Early Life

       Sir Isaac Newton is considered by many people to be the greatest scientist that ever lived.  He made key fundamental contributions to mathematics and physics.  His revolutionary advances in math, optics, physics, and astronomy are bases for the principles we use today.  A little known fact about Newton's legacy is that if you look in an encyclopedia of science, it will reveal at least 2 to 3 times more references to Newton than any other individual scientist.
      
       Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England.  He was born the same day that Galileo Galilei died.  His step- father died a couple months before he was born, and 2 years later his mother marries a well-to-do minister by the name of Barnabas Smith.  Newton's mother, Hannah, soon left her son with his grandmother in order to start a new life with her husband.  Due to his traumatic past at an early age, Newton showed signs of psychotic tendencies.

       Later on his step-father died and Hannah wanted Newton to manage the considerable amount of property she then owned.  This turned out to be a disaster, Newton had no interest in rural affairs only to read underneath a tree.  By June 1661 Newton was ready to move on in life, so he enrolled in Trinity College, Cambridge.  This was the start of his famous life.