1.
Baby Newton Wasn't Expected to Live
In 1642, the year that Galileo
Galilei died, Isaac Newton was born prematurely on Christmas Day*. Named after
his father, who died just three months before he was born, Isaac was a very
small baby not expected to survive. His mother even said that Isaac was so
small that he could have fit inside a quart mug. (Source: Isaac Newton's Early Years [wiki])
*There is controversy about this
date, some said that he was born on January 4, 1643. The discrepancy is due to
the adoption of the new Gregorian calendar.
2.
Newton Almost Became a Farmer
Newton was born into a farming family.
When he was 17, his mother insisted that he returned from school to run the
family farm! Thankfully, Newton was a bad farmer and not long afterwards, his
uncle successfully persuaded his mother to let him attend Trinity College in
Cambridge instead. (Source: Isaac Newton's Early Years [wiki])
3.
Newton and His Apple: The True Story
The story (popularized by Voltaire,
no less!) said that Newton was inspired when he saw a falling apple while
walking around his family's garden at Woolsthorpe Manor, to formulate his
theory of universal gravitation (some version even claimed the apple fell on
his head!).
Newton himself actually said that he
was staring out the window in his house when he saw an apple fall from a tree.
Whatever happened to the tree? The
King's School in Grantham, Linconshire, England, where Newton went to school,
claimed to have purchased the tree and moved it to its garden. Naturally, this is
a bone of contention with the Woolsthorpe Manor people who are currently in
charge of the upkeep of Newton's home (now a historic site). (Source: Newton's Apple [wiki])
4.
Newton was Secretive - He Rarely Published
There's no doubt that Newton was
brilliant, but what is not commonly known was that the majority of Newton's
discoveries were made between his twenty-first and twenty-seventh years. Yet,
he didn't disclose these findings to the world until years later.
Take for example Newton's work on
optics: his ground-breaking experiments on the nature of light (that ordinary
white light is actually composed of a spectrum of colors) were done by 1669,
when Newton was just 27 years old
Newton's secretiveness had led to
many quarrels over credit. For example, when mathematician Gottfried
Leibniz [wiki] published his work on calculus, Newton countered that
he had invented methods for that branch of math many years previously but
didn't publish, thus sparking one of the largest controversy in mathematics: who truly invented calculus [wiki]?
5.
Newton was Deeply Religious ...
Newton's work, particularly the laws of motion [wiki] and universal gravitation [wiki], had been used by
some people to argue against the existence of God. Newton himself, however,
said:
"Gravity explains the motions
of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God
governs all things and knows all that is or can be done."
"This most beautiful system of
the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion
of an intelligent Being. … This Being governs all things, not as the soul of
the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to
be called 'Lord God' [pantokrator], or 'Universal Ruler'. … The Supreme God is
a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect."
"Opposition to godliness is
atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and
odious to mankind that it never had many professors." (Source: Isaac Newton's Religious Views [wiki])
6.
... But, He Didn't Believe in Satan or the Holy Trinity
In spite of his deep religious
conviction, Newton was unorthodox when it comes to his belief of the devil,
spirits and ghosts. He also assailed people who claimed to be tempted by personal
demons as deluded by their own imaginations.
This might seem like a reasonable
position for a man of science, but in that era, the reverse was actually true:
most learned men believed in the existence of Satan, and considered Newton's
view as blasphemous. (Source: Snobelen, Stephen D. (2002) Lust, Pride and
Ambition: Isaac Newton and the Devil. Link)
Newton also wrote a thesis arguing
against the Council of Nicaea [wiki] and the Church's
doctrine on the Holy Trinity. Realizing that his position would not be accepted
by the public, Newton never published this thesis in his lifetime. Indeed, it
was released 27 years after his death. (Source: Isaac Newton's Religious Views [wiki])
7.
Newton Was Obsessed with the Bible
The Bible was Sir Isaac's greatest
passion - he wrote more about religion than about science and mathematics!
Indeed, Newton calculated the date of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ as April
3, A.D. 33 and the earliest date of the Apocalypse as 2060 A.D.
Whether you believe that Newton is
right or wrong about the end of the world, consider another one of his
predictions that came true: that the Jews would return to Israel.
Newton actually did more than just
calculate the date of Crucifixion and the coming Apocalypse - his obsession was
trying to find hidden meanings in the Bible. Indeed, Newton learned Hebrew,
spent half his life, and devoted much more time to this pursuit than to
science. (Source: Armageddon Online)
8.
Newton was an Alchemist
A recently rediscovered papers of
Newton revealed his secret interest in alchemy (of turning base metal into
gold) and that he wrote extensively about his experiments:
Newton's alchemical studies were
kept secret during his lifetime. The making of gold and silver was a felony
under an act of 1404.
Newton was a creature of his time
when many scholars believed in a philosopher's stone that could transmute base
metal into gold. They tended to record their studies in wilfully obscure
language.
"Give me leave to assert as my
opinion," wrote the man who identified the wave nature of light and
formulated the laws of motion, "that it is effectual in all the three
kingdoms & from every species may be produced when the modus is understood:
only mineralls produce minerals & sic de calmis. But the hidden secret
modus is Clissus (1) Paracelsi (2) wch is nothing else but the separation of
the principles thris purification & reunion in a fusible & penetrating
fixity," Newton wrote. (Source:
Guardian)
9.
Newton Battled Counterfeiters
In 1696, Newton became a warden of
the London Mint and was given the task of stopping counterfeiting, which was
rampant in those days:
He gathered much of that evidence
himself, disguised, while he hung out at bars and taverns. For all the barriers
placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of government, English law
still had ancient and formidable customs of authority. Newton was made a
justice of the peace and between June 1698 and Christmas 1699 conducted some
200 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers and suspects. Newton won his
convictions and in February 1699, he had ten prisoners waiting to be executed.
He later ordered all records of his interrogations to be destroyed. (Source: Wikipedia)
10.
Newton the Politician Uttered Just One Sentence
Newton was elected as a Member of
Parliament in 1689 and served for exactly one year. During that time, he said
one and only one sentence during the lengthy proceedings: he asked a nearby
usher to close an open, drafty window! (Source: Michael White (1998) Isaac
Newton: The Last Sorcerer)
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