20 March

Newton was the English physicist and mathematician, who is considered by many the greatest scientist that ever lived. His three laws of motion are fundamental in the study of mechanics.

He was born on 25 December 1642 in Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in England. He entered Cambridge University in 1661, was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1667, and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669.

He made major discoveries in several areas of science. His study of optics included using a prism to show white light could be split into a spectrum of colours. He was the first to describe the Moon as 'falling' (in a circle around Earth) under the same influence of gravity as a falling apple, embodied in his law of universal gravitation.

As a mathematician, he devised calculus to make the calculations needed in his studies, which he published in hiw Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) in 1687.