Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Eve 1642 in the village of Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire.
His father died before his son was born.
Newton's mother, nee Aiskof, gave birth prematurely shortly after her husband's death, and the newborn Isaac was strikingly small and frail.
Newton, however, lived to a very old age and always, with the exception of short term disorders and one serious illness, was in good health.
By property status, the Newton family belonged to the number of middle class farmers.
The first three years of his life, little Isaac spent exclusively in the care of his mother.
But after marrying the priest Smith for the second time, the mother entrusted the child to her grandmother, her mother.
When Isaac grew up, he was placed in an elementary school.
Upon reaching the age of twelve, the boy began attending a public school in Grantham.
He was placed in the apartment of the pharmacist Clark, where he lived intermittently for about six years.
Life at the apothecary's for the first time aroused in him a desire to study chemistry; as for school science, it was not given to Newton.
In all probability, the main fault in this case should be attributed to the inability of teachers.
Since childhood, the future scientist loved to build various mechanical devices — and forever remained, first of all, a mechanic.
While living with Clark, Isaac managed to prepare for university classes.
On June 5, 1660, when Newton was not yet eighteen years old, he was admitted to the Trinity College.
Cambridge University was at that time one of the best in Europe, where philological and mathematical sciences flourished equally.
Newton turned his main attention to mathematics.
Little is known about Newton's first three years at Cambridge.
According to the university's books, in 1661 he was a "sub emperor".
This was the name of poor students who did not have the means to pay for their studies and were not yet sufficiently prepared to listen to a real university course.
They attended some lectures and at the same time had to serve the richer ones.
It was not until 1664 that Newton became a real student; in 1665 he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (verbal sciences) degree.
His first scientific experiments are connected with the research of light.
As a result of many years of work, Newton found that the white sunbeam is a mixture of many colors.
The scientist proved that with the help of a prism, white color can be decomposed into its constituent colors.
Studying the refraction of light in thin films, Newton observed a diffraction pattern called "Newton's rings".
The full significance of this discovery was realized only in the second half of the XIX century, when spectral analysis appeared on its basis — a new method that allowed studying the chemical composition of even stars far from the Earth.
In 1666, an epidemic broke out in Cambridge, which was considered a plague according to the custom of the time, and Newton retired to his Woolsthorpe.
Here, in the quiet of the village, with no books or appliances at hand, living an almost hermit's life, twenty four year old Newton indulged in deep philosophical reflections.
Their fruit was the most brilliant of his discoveries — the doctrine of universal gravitation.
Newton liked to think while sitting in the garden, in the open air.
The legend says that Newton's thoughts were interrupted by the fall of a full apple.
The famous apple tree was kept for a long time for the edification of posterity, later withered, was cut down and turned into a historical monument in the form of a bench.
Newton had been thinking about the laws of falling bodies for a long time, and it is very possible that the fall of the apple again led him to think.
Newton himself wrote many years later that he derived the mathematical formula expressing the law of universal gravitation from the study of Kepler's famous laws.
Newton could never have developed and proved his brilliant idea if he had not possessed a powerful mathematical method that neither Hooke nor any of Newton's predecessors knew — this is the analysis of infinitesimal quantities, now known as differential and integral calculus.
Long before Newton, many philosophers and mathematicians were engaged in the question of infinitesimals, but limited themselves to only the most elementary conclusions.
In 1669, Newton was already a professor of mathematics at this university, having inherited the department, which was headed by the famous mathematician of that time, Isaac Barrow.
It was there that Newton made his first major discovery.
Almost simultaneously with the German mathematician Leibniz, he created the most important branches of mathematics — differential and integral calculus.
But Newton's discoveries were not only about mathematics.
Newton created his method based on previous discoveries made by him in the field of analysis, but in the most important issue he turned to the help of geometry and mechanics.
It is not known exactly when Newton discovered his new method.
Due to the close connection of this method with the theory of gravitation, it should be assumed that it was developed by Newton between 1666 and 1669, and, in any case, before the first discoveries made in this area by Leibniz.
After returning to Cambridge, Newton engaged in scientific and teaching activities.
From 1669 to 1671, he gave lectures in which he presented his main discoveries regarding the analysis of light rays; but none of his scientific works had yet been published.
Newton was still working on improving optical mirrors.
The Gregory reflecting telescope with a hole in the middle of the objective mirror did not satisfy Newton.
"The disadvantages of this telescope," he says, " seemed to me very significant, and I found it necessary to change the design by placing the eyepiece on the side of the tube."
Nevertheless, there was still a lot of work left in the field of telescope technology.
Newton first tried to polish magnifying glasses, but after the discoveries he made regarding the decomposition of light rays, he abandoned the idea of improving refractive telescopes and took up the polishing of concave mirrors.
The telescope made by Newton can rightfully be considered the first reflecting telescope.
Then the scientist made another telescope of larger size and better quality by hand.
The Royal Society of London finally found out about these telescopes, which appealed to Newton through the medium of its secretary Oldenburg with a request to report the details of the invention.
In 1670, Newton handed over his telescope to Oldenburg — an event very important in his life, since this instrument for the first time made Newton's name known to the entire scientific world of that time.
At the end of 1670, Newton was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London.
In 1678, the secretary of the Royal Society of London, Oldenburg, who treated Newton extremely friendly and with the greatest respect, died.
His place was taken by Hooke, who, although envious of Newton, involuntarily recognized his genius.
It should be noted that Hooke played a role in Newton's outstanding discoveries.
Newton believed that a falling body, due to the connection of its motion with the motion of the Earth, would describe a helical line.
Hooke showed that a helical line is obtained only if we take into account the resistance of the air and that in the void the movement must be elliptical — we are talking about a true movement, that is, one that we could observe if we ourselves did not participate in the movement of the globe.
After checking Hooke's conclusions, Newton was convinced that a body thrown at a sufficient speed, while at the same time under the influence of the force of gravity, can really describe an elliptical path.
Reflecting on this subject, Newton discovered the famous theorem according to which a body under the influence of an attractive force, similar to the force of gravity, always describes a conic section, that is, one of the curves obtained when the cone intersects with a plane (ellipse, hyperbola, parabola and in particular cases a circle and a straight line).
Beyond that.
Newton found that the center of attraction, that is, the point at which the action of all the attractive forces acting on a moving point is concentrated, is at the focus of the described curve.
Thus, the center of the Sun is (approximately) in the general focus of the ellipses described by the planets.
Having achieved such results, Newton immediately saw that he had deduced theoretically, that is, based on the principles of rational mechanics, one of Kepler's laws, which states that the centers of the planets describe ellipses and that the center of the Sun is in the focus of their orbits.
But Newton was not satisfied with this basic coincidence of theory with observation.
He wanted to make sure whether it was really possible to calculate the elements of planetary orbits with the help of theory, that is, to predict all the details of planetary movements.
Wanting to make sure whether the force of gravity that causes bodies to fall to the Earth is identical with the force that keeps the Moon in its orbit, Newton began to calculate, but, having no books at hand, he used only the crudest data.
The calculation showed that with such numerical data, the earth's gravity is one sixth greater than the force holding the Moon in its orbit, and it seems that there is some reason that counteracts the movement of the Moon.
As soon as Newton learned about the measurement of the meridian made by the French scientist Picard, he immediately made new calculations and to his great joy was convinced that his long standing views were completely confirmed.
The force that causes bodies to fall to the Earth turned out to be exactly equal to that which controls the movement of the Moon.
This conclusion was a supreme triumph for Newton.
Now his words "Genius is the patience of a thought focused in a certain direction"were fully justified.
All his deep hypotheses, long term calculations turned out to be correct.
Now he was fully and finally convinced of the possibility of creating an entire system of the universe based on one simple and great beginning.
All the complex movements of the Moon, planets, and even comets wandering in the sky became quite clear to him.
It became possible to scientifically predict the movements of all the bodies of the Solar system, and perhaps the Sun itself, and even stars and star systems.
At the end of 1683, Newton finally informed the Royal Society of the basic principles of his system, setting them out in the form of a series of theorems about the motion of the planets.
Newton presented his main conclusions in a fundamental work entitled "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy".
Before the end of April 1686, the first two parts of his book were ready and sent to London.
In the field of mechanics, Newton not only developed the positions of Galileo and other scientists, but also gave new principles, not to mention a lot of remarkable individual theorems.
According to Newton himself, even Galileo established the principles that Newton called "the first two laws of motion".
Newton formulates these laws as follows: Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform rectilinear motion until some force acts on it and forces it to change this state.
II.
The change in motion is proportional to the driving force and is directed along the straight line along which this force acts.
In addition to these two laws, Newton formulated a third law of motion, expressing it as follows III.
The action is always equal and directly opposite to the reaction, that is, the actions of two bodies on each other are always equal and directed in opposite directions.
Having established the general laws of motion.
Newton deduced from them many consequences and theorems that allowed him to bring theoretical mechanics to a high degree of perfection.
With the help of these theoretical principles, he deduces his law of gravitation in detail from Kepler's laws and then solves the inverse problem, that is, shows what the motion of the planets should be if the law of gravitation is recognized as proven.
Newton's discovery led to the creation of a new picture of the world, according to which all the planets located at enormous distances from each other are connected into one system.
With this law, Newton laid the foundation for a new branch of astronomy — celestial mechanics, which today studies the movement of planets and allows you to calculate their position in space.
Newton was able to calculate the orbits along which the moons of Jupiter and Saturn move, and, using this data, to determine with what force the Earth attracts the Moon.
In turn, all this data will be used for future near Earth space flights.
Further research by Newton allowed him to determine the mass and density of the planets and the Sun itself.
Newton showed that the density of the Sun is four times less than the density of the Earth, and the average density of the Earth is approximately equal to the density of granite and generally the heaviest rocks.
With respect to the planets, Newton found that the planets closest to the Sun have the highest density.
Next, Newton began to calculate the shape of the globe.
He showed that the Earth has a spheroidal shape, namely, it is like a ball, expanded at the equator and flattened at the poles.
The scientist proved the dependence of the tides on the joint action of the Moon and the Sun on the waters of the seas and oceans.
As for the so called "celestial mechanics" itself, Newton not only advanced, but, we can say, created this science, since only a number of empirical data existed before him.
Newton's theory of the motion of comets, which he considered insufficiently developed and published only at Halley's insistence, is very interesting.
Thanks to Newton's calculations, Halley was able to predict the appearance of a huge comet, which really appeared in the sky in 1759.
It was named Halley's comet.
In 1842, the famous German astronomer Bessel predicted the existence of an invisible satellite near the star Sirius on the basis of Newton's law.
The discovery of this satellite in 10 years was proof that the law of universal gravitation not only operates in the Solar system, but is also one of the general laws of the universe.
In 1688, Newton was elected to parliament, albeit by a small majority, and sat in the so called Convention until its dissolution.
In 1689, Newton suffered a family grief, his mother died of typhus.
Informed of her illness, he asked for a leave of absence from parliament and hurried to her.
The great scientist spent whole nights at his bedside he himself gave her medicines and prepared mustard plasters and flies, caring for the patient like the best nurse.
But the disease turned out to be fatal.
The death of his mother deeply upset Newton and, perhaps, contributed a lot to the strong nervous irritability that manifested itself in him somewhat later than the illness.
But even after his illness, Newton continued his scientific work, although not with the same intensity.
He finally developed the theory of the moon's motion and prepared repeated editions of his immortal work, in which he made many new, very important additions.
After his illness, he created his own theory of astronomical refraction, that is, the refraction of the rays of the luminaries in the layers of the Earth's atmosphere.
Finally, after his illness, Newton solved several very difficult problems proposed by other mathematicians.
Newton was already over fifty years old.
Despite his great fame and the brilliant success of his book (the publication did not belong to him, but to the Royal Society), Newton lived in very straitened circumstances, and sometimes he simply needed it happened that he could not pay a trifling membership fee.
His salary was insignificant, and Newton spent everything he had, partly on chemical experiments, partly on helping his relatives; he even helped his old love the former Miss Storey.
In 1695, Newton's material circumstances changed.
A close friend and admirer of Newton, Charles Montagu, a young aristocrat, twenty years younger than Newton, was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.
After taking up this post, Montague took up the issue of improving the monetary circulation in England, where at that time, after a number of wars and revolutions, there were a lot of counterfeit and non paper coins, which brought great damage to trade.
Montague decided to re mint the whole coin.
To give the greatest weight to his evidence, Montague turned to the celebrities of that time, including Newton.
And the scientist did not deceive his friend's expectations.
He took up the new business with extreme zeal and quite conscientiously, and with his knowledge of chemistry and mathematical ingenuity, he rendered great services to the country.
Thanks to this, the difficult and complicated business of re minting was successfully completed within two years, which immediately restored the trade credit.
Soon after, Newton was made chief director of the mint from the manager of the mint and began to receive 15,000 rubles a year; he held this position until his death.
With Newton's extremely moderate lifestyle, he had formed a whole capital out of his salary.
In 1701, Newton was elected a member of Parliament, and in 1703 became president of the Royal Society of England.
In 1705, the English king elevated Newton to knighthood.
Newton was distinguished by modesty and shyness.
He did not dare to publish his discoveries for a long time, and even planned to destroy some of the chapters of his immortal "Beginnings".
"The only reason I stand high," said Newton,"is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."
Dr. Pemberton, who met Newton when the latter was already old, could not marvel at the modesty of this genius.
According to him, Newton was extremely friendly, did not have the slightest affectation of eccentricity and was alien to the antics characteristic of other "geniuses".
He adapted perfectly to any society and did not show the slightest sign of arrogance anywhere.
But in others, Newton did not like an arrogant authoritative tone and especially did not tolerate ridicule of other people's beliefs.
Newton never kept accounts of money.
His generosity was boundless.
He used to say, " People who did not help anyone during their lifetime have never helped anyone."
In the last years of his life, Newton became rich and distributed money; but even before, when he himself needed the necessary things, he always supported close and distant relatives.
Subsequently, Newton donated a large sum to the parish in which he was born, and often gave scholarships to young people.
So, in 1724, he appointed a scholarship of two hundred rubles to Maclaren, later a famous mathematician, sending him to Edinburgh at his own expense as an assistant to James Gregory.
Since 1725, Newton stopped going to work.
Isaac Newton died on the night of March 20, 1726 during the plague epidemic.
On the day of his funeral, national mourning was declared.
His ashes rest in Westminster Abbey, next to other prominent people of England.
