Isaac Newton

1643 – 1727 · died at about 84^[1][2]

Science & Invention

Fun Facts About Isaac Newton

• Isaac Newton hunted counterfeiters while running the Royal Mint, going undercover in bars and taverns to gather evidence. He prosecuted 28 coiners.^[1]
• Newton himself told the story of a falling apple inspiring his theory of gravitation, but the apple never hit him on the head: that version is apocryphal.^[1]
• About one million of Newton's estimated ten million written words deal with alchemy, and his hair was later found to contain mercury.^[1]
• Newton's Cambridge lectures were almost always empty. When nobody came, he would cut the lecture from 30 to 15 minutes and talk to the walls.^[1]
• Newton lost at least 10,000 pounds when the South Sea Company collapsed in the South Sea Bubble around 1720.^[1]
• Albert Einstein kept a picture of Newton on his study wall, next to pictures of Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell.^{[1][3][4][5][6]}
• Isaac Newton and Johann Sebastian Bach were alive at the same time for 42 years.^[1][2][7][8]
• Isaac Newton was alive at the same time as Immanuel Kant — their lives overlapped for 3 years (1724–1727).^{[1][2][9][10]}

Sir Isaac Newton was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, author and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, achieved the first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating infinitesimal calculus, although he developed calculus years before Leibniz. Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science.^[1]

Contemporaries

Christopher Wren

80 yr overlap

Louis XIV

72 yr overlap

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

70 yr overlap

John Locke

61 yr overlap

Peter the Great

53 yr overlap

Matsuo Bashō

50 yr overlap

Antonio Vivaldi

49 yr overlap

Johann Sebastian Bach

42 yr overlap

George Frideric Handel

42 yr overlap

Baruch Spinoza

34 yr overlap

Voltaire

33 yr overlap

Johannes Vermeer

32 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Isaac Newton

When was Isaac Newton born?

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, and died on March 31, 1727.

How old was Isaac Newton at death?

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643, and died on March 31, 1727, at age 84.

What was Isaac Newton known for?

Isaac Newton was known for: Laws of motion and gravity. Sir Isaac Newton was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, author and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687, achieved the first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating infinitesimal calculus, although he developed calculus years before Leibniz. Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science.

Who was alive at the same time as Isaac Newton?

Isaac Newton's closest contemporary was Christopher Wren. Their lives overlapped for 80 years.