SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)

The year of Galileo's death saw the birth of the man who would establish the "system of the world". Isac was born on Christmas day in 1642 in woolsthorpe, England, a small farming town. The English Civil war had just begun, and the Stuart King Charles I was on the thorne. John Milton was 34 years of age, and in the Netherland, Rambrandt was producing his masterpice The Night Watch. Rene Descrates was living in Netherlands and working on his Principles of Philosopy, which later influenced Newton's own physical theories.

Newton's father died before he was born, but his mother married again while he was very young. He had lonely childhood and spent much his time reading from a small collection of book belonging to a relative. In June 1661 he has entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a subsizar (a student working to earn tuition and lodgings). His mathematics instructor was Isac Borow, who held the professorship in geometry. He was to all appearances an undistinguished student.

From 1664 to 1666, Cambridge was closed because of the plague in nearby London, and Newton returned to Wollsthorpe, where he laid the foundations for his theory of light and colors, his law of motion, and the ideas of differential and integral calculus. He returned to Cambridge in 1666 abide was elected a fellow of trinity in 1667 (in a close vote, because he had not at this time

To be continued ................