ISAAC NEWTON
(copyright: http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Newton.html, 2000)
Isaac Newton was born in 1642 in a
manor house in Lincolnshire, England. He
was born into a poor farming family, and because he was not a good farmer he
was sent to study to become a preacher in 1661.
Cambridge University, where he went to study, was dominated by the
philosophy of Aristotle at the time and it was not until his third year was
young Newton able to study freely. While
away studying at Cambridge Isaac studied mathematics. He was forced to leave the school when it was
shutdown due to the plague. During this time was some of his greatest
achievements in mathematics were made, although none of his results were
published at this time. While he was
attending school he was fascinated with astronomy and the optics which were the
studies of Galileo for astronomy and Kepler’s studies of the optics. Newton’s real ability is believed to have
started around 1663.