It was only under the urging of astronomer Edmund Halley (he of Halley's Comet fame) that Newton was persuaded to publish his ideas on physics and astronomy, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1687). ![]() Unfortunately, Newton quarreled with several of the leading scientists of the time, and was reluctant to publish his experiments and philosophies. He donated one of his telescopes to the Royal Society in 1672, and was named a full fellow of the society. He was one of the first to argue that white light is actually composed of many different colours, and he constructed one of the first reflecting telescopes. He also delved into astronomy and optics. His fresh ideas began to circulate among the leading mathematicians of the day. When Cambridge reopened, Newton became a Fellow of Trinity College. He wrote De Methodis Serierum et Fluxionum in 1671, though it was not published during his lifetime. ![]() In the two years he spent in inadvertent exile from Cambridge, Newton made extraordinary strides in mathematics, creating the basis of modern calculus. It was during this time of retreat that the famous incident of a falling apple gave Newton the first glimmerings of the ideas he later developed into his study of gravitational forces. He received his bachelor's degree in the spring of 1665, but then an outbreak of the plague forced the university to close, and Newton returned to his Lincolnshire home. Newton intended to study law, but his taste quickly turned to mathematics. He was allowed to return to school, and he must have improved his study habits, for his mother was persuaded to allow him to enter university at Trinity College, Cambridge. His mother removed him from school and gave him the task of managing her estate, but at this, he also proved unfortunately inept. He was educated at Grantham Free Grammar School, where he showed no aptitude for study. Isaac's mother Hannah remarried when Isaac was only two years old, and he was left in the care of his grandmother. His father, also named Isaac, died before he was born. ![]() Isaac Newton was born on 4 January 1643 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire (25 December 1642, according to the Old Style calendar).
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