Start Here
Everything on this page fits on one screen. Everything else is one click deeper.
Newton in thirty seconds
- Who: Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727, Julian calendar), English mathematician and natural philosopher.
- Famous for: the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), which set out universal gravitation and the laws of motion; the Opticks (1704); the reflecting telescope; and — independently of Leibniz — the calculus.
- Less famous for: decades of alchemical experiments, voluminous (and heretical) biblical scholarship, and running the Royal Mint, where he prosecuted counterfeiters.
- Never married; died childless; buried in Westminster Abbey.
What’s certain vs. what’s argued
| Settled | Contested or uncertain |
|---|---|
| He wrote the Principia (1687) and the Opticks (1704) | Whether the “shoulders of giants” line was humble or a jab at Hooke |
| He developed his method of fluxions (calculus) by the late 1660s, before Leibniz published in 1684 | How much his alchemy actually fed his physics |
| He corresponded with Hooke about orbital motion in 1679–80 | What caused his 1693 breakdown |
| He ran the Mint from 1696 and the Royal Society from 1703 | How far his religious views went (he kept them private; the manuscripts suggest anti-Trinitarianism) |
How to use this site
- Overview: biography for the narrative, timeline for the dates.
- Depth: works for the books and papers, sayings for verified quotations.
- Context: people for his allies and enemies, glossary for the terminology.
- Skepticism: reception for which Newton stories survive scrutiny and which don’t.
- Standards: methodology explains our date conventions and quote tiers; sources lists the archives.
A note on dates
England used the Julian calendar in Newton’s lifetime, and the English year began on 25 March. So his birth — Christmas Day 1642 in England — was 4 January 1643 on the continent. We give Old Style dates as contemporaries wrote them and note the modern equivalents where it matters.
Source notes
- Birth and death dates: parish and biographical records as summarized in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Newton; calendar explanation per this site’s methodology.
- “Never married; buried in Westminster Abbey”: standard biographical record (Westfall, Never at Rest).