Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian. He is known and considered by many scholars and members of the public to be one of the most influential people in human history. He lived from January 4^th 1643- March 31^st 1727. Isaac Newton’s book, Philosophice Naturalis Principia Mathematica (which was Latin for Mathematical Principles Of Natural Philosophy) was published in 1687 and is known to be one of the most important scientific books ever written in history. In his book, he describes universal gravitation and the three laws of motion which is all very relevant. It dominated the scientific view of the physical universe itself for the next three centuries. He also showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws. He did this by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation. This itself removed the last doubts of heliocentrism and advancing the Scientific Revolution. Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed his own theory on colour based on the looks that a prism decomposes white light into many colours that from the visible spectrum. He also studied the speed of sound. In mathematics, he is very much known for demonstrating the generalized binomial theorem, developed Newton’s method for approximating the roots of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.