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 September 2006 |title=Sir Isaac Newton's Unpublished Manuscripts Explain Connections He Made Between Alchemy and Economics |publisher=Georgia Tech Research News |url=http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/newton.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=30 July 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130217100410/http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/newton.htm |archive-date=17 February 2013}}</ref>

Newton was invested in the [[Company:South Sea Company|South Sea Company]] and lost some £20,000 (£4.4&nbsp;million in 2020<ref>Eric W. Nye, [https://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/currency.htm Pounds Sterling to Dollars: Historical Conversion of Currency] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815124946/https://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/Currency.htm |date=15 August 2021 }}. Retrieved: 5 October 2020</ref>) when it collapsed in around 1720.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holodny |first=Elena |date=21 January 2016 |title=Isaac Newton was a genius, but even he lost millions in the stock market |url=http://www.businessinsider.com.au/isaac-newton-lost-a-fortune-on-englands-hottest-stock-2016-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325191327/http://www.businessinsider.com.au/isaac-newton-lost-a-fortune-on-englands-hottest-stock-2016-1 |archive-date=25 March 2016 |access-date=21 December 2019 |website=Business Insider}}</ref>

Toward the end of his life, Newton took up residence at Cranbury Park, near [[Place:Winchester|Winchester]], with his niece and her husband, until his death.<ref name="Yonge6">{{Cite web |last=Yonge |first=Charlotte&nbsp;M. |year=1898 |title=Cranbury and Brambridge |url=http://www.online-literature.com/charlotte-yonge/john-keble/6/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208223436/http://www.online-literature.com/charlotte-yonge/john-keble/6/ |archive-date=8 December 2008 |access-date=23 September 2009 |website=John Keble's Parishes&nbsp;– Chapter 6 |publisher=online-literature.com}}</ref> His half-niece, Catherine Barton,{{sfn|Westfall|1980|p=44}} served as his hostess in social affairs at his house on Jermyn Street in London; he was her "very loving Uncle",{{sfn|Westfall|1980|p=595}} according to his letter to her when she was recovering from [[Medicine:Smallpox|smallpox]].

=== Death ===
[[File:PSM V69 D480 Death mask of isaac newton.png|alt=Isaac Newton's death mask|thumb|upright|Death mask of Newton, photographed {{circa|1906}}]]
Newton died in his sleep in London on 20 March 1727 ([[Old Style and New Style dates|OS]] 20 March 1726; [[Old Style and New Style dates|NS]] 31 March 1727).{{efn|name=OSNS}} 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.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=6569 |date=1 April 1727 |page=7 }}</ref> [[Biography:Voltaire|Voltaire]] may have been present at his funeral.<ref>Dobre and Nyden suggest that there is no clear evidence that Voltaire was present; see p. 89 of {{Cite book |last1=Dobre |first1=Mihnea |title=Cartesian Empiricism |last2=Nyden |first2=Tammy |publisher=Springer |year=2013 |isbn=978-94-007-7690-6}}</ref> A bachelor, he had divested much of his estate to relatives during his last years, and died intestate.<ref name="Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)" /> His papers went to John Conduitt and Catherine Barton.<ref name="Mann" />

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Newton's Death Mask  |url=https://huntington.org/verso/newtons-death-mask |access-date=7 August 2023 |website=The Huntington |date=Aug 2, 2011 |first1=John |last1=Vining }}</ref> It is now held by the Royal Society,<ref>{{Cite web |title= Death mask of Isaac Newton |url=https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-8492 |access-date=7 August 2023 |website=Royal Society Picture Library }}</ref> who created a 3D scan of it in 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Newton's death mask scanned in 3D |date=1 October 2012 |url=https://royalsociety.org/news/2012/newton-death-mask-3D/ |access-date=7 August 2023 |website=Royal Society}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schultz |first=Colin |title=Isaac Newton's Death Mask: Now Available in Digital 3D |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/isaac-newtons-death-mask-now-available-in-digital-3d-55650548/ |date= October 1, 2012  |access-date=7 August 2023 |website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

Newton's hair was posthumously examined and found to contain [[Chemistry:Mercury (element)|mercury]], probably resulting from his alchemical pursuits. [[Medicine:Mercury poisoning|Mercury poisoning]] could explain Newton's eccentricity in late life.<ref name="Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)" />

== Personality ==
Although it was claimed that he was once engaged,{{efn|name=claim|This claim was made by [[Biography:William Stukeley|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."<ref>Hutton, Charles (1795/6). ''A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary''. vol. 2. p. 100.</ref>}} Newton never married. The French writer and philosopher [[Biography:Voltaire|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.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Voltaire |title=Letters on England |date=1894 |publisher=Cassell |page=100 |chapter=14 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/lettersonenglan00voltgoog#page/n102}}</ref> There exists a widespread belief that Newton died a virgin, and writers as diverse as mathematician Charles Hutton,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hutton |first=Charles |url={{Google books|_xk2AAAAQAAJ|page=PA100|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary Containing&nbsp;... Memoirs of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Authors, Volume 2 |date=1815 |page=100 |author-link=Charles Hutton}}</ref> economist [[Biography:John Maynard Keynes|John Maynard Keynes]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Keynes |first=John Maynard |title=Newton: the Man |url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Keynes_Newton.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617095839/http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Keynes_Newton.html |archive-date=17 June 2019 |access-date=11 September 2012 |publisher=[[Organization:University of St Andrews|University of St Andrews]] School of Mathematics and Statistics}}</ref> and physicist [[Biography:Carl Sagan|Carl Sagan]] have commented on it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sagan |first=Carl |url={{Google books|Cl06FjKX6doC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Cosmos |date=1980 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-394-50294-6 |location=New York |page=68 |author-link=Carl Sagan}}</ref>

{{anchor|Duillier}}Newton had a close friendship with the Swiss mathematician [[Biography:Nicolas Fatio de Duillier|Nicolas Fatio de Duillier]], whom he met in London around 1689<ref name="Hatch" />—some of their correspondence has survived.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Duillier, Nicholas Fatio de (1664–1753) mathematician and natural philosopher |url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=CV%2FPers%2FDuillier%2C%20Nicholas%20Fatio%20de%20%281664-1753%29%20mathematician%20and%20natural%20philosopher |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701114749/http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=CV%2FPers%2FDuillier%2C%20Nicholas%20Fatio%20de%20%281664-1753%29%20mathematician%20and%20natural%20philosopher |archive-date=1 July 2013 |access-date=22 March 2013 |publisher=Janus database}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection Guide: Fatio de Duillier, Nicolas [Letters to Isaac Newton] |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UCLA::Clark%20%28William%20Andrews%29%20Memorial%20Library;idT=4859632 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531055908/http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UCLA::Clark%20%28William%20Andrews%29%20Memorial%20Library;idT=4859632 |archive-date=31 May 2013 |access-date=22 March 2013 |publisher=Online Archive of California}}</ref> Their relationship came to an abrupt and unexplained end in 1693, and at the same time Newton suffered a nervous breakdown,<ref>{{harvnb|Westfall| 1980|pp= 493–497}} on the friendship with Fatio, pp. 531–540 on Newton's breakdown.</ref> which included sending wild accusatory letters to his friends Samuel Pepys and [[Biography:John Locke|John Locke]]. His note to the latter included the charge that Locke had endeavoured to "embroil" him with "woemen & by other means".{{sfn|Manuel|1968|p=219}}

Newton was relatively modest about his achievements, writing in a letter to Robert Hooke in February 1676, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."<ref>Letter from Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1676, as transcribed in {{Cite book |last=Maury |first=Jean-Pierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8N5tQgAACAAJ |title=Newton: Understanding the Cosmos |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-500-30023-7 |series="New Horizons" series |location=London |translator-last=Paris |translator-first=I.&nbsp;Mark |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221174716/https://books.google.com/books?id=8N5tQgAACAAJ |archive-date=21 December 2020 |url-status=live |orig-year=1990}}</ref> Two writers think that the sentence, written at a time when Newton and Hooke were in dispute over optical discoveries, was an oblique attack on Hooke (said to have been short and hunchbacked), rather than—or in addition to—a statement of modesty.<ref>John Gribbin (2002) ''Science: A History 1543–2001'', p. 164.</ref>{{sfn|White|1997|p=187}} On the other hand, the widely known proverb about standing on the shoulders of giants, published among others by seventeenth-century poet George Herbert (a former orator of the University of Cambridge and fellow of Trinity College) in his ''Jacula Prudentum'' (1651), had as its main point that "a dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees farther of the two", and so its effect as an analogy would place Newton himself rather than Hooke as the 'dwarf'.

In a later memoir, Newton wrote, "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."<ref>''Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton'' (1855) by Sir David Brewster (Volume II. Ch. 27)</ref>

== 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,<ref name="Newton – 1">[[Biography:Richard S. Westfall|Richard S. Westfall]]&nbsp;– [[Organization:Indiana University|Indiana University]] {{Cite book |url=http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/newton.html |title=The Galileo Project |publisher=([[Organization:Rice University|Rice University]]) |access-date=5 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929133323/http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/newton.html |archive-date=29 September 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> with one historian labelling him a [[Religion:Heresy|heretic]].<ref name="heretic">{{Cite journal |last=Snobelen |first=Stephen&nbsp;D. |date=December 1999 |title=Isaac Newton, heretic: the strategies of a Nicodemite |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=381–419 |doi=10.1017/S0007087499003751 |jstor=4027945 |s2cid=145208136}}</ref>

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.{{sfn|Katz|1992|p=63}} Over half of what Newton wrote concerned theology and alchemy, and most has never been printed.{{sfn|Katz|1992|p=63}} His writings demonstrate an extensive knowledge of [[Religion:Early Christianity|early Church]] writings and show that in the conflict between Athanasius and [[Biography:Arius|Arius]] which defined the [[Religion:Athanasian Creed|Creed]], he took the side of Arius, the loser, who rejected the conventional view of the [[Religion:Trinity|Trinity]]. Newton "recognized Christ as a divine mediator between God and man, who was subordinate to the Father who created him."{{sfn|Westfall|1980|p=315}} He was especially interested in prophecy, but for him, "the great apostasy was trinitarianism."{{sfn|Westfall|1980|p=321}}

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.{{sfn|Westfall|1980|pp=331–34}}

In Newton's eyes, worshipping [[Biography:Jesus|Christ]] as [[Religion:God in Christianity|God]] was idolatry, to him the fundamental sin.{{sfn|Westfall|1994|p=124}} In 1999, historian Stephen D. Snobelen wrote, "Isaac Newton was a [[Religion:Heresy|heretic]]. But&nbsp;... 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."<ref name="heretic" /> Snobelen concludes that Newton was at least a Socinian sympathiser (he owned and had thoroughly read at least eight Socinian books), possibly an [[Religion:Arianism|Arian]] and almost certainly an anti-trinitarian.<ref name="heretic" />

[[File:Newton-WilliamBlake crop.jpg|thumb|''Newton'' (1795, detail) by William Blake. Newton is depicted critically as a "divine geometer".<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 September 2013 |title=Newton, object 1 (Butlin 306) "Newton" |url=http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copyinfo.xq?copyid=but306.1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927214741/http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copyinfo.xq?copyid=but306.1 |archive-date=27 September 2013 |access-date=25 September 2013 |publisher=William Blake Archive}}</ref>]]

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".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newton |first=Isaac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&q=%22gravity%20may%20put%20the%20planets%20into%20motion%22&pg=PA436 |title=Isaaci Newtoni Opera quae exstant omnia |date=1782 |publisher=Joannes Nichols |location=London |pages=436–37 |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414055022/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&q=%22gravity%20may%20put%20the%20planets%20into%20motion%22&pg=PA436 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Along with his scientific fame, Newton's studies of the Bible and of the early [[Religion:Church Fathers|Church Fathers]] were also noteworthy. Newton wrote works on textual criticism, most notably ''An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture'' and ''Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John''.<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16878 ''Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170120113904/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16878 |date=20 January 2017 }} 1733</ref> He placed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at 3 April, AD 33, which agrees with one traditionally accepted date.<ref>John P. Meier, ''A Marginal Jew'', v. 1, pp. 382–402. after narrowing the years to 30 or 33, provisionally judges 30 most likely.</ref>

He believed in a rationally immanent world, but he rejected the [[Philosophy:Hylozoism|hylozoism]] implicit in [[Biography:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] and [[Biography:Baruch Spinoza|Baruch Spinoza]]. The ordered and dynamically informed Universe could be understood, and must be understood, by an active reason. In his correspondence, Newton 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".<ref>Newton to Richard Bentley 10 December 1692, in Turnbull et al. (1959–77), vol 3, p. 233.</ref> 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.<ref>Opticks, 2nd Ed 1706. Query 31.</ref> 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."<ref>H.G. Alexander (ed) ''The Leibniz-Clarke correspondence'', Manchester University Press, 1998, p. 11.</ref>

Newton's position was vigorously defended by his follower [[Biography:Samuel Clarke|Samuel Clarke]] in a famous correspondence. A century later, [[Biography:Pierre-Simon Laplace|Pierre-Simon Laplace]]'s work [[Physics:Traité de mécanique céleste|''Celestial Mechanics'']] had a natural explanation for why the planet orbits do not require periodic divine intervention.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tyson |first=Neil Degrasse |date=1 November 2005 |title=The Perimeter of Ignorance |url=http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2005/11/01/the-perimeter-of-ignorance |url-status=dead |journal=Natural History Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906154623/http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2005/11/01/the-perimeter-of-ignorance |archive-date=6 September 2018 |access-date=7 January 2016}}</ref> 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").<ref>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".</ref>

Scholars long debated whether Newton disputed the doctrine of the [[Religion:Trinity|Trinity]]. His first biographer, [[Biography:David Brewster|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.<ref>Brewster states that Newton was never known as an [[Religion:Arianism|Arian]] during his lifetime, it was [[Biography:William Whiston|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.</ref> In the twentieth century, encrypted manuscripts written by Newton and bought by [[Biography:John Maynard Keynes|John Maynard Keynes]] (among others) were deciphered<ref name="The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes Volume X" /> and it became known that Newton did indeed reject Trinitarianism.<ref name="heretic" />

=== Religious thought ===

Newton and [[Biography:Robert Boyle|Robert Boyle]]'s approach to the [[Philosophy:Mechanical philosophy|mechanical philosophy]] was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the [[Philosophy:Pantheism|pantheists]] and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like the [[Religion:Latitudinarian|latitudinarian]]s.<ref name="The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689–1720" /> The clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional and [[Philosophy:Metaphysics|metaphysical]] superlatives of both [[Unsolved:Superstition|superstitious]] enthusiasm and the threat of [[Philosophy:Atheism|atheism]],<ref name="Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England" /> and at the same time, the second wave of English [[Philosophy:Deism|deists]] used Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion".

The attacks made against pre-[[Philosophy:Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] "[[Philosophy:Magical thinking|magical thinking]]", and the [[Religion:Christian mysticism|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 proof|mathematical proof]]s and, perhaps more importantly, was very successful in popularising them.<ref name="Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in eighteenth-century Britain" />

== Alchemy ==
{{Quote box
 | quote  = Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, 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. Isaac Newton, a posthumous child born with no father on Christmas Day, 1642, was the last wonderchild to whom the Magi could do sincere and appropriate homage.
 | source = –[[Biography:John Maynard Keynes|John Maynard Keynes]], "Newton, the Man"<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Maynard Keynes: Newton, the Man |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Keynes_Newton/ |access-date=6 May 2023 |website=Maths History}}</ref>
 | width  = 30%
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}}

Of an estimated ten million words of writing in Newton's papers, about one million deal with [[Philosophy:Alchemy|alchemy]]. Many of Newton's writings on alchemy are copies of other manuscripts, with his own annotations.<ref name="Mann" /> Alchemical texts mix artisanal knowledge with philosophical speculation, often hidden behind layers of wordplay, allegory, and imagery to protect craft secrets.<ref name="Meyer">{{Cite journal |last=Meyer |first=Michal |year=2014 |title=Gold, secrecy and prestige |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/gold-secrecy-and-prestige |url-status=live |journal=Chemical Heritage Magazine |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=42–43 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320230826/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/gold-secrecy-and-prestige |archive-date=20 March 2018 |access-date=20 March 2018}}</ref> Some of the content contained in Newton's papers could have been considered heretical by the church.<ref name="Mann" />

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.<ref name="Kean" /> The collection was broken up and sold for a total of about £9,000.<ref name="Greshko">{{Cite journal |last=Greshko |first=Michael |date=4 April 2016 |title=Isaac Newton's Lost Alchemy Recipe Rediscovered |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160404-isaac-newton-alchemy-mercury-recipe-chemistry-science/ |url-status=dead |journal=National Geographic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426031049/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160404-isaac-newton-alchemy-mercury-recipe-chemistry-science/ |archive-date=26 April 2016 |access-date=25 April 2016}}</ref> [[Biography:John Maynard Keynes|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.<ref name="Mann">{{Cite magazine |last=Mann |first=Adam |date=14 May 2014 |title=The Strange, Secret History of Isaac Newton's Papers |magazine=Wired |url-access=limited |url=https://www.wired.com/2014/05/newton-papers-q-and-a/ |url-status=live |access-date=25 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911221912/https://www.wired.com/2014/05/newton-papers-q-and-a/ |archive-date=11 September 2017}}</ref><ref name="Kean">{{Cite journal |last=Kean |first=Sam |year=2011 |title=Newton, The Last Magician |url=http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/januaryfebruary/feature/newton-the-last-magician |url-status=live |journal=Humanities |volume=32 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413235352/http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/januaryfebruary/feature/newton-the-last-magician |archive-date=13 April 2016 |access-date=25 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="Dry">{{Cite book |last=Dry |first=Sarah |title=The Newton papers : the strange and true odyssey of Isaac Newton's manuscripts |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-995104-8 |location=Oxford}}</ref>

All of Newton's known writings on alchemy are currently being put online in a project undertaken by [[Organization:Indiana University|Indiana University]]: "The Chymistry of Isaac Newton"<ref name="Indiana">{{Cite web |title=The Chymistry of Isaac Newton |url=https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426013127/http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/ |archive-date=26 April 2016 |access-date=25 April 2016 |website=Indiana University, Bloomington}}</ref> and summarised in a book.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Levitin |first=Dimitri |date=March 2019 |title=Going for Gold |work=Literary Review |url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/going-for-gold-2 |url-status=live |access-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190307113828/https://literaryreview.co.uk/going-for-gold-2 |archive-date=7 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=William&nbsp;R. |url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13261.html |title=Newton the Alchemist Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire" |date=2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17487-7 |access-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402130607/https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13261.html |archive-date=2 April 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|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."<ref name="Indiana" />}}

In June 2020, two unpublished pages of Newton's notes on [[Biography:Jan Baptist van Helmont|Jan Baptist van Helmont]]'s book on plague, ''De Peste'',<ref>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.</ref> were being auctioned online by Bonhams. Newton's analysis of this book, which he made in Cambridge while protecting himself from London's 1665–1666 infection, is the most substantial written statement he is known to have made about the plague, according to Bonhams. As far as the therapy is concerned, Newton writes that "the best is a toad suspended by the legs in a chimney for three days, which at last vomited up earth with various insects in it, on to a dish of yellow wax, and shortly after died. Combining powdered toad with the excretions and serum made into lozenges and worn about the affected area drove away the contagion and drew out the poison".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=2 June 2020 |title=Isaac Newton proposed curing plague with toad vomit, unseen papers show |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/02/isaac-newton-plague-cure-toad-vomit |url-status=live |access-date=6 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606192933/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/02/isaac-newton-plague-cure-toad-vomit |archive-date=6 June 2020}}</ref>

== Legacy ==

=== Fame ===
[[File:Tumba de Isaac Newton - panoramio (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Newton's tomb monument in Westminster Abbey by John Michael Rysbrack]]

The mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange said that Newton was the greatest [[Philosophy:Genius|genius]] who ever lived, and once added that Newton was also "the most fortunate, for we cannot find more than once a system of the world to establish."<ref>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.</ref> English poet Alexander Pope wrote the famous epitaph:

{{blockquote|Nature, and Nature's laws lay hid in night.<br />
God said, ''Let Newton be!'' and all was light.}}

But this was not allowed to be inscribed in the monument. The epitaph in the monument is as follows:<ref name="westminster_newton">{{Cite web |last=Westminster Abbey |title=Sir Isaac Newton Scientist, Mathematician and Astronomer |url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/ko/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/sir-isaac-newton |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809191135/https://www.westminster-abbey.org/ko/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/sir-isaac-newton |archive-date=9 August 2022 |access-date=19 January 2022 |website=westminster-abbey.org}}</ref>

{{blockquote|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 Philosophiâ asseruit, / Evangelij Simplicitatem 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:<ref name="westminster_newton" />

{{blockquote|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.}}

In a 2005 survey of members of Britain's Royal Society (formerly headed by Newton) asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton or [[Biography:Albert Einstein|Albert Einstein]], the members deemed Newton to have made the greater overall contribution.<ref name="royalsoc.ac.uk" /> 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 by the site PhysicsWeb gave the top spot to Newton.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 November 1999 |title=Opinion poll. Einstein voted 'greatest physicist ever' by leading physicists; Newton runner-up |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/541840.stm |url-status=live |access-date=17 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812011359/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/541840.stm |archive-date=12 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=29 November 1999 |title=Newton tops PhysicsWeb poll |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/newton-tops-physicsweb-poll/ |access-date=13 October 2023 |website=Physics World |language=en-GB}}</ref> ''New Scientist'' called Newton "the supreme genius and most enigmatic character in the history of science".<ref name=":0" /> Einstein kept a picture of Newton on his study wall alongside ones of [[Biography:Michael Faraday|Michael Faraday]] and [[Biography:James Clerk Maxwell|James Clerk Maxwell]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gleeson-White |first=Jane |date=10 November 2003 |title=Einstein's Heroes |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/einsteins-heroes-20031110-gdhr3v.html |url-status=live |access-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128115406/https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/einsteins-heroes-20031110-gdhr3v.html |archive-date=28 November 2019}}</ref>

The [[SI derived unit]] of [[Physics:Force|force]] is named the [[Newton (unit)|newton]] in his honour.

Woolsthorpe Manor 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".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{NHLE|num=1062362|desc=Woolsthorpe Manor House, Colsterworth |access-date=5 October 2021}}</ref>

In 1816, a tooth said to have belonged to Newton was sold for £730<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 January 1881 |title=Silly relic-worship |page=10 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1881/01/16/archives/silly-relicworship-former-high-prices-for-personal-relics-of-great.html |url-status=live |access-date=12 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120194516/https://www.nytimes.com/1881/01/16/archives/silly-relicworship-former-high-prices-for-personal-relics-of-great.html |archive-date=20 January 2019}}</ref> in London to an aristocrat who had it set in a ring.<ref name="Guinness">{{Cite book |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/product-description/0553583786 |title=Guinness World Records 2002 |date=2002 |publisher=Bantam |isbn=978-0-553-58378-6 |editor-last=Cunningham |editor-first=Antonia |access-date=12 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809191132/https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553583786?ie=UTF8&*entries*=0&viewID=&*Version*=1 |archive-date=9 August 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> ''Guinness World Records 2002'' classified it as the most valuable tooth in the world, which would value approximately £25,000 ({{US$}}35,700) in late 2001.<ref name="Guinness" /> Who bought it and who currently has it has not been disclosed.

=== Apple incident ===
{{Main|Biology:Isaac Newton's apple tree}}
{{Multiple image|direction=vertical|align=right|image1=Sapling of newton apple tree (cropped).jpg|image2=Newton's tree, Botanic Gardens, Cambridge (sign).jpg|image3=Newtons apple.jpg|width=220|caption3=Reputed descendants of Newton's apple tree at (from top to bottom): Trinity College, Cambridge, the [[Organization:Cambridge University Botanic Garden|Cambridge University Botanic Garden]], and the Instituto Balseiro library garden in Argentina}}
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.{{sfn|White|1997|p=86}}{{sfn|Numbers|2015|pp=48–56}} The story is believed to have passed into popular knowledge after being related by Catherine Barton, Newton's niece, to [[Biography:Voltaire|Voltaire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Malament |first=David&nbsp;B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TqcMQy-Ioc4C&q=catherine+barton+apple&pg=PA118 |title=Reading Natural Philosophy: Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science and Mathematics |date=2002 |publisher=Open Court Publishing |isbn=978-0-8126-9507-6 |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414055334/https://books.google.com/books?id=TqcMQy-Ioc4C&q=catherine+barton+apple&pg=PA118 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Voltaire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0o5bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA104 |title=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 |date=1727 |publisher=Samuel Jallasson |location=London, England |page=104 |access-date=14 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614182518/https://books.google.com/books?id=0o5bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA104 |archive-date=14 June 2021 |url-status=live}} 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.'</ref><ref>Voltaire (1786) heard the story of Newton and the apple tree from Newton's niece, Catherine Conduit (née Barton) (1679–1740): {{Cite book |last=Voltaire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKWTGHiZSm4C&pg=PA175 |title=Oeuvres completes de Voltaire |date=1786 |publisher=Jean-Jacques Tourneisen |volume=31 |location=Basel, Switzerland |page=175 |language=French |trans-title=The complete works of Voltaire |access-date=15 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709192112/https://books.google.com/books?id=NKWTGHiZSm4C&pg=PA175 |archive-date=9 July 2021 |url-status=live}} 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.)</ref>

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,<ref name="Berkun2010" /> acquaintances of Newton (such as [[Biography:William Stukeley|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:<ref name="Newton's apple: The real story" /><ref name="Hamblyn (2011)" /><ref name="NP">{{Cite web |title=Revised Memoir of Newton (Normalized Version) |url=http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00001 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314064817/http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00001 |archive-date=14 March 2017 |access-date=13 March 2017 |website=The Newton Project}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|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: occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a comtemplative mood: "why should it not go sideways, or upwards? but constantly to the earths centre? assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. there 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."<!-- Please do not correct the spelling in this quotation, which is as per the cited source. -->}}

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:<ref name="Keynes Ms. 130.4:Conduitt's account of Newton's life at Cambridge" />

{{Blockquote|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.}}
[[File:Doctor Zirkel follows Newton's famous steps under the fabled Wellcome V0011942.jpg|alt=wood engraving of newton under the apple tree|thumb|upright=0.75|A wood engraving of Newton's famous steps under the apple tree]]
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.<ref>I. Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith, eds. ''The Cambridge Companion to Newton'' (2002) p. 6</ref> 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<ref>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}}</ref> 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<ref name="Brogdale—Home of the National Fruit Collection" /> can supply grafts from their tree, which appears identical to [[Biology:Flower of Kent|Flower of Kent]], a coarse-fleshed cooking variety.<ref name="From the National Fruit Collection: Isaac Newton's Tree" />

=== Commemorations ===
[[File:Isaac Newton statue.jpg|thumb|upright|Newton statue on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History]]
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.<ref>'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p13: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966</ref> 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.<ref name="wmabbey" /> The Latin inscription on the base translates as:

{{blockquote|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 25 December 1642, and died on 20 March 1726/7.
: —Translation from G. L. Smyth, ''The Monuments and Genii of St. Paul's Cathedral, and of Westminster Abbey'' (1826), ii, 703–704.<ref name="wmabbey" />}}

From 1978 until 1988, an image of Newton designed by Harry Ecclestone appeared on Series D £1 banknotes issued by the Bank of England (the last £1 notes to be issued by the Bank of England). Newton was shown on the reverse of the notes holding a book and accompanied by a telescope, a prism and a map of the [[Astronomy:Solar System|Solar System]].<ref name="bankofengland" />

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 [[Biography:William Blake|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".<ref name="ReferenceA" />
{{clear left}}

== The Enlightenment ==
[[Philosophy:Age of 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 [[Earth:Nature|nature]] and [[Philosophy:Natural law|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.<ref>Cassels, Alan. Ideology and International Relations in the Modern World. p. 2.</ref>

It is held by European philosophers of the Enlightenment and by historians of the Enlightenment that Newton's publication of the [[Physics:Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|''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.<ref>"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}}</ref> Locke and [[Biography:Voltaire|Voltaire]] applied concepts of natural law to political systems advocating intrinsic rights; the physiocrats and [[Biography:Adam Smith|Adam Smith]] applied natural conceptions of [[Social:Psychology|psychology]] and self-interest to economic systems; and sociologists criticised the current [[Social:Social order|social order]] for trying to fit history into natural models of progress. Monboddo and [[Biography:Samuel Clarke|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)<ref>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'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=pOQy6-qnVx8C&q=de%20analysi%20per%20aequationes%20numero%20terminorum%20infinitas&pg=PA563 Wiley-IEEE, 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602024647/https://books.google.com/books?id=pOQy6-qnVx8C&pg=PA563&q=de%20analysi%20per%20aequationes%20numero%20terminorum%20infinitas |date=2 June 2022 }} Retrieved 27 January 2012 {{ISBN|0-471-47129-1}}</ref>
* ''Of Natures Obvious Laws & Processes in Vegetation'' (unpublished, {{circa|1671}}–75)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Natures obvious laws & processes in vegetation – Introduction |url=http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/mss/intro/ALCH00081/query/field1=text&text1=Of%20Natures%20obvious%20laws%20&%20processes%20in%20vegetation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117172142/http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/mss/intro/ALCH00081/query/ |archive-date=17 January 2021 |access-date=17 January 2021 |website=The Chymistry of Isaac Newton}} Transcribed and online at Indiana University.</ref>
* ''[[Physics:De motu corporum in gyrum|De motu corporum in gyrum]]'' (1684)<ref>Whiteside, D.T., ed. (1974). ''Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton, 1684–1691''. '''6'''. Cambridge University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=lIZ0v23iqRgC&pg=PA30 pp.&nbsp;30–91.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610163025/https://books.google.com/books?id=lIZ0v23iqRgC&pg=PA30 |date=10 June 2016 }}</ref>
* ''[[Physics:Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica]]'' (1687)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Museum of London exhibit including facsimile of title page from John Flamsteed's copy of 1687 edition of Newton's ''Principia'' |url=http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/pepys/pages/largeImage.asp?id=101&size=3&nav=none |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331192529/http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/pepys/pages/largeImage.asp?id=101&size=3&nav=none |archive-date=31 March 2012 |access-date=16 March 2012 |publisher=Museumoflondon.org.uk}}</ref>
* ''[[Newton scale|Scala graduum Caloris. Calorum Descriptiones & signa]]'' (1701)<ref>Published anonymously as "Scala graduum Caloris. Calorum Descriptiones & signa." in ''Philosophical Transactions'', 1701, [https://books.google.com/books?id=x8NeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA824 824] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200121085937/https://books.google.com/books?id=x8NeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA824 |date=21 January 2020 }}–829;
ed. Joannes Nichols, ''Isaaci Newtoni Opera quae exstant omnia'', vol. 4 (1782), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&pg=PA403 403] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617115723/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dz2FzJqaJMUC&pg=PA403 |date=17 June 2016 }}–407.
Mark P. Silverman, ''A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe'', Springer, 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-Er5pIsYe_AC&pg=PA49 p. 49.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624011536/https://books.google.com/books?id=-Er5pIsYe_AC&pg=PA49 |date=24 June 2016 }}</ref>
* ''[[Physics:Opticks|Opticks]]'' (1704)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newton |first=Isaac |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3362k |title=Opticks or, a Treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light. Also two treatises of the species and magnitude of curvilinear figures |publisher=Sam. Smith. and Benj. Walford |year=1704 |access-date=17 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224021530/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3362k |archive-date=24 February 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Reports as Master of the Mint'' (1701–1725)<ref name="Pickover2008">{{Cite book |last=Pickover |first=Clifford |url={{Google books|SQXcpvjcJBUC|page=PA117|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-979268-9 |pages=117–18 |access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref>
* ''[[Arithmetica Universalis]]'' (1707)<ref name="Pickover2008" />

=== Published posthumously ===
* ''De mundi systemate'' (''The System of the World'') (1728)<ref name="Pickover2008" />
* ''Optical Lectures'' (1728)<ref name="Pickover2008" />
* ''[[History:The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended|The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended]]'' (1728)<ref name="Pickover2008" />
* ''Observations on Daniel and The Apocalypse of St. John'' (1733)<ref name="Pickover2008" />
* ''[[Method of Fluxions]]'' (1671, published 1736)<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Swetz |first=Frank&nbsp;J. |title=Mathematical Treasure: Newton's Method of Fluxions |url=https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-newtons-method-of-fluxions |url-status=live |magazine=Convergence |publisher=Mathematical Association of America |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628213844/http://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-newtons-method-of-fluxions |archive-date=28 June 2017 |access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref>
* ''An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture'' (1754)<ref name="Pickover2008" />

== See also ==
* ''Elements of the Philosophy of Newton'', a book by Voltaire
* [[List of multiple discoveries#17th century|List of multiple discoveries: seventeenth century]]
* List of things named after Isaac Newton
* List of presidents of the Royal Society

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{Notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Berkun2010">{{Cite book |last=Berkun |first=Scott |url={{Google books|kPCgnc70MSgC|page=PA4|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=The Myths of Innovation |date=2010 |publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4493-8962-8 |page=4 |}}</ref>

<ref name="Brogdale—Home of the National Fruit Collection">{{Cite web |title=Brogdale&nbsp;– Home of the National Fruit Collection |url=http://www.brogdale.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201035839/http://www.brogdale.org/ |archive-date=1 December 2008 |access-date=20 December 2008 |publisher=Brogdale.org}}</ref>

<ref name="Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in eighteenth-century Britain">{{Cite book |last=Haakonssen |first=Knud |title=Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-century Britain |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56060-3 |editor-last=Martin Fitzpatrick |location=Cambridge |page=64 |chapter=The Enlightenment, politics and providence: some Scottish and English comparisons}}</ref>

<ref name="From the National Fruit Collection: Isaac Newton's Tree">{{cite web |url=http://www.brogdale.org.uk/image1.php?varietyid=1089 |title=From the National Fruit Collection: Isaac Newton's Tree |access-date=10 January 2009 }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} [http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?varid=2946&&acc=1948729 Alternate Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705225956/http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?varid=2946&&acc=1948729 |date=5 July 2022 }} Retrieved 5 July 2022.</ref>

<ref name="Hamblyn (2011)">{{cite book|last=Hamblyn|first=Richard|date=2011|title=The Art of Science|publisher=Pan Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4472-0415-2|chapter-url={{Google books|1xKFSqsDj0MC|page=PT57|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|chapter=Newtonian Apples: William Stukeley}}</ref>

<ref name="Keynes Ms. 130.4:Conduitt's account of Newton's life at Cambridge">{{cite web|url=http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00167|last=Conduitt|first=John|title=Keynes Ms. 130.4:Conduitt's account of Newton's life at Cambridge|website=Newtonproject|publisher=Imperial College London|access-date=30 August 2006|archive-date=7 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091107101632/http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00167|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="More">{{cite book|last=Westfall|first=Richard&nbsp;S.|orig-year=1980|date=1983|title=Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-27435-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/neveratrestbiogr00west/page/530 530–31]|url=https://archive.org/details/neveratrestbiogr00west/page/530}}</ref>

<ref name="Newton's Alchemy and His Theory of Matter">{{cite journal|last=Dobbs|first=J.&nbsp;T.|date=December 1982|title=Newton's Alchemy and His Theory of Matter|journal=Isis|volume=73|issue=4|page=523|doi=10.1086/353114|s2cid=170669199}} quoting ''Opticks''</ref>

<ref name="Newton's apple: The real story">{{cite journal|journal=New Scientist|url=https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/newtons-apple-the-real-story.php|archive-url=https://archive.today/20100121073908/http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/newtons-apple-the-real-story.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 January 2010|title=Newton's apple: The real story|date=18 January 2010|access-date=10 May 2010}}</ref>

<ref name="Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)">{{cite web|url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html|title=Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)|website=Eric Weisstein's World of Biography|access-date=30 August 2006|publisher=Eric W. Weisstein|archive-date=28 April 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060428081045/http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="OPN1">{{cite journal|last=Duarte|first=F.&nbsp;J.|year=2000|title=Newton, prisms, and the 'opticks' of tunable lasers|journal=Optics and Photonics News|volume=11|issue=5|pages=24–25|doi=10.1364/OPN.11.5.000024|bibcode=2000OptPN..11...24D|url=http://www.tunablelasers.com/F.J.DuarteOPN%282000%29.pdf|access-date=17 February 2015|archive-date=17 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217223512/http://www.tunablelasers.com/F.J.DuarteOPN%282000%29.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England">{{cite book|last=Westfall |first=Richard&nbsp;S. |date=1958 |title=Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |page=200 |isbn=978-0-208-00843-5}}</ref>

<!--ref name="Singular scientists">{{cite journal|last=James|first=Ioan|date=January 2003|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=96|issue=1|pages=36–39|pmc=539373|doi=10.1258/jrsm.96.1.36|pmid=12519805|title=Singular scientists}}</ref-->

<ref name="The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes Volume X">{{cite book|last=Keynes |first=John Maynard |date=1972 |chapter=Newton, The Man |title=The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes Volume X |publisher=MacMillan St. Martin's Press |pages=363–66}}</ref>

<ref name="The Early Period (1608–1672)">{{cite web|url=http://etoile.berkeley.edu/~jrg/TelescopeHistory/Early_Period.html |title=The Early Period (1608–1672) |access-date=3 February 2009 |publisher=James R. Graham's Home Page }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

<ref name="The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689–1720">{{cite book|last=Jacob|first=Margaret&nbsp;C.|date=1976|title=The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689–1720|url=https://archive.org/details/newtoniansenglis00jaco|url-access=registration|publisher=Cornell University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newtoniansenglis00jaco/page/37 37], 44|isbn=978-0-85527-066-7}}</ref>

<ref name="White 1997, p170">{{harvnb|White|1997|p=170}}</ref>

<ref name="bankofengland">{{cite web|url=http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/denom_guide/nonflash/1-SeriesD-Revised.htm|title=Withdrawn banknotes reference guide|publisher=Bank of England|access-date=27 August 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505053927/http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/denom_guide/nonflash/1-SeriesD-Revised.htm|archive-date=5 May 2010}}</ref>

<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book |url={{Google books|7R8LsvMcUioC|page=|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Isaac Newton: adventurer in thought |page=67 |isbn=978-0-521-56669-8 |last=Hall |first=Alfred Rupert |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |oclc=606137087 |quote=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. }}</ref>

<!-- <ref name="dulles">Avery Cardinal Dulles. [https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/01/the-deist-minimum The Deist Minimum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006023220/http://www.firstthings.com/print.php?type=article&year=2008&month=08&title_link=the-deist-minimum--28 |date=6 October 2013 }} (January 2005).</ref> unused -->

<ref name="hooke1679nov24">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.</ref>

<ref name="royalsoc.ac.uk">{{cite web |title=Newton beats Einstein in polls of Royal Society scientists and the public |website=The Royal Society |url=http://royalsociety.org/News.aspx?id=1324&terms=Newton+beats+Einstein+in+polls+of+scientists+and+the+public |access-date=24 August 2010 |archive-date=13 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713073814/https://royalsociety.org/News.aspx?id=1324&terms=Newton+beats+Einstein+in+polls+of+scientists+and+the+public |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="wmabbey">{{cite web|url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/sir-isaac-newton|title=Famous People & the Abbey: Sir Isaac Newton|publisher=Westminster Abbey|access-date=13 November 2009|archive-date=16 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016081238/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/sir-isaac-newton|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Whittaker">[[Biography:E. T. Whittaker|Whittaker, E.T.]], ''A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity'', Dublin University Press, 1910.</ref>}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|last=Ball|first=W.&nbsp;W. Rouse|title=A Short Account of the History of Mathematics|location=New York|publisher=Dover|date=1908|isbn=978-0-486-20630-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/shortaccountofhi0000ball}}
* {{cite book|last=Gjertsen|first=Derek|title=The Newton Handbook|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|location=London|date=1986|isbn=0-7102-0279-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=David S.  |editor1-last=Kushner |editor1-first=Tony |title=The Marginalization of Early Modern Jewish History |date=1992 |publisher=Frank Cass |isbn=0-7146-3464-6 |pages=42–59 |chapter=Englishness and Medieval Anglo-Jewry}}
* {{cite book|last=Levenson|first=Thomas|title= Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist|publisher=Mariner Books|date=2010|isbn=978-0-547-33604-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Manuel|first=Frank&nbsp;E.|title=A Portrait of Isaac Newton|url=https://archive.org/details/portraitofisaacn00manu|url-access=registration|date=1968|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA}}
* {{cite book|last=Numbers|first=R.&nbsp;L.|year=2015|title=Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science|url={{google books|pWouCwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}}|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-91547-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Stewart|first=James|title=Calculus: Concepts and Contexts|publisher=Cengage Learning|date=2009|isbn=978-0-495-55742-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Westfall|first=Richard&nbsp;S.|title=Never at Rest|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1980|isbn=978-0-521-27435-7|url=https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28westfall%29%20newton}}
* {{cite book|last=Westfall|first=Richard&nbsp;S.|title=Isaac Newton|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2007|isbn=978-0-19-921355-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Westfall|first=Richard&nbsp;S.|title=The Life of Isaac Newton|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1994|isbn=978-0-521-47737-6|url=https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28westfall%29%20newton}}
* {{cite book|title=Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer|first=Michael|last=White|publisher=Fourth Estate Limited|date=1997|isbn=978-1-85702-416-6}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
=== Primary ===
{{refbegin|colwidth=30em}}
* 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) [https://archive.org/details/opticksoratreat00newtgoog online edition]
** 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. [[Biography:Florian Cajori|Florian Cajori]]. Berkeley: University of California Press (1934)
* {{cite book|editor-last=Whiteside|editor-first=D.&nbsp;T.|title=The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1967–1982|isbn=978-0-521-07740-8}}&nbsp;– 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; [[Biography:Roger Cotes|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
{{refend}}

=== Alchemy ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last=Craig|first=John|title=Newton at the Mint|date=1946|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England}}
* {{cite book|last=Craig|first=John|title=The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948|chapter=XII. Isaac Newton|publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}|year=1953|place=Cambridge, England|pages=198–222|asin=B0000CIHG7}}
* {{cite book|last=de Villamil|first= Richard|title=Newton, the Man|publisher=G.&nbsp;D. Knox|location=London|year=1931}}&nbsp;– Preface by Albert Einstein. Reprinted by Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York (1972)
* {{cite book|last=Dobbs|first=B.&nbsp;J.&nbsp;T.|title=The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy or "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon"|year=1975|publisher=Cambridge University Press|place=Cambridge}}
* {{cite book|last=Keynes|first=John Maynard|title=Essays in Biography|publisher=W.&nbsp;W. Norton & Co|date=1963|isbn=978-0-393-00189-1|url=https://archive.org/details/essaysinbiograph0000keyn}} Keynes took a close interest in Newton and owned many of Newton's private papers.
* {{cite book|last=Stukeley|first=W.|title=Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life|publisher=Taylor and Francis|place=London|date=1936}} (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.
{{Refend}}

=== Religion ===
{{refbegin|colwidth=40em}}
* 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
* {{cite journal |last1=Pfizenmaier |first1=Thomas&nbsp;C. |title=Was Isaac Newton an Arian? |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |year=1997 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=57–80 |doi=10.1353/jhi.1997.0001 |jstor=3653988 |s2cid=170545277 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Ramati |first1=Ayval |title=The Hidden Truth of Creation: Newton's Method of Fluxions |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |date=2001 |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=417–38 |doi=10.1017/S0007087401004484 |jstor=4028372 |s2cid=143045863 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Snobelen |first1=Stephen&nbsp;D. |title='God of Gods, and Lord of Lords': The Theology of Isaac Newton's General Scholium to the Principia |journal=Osiris |date=2001 |volume=16 |pages=169–208 |doi=10.1086/649344 |jstor=301985 |bibcode=2001Osir...16..169S |s2cid=170364912 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Snobelen |first1=Stephen&nbsp;D. |title=Isaac Newton, heretic: the strategies of a Nicodemite |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |date=December 1999 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=381–419 |doi=10.1017/S0007087499003751 |jstor=4027945 |s2cid=145208136 }}
{{refend}}

=== Science ===
{{refbegin|colwidth=40em}}
* {{cite book|last=Bechler|first=Zev|title=Contemporary Newtonian Research (Studies in the History of Modern Science)(Volume 9)|date=2013|publisher=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}}
* {{cite book|title=Newton's Principia for the Common Reader|last=Chandrasekhar|first=Subrahmanyan|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-19-851744-3|location=Oxford|}}
* 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 {{cite web |url=http://www.questia.com/read/105054986 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Newton |access-date=13 October 2008 |archive-date=8 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081008010311/http://www.questia.com/read/105054986 |url-status=bot: unknown }}
* {{cite book|last=Christianson|first=Gale|title=In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton & His Times|location=New York|publisher=Free Press|date=1984|isbn=978-0-02-905190-0|url=https://archive.org/details/inpresenceofcr00chri}} This well documented work provides, in particular, valuable information regarding Newton's knowledge of [[Religion:Patristics|Patristics]]
* {{cite book|last=Cohen|first=I.&nbsp;B.|title=The Newtonian Revolution|date=1980|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-22964-7}}
* {{cite journal|last=Craig|first=John|title=Isaac Newton&nbsp;– Crime Investigator|journal=Nature|year=1958|volume=182|issue=4629|pages=149–52|doi=10.1038/182149a0|bibcode=1958Natur.182..149C|s2cid=4200994}}
* {{cite journal|last=Craig|first=John|title=Isaac Newton and the Counterfeiters|journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=18|issue=2|year=1963|pages=136–45|doi=10.1098/rsnr.1963.0017|s2cid=143981415}}
* {{cite book|last=Gleick|first= James|title=Isaac Newton|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|date=2003|isbn=978-0-375-42233-1}}
* {{cite journal|last=Halley|first=E.|title=Review of Newton's Principia|year=1687|journal= [[Philosophy:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions]]|volume=186|pages=291–97}}
* [[Biography:Stephen Hawking|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
* {{cite book|last=Herivel|first=J.&nbsp;W.|title=The Background to Newton's Principia. A Study of Newton's Dynamical Researches in the Years 1664–84|url=https://archive.org/details/backgroundtonewt0000heri|url-access=registration|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|date=1965}}
* Newton, Isaac. ''Papers and Letters in Natural Philosophy'', edited by [[Biography:I. Bernard Cohen|I. Bernard Cohen]]. Harvard University Press, 1958, 1978; {{isbn|0-674-46853-8}}.
* {{cite journal|last=Pemberton|first=H.|title=A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy|journal=The Physics Teacher|volume=4|issue=1|pages=8–9|year=1728|bibcode=1966PhTea...4....8M|doi=10.1119/1.2350900}}
* {{cite book |last=Shamos |first=Morris&nbsp;H. |title=Great Experiments in Physics |location=New York |publisher=Henry Holt and Company, Inc. |date=1959 |isbn=978-0-486-25346-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/greatexperiments0000unse }}
{{refend}}

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* [http://www.enlighteningscience.sussex.ac.uk/home Enlightening Science digital project]: Texts of his papers, "Popularisations" and podcasts at the Newton Project
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{NPG name|name=Sir Isaac Newton}}

=== Writings by Newton ===
* [http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=43 Newton's works&nbsp;– full texts, at the Newton Project]
* [https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/s/rs/people/fst01801333 Newton's papers in the Royal Society's archives]
* [http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/Humanities/Pages/newton.aspx The Newton Manuscripts at the National Library of Israel&nbsp;– the collection of all his religious writings]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=6288| name=Isaac Newton}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Isaac Newton}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2836}}
* [http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/newton "Newton Papers"]&nbsp;– Cambridge Digital Library

{{Isaac Newton|state=collapsed}}
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{{Age of Enlightenment}}
{{Metaphysics}}
{{Philosophy of science}}
{{Scientists whose names are used as SI units}}
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{{s-ttl|title=Warden of the Mint|years=1696–1700}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Isaac}}
[[Category:Critics of atheism]]
[[Category:Experimental physicists]]
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{{Sourceattribution|Isaac Newton}}