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STAYING A STUDENTMy father died when I was very young, and I never got on with my stepfather. In fact, for many years I lived with my grandmother. I studied at the local grammar school until I was 17. My mother then hoped that I would run the family farm. However, I did not want to do this – and besides, I was not very good at it!<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2Fa0abc6f6e9f4417a856bbbfae414208f" alt="" style="width: 404.069px; height: 274px;"> So, thankfully, I was allowed to return to school. I graduated at the top of my class and wanted to move on to study law and went on to Cambridge University. I studied mathematics and natural philosophy.I was sure that there was so much more we could discover about the world we lived in.While I loved doing experiments, I found people quite often overwhelmed me. I was a quiet and very private person and continued to work alone most of the time.My mother refused to pay for my education, so I worked as a part-time servant for wealthy students. It was frustrating as it kept me from my research, but I needed to pay the bills.At the end of my first three years, I won a four-year scholarship to continue my studies. This meant I could stop working as a servant and devote myself full-time to experiments and studies.DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONSI got my degree when I was 22, and I also developed an exciting new branch of mathematics called calculus. Calculus helped me to work out how particles, stars and matter actually move and change in real time.In 1665, the country was hit by the&nbsp;bubonic plague&nbsp;and everywhere began to shut down. The university closed, and I was sent back to my family home. Socially isolated in the countryside, I spent my time looking into three distinct areas: - calculus, gravity (the force that keeps all living things from floating away into the sky), and the nature of light.Whilst at home, I was in the garden and saw an apple fall from a tree. I asked myself: why did the apple fall straight down, and not side to side? These thoughts developed into a law on gravity.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2F437752ad35204fafb2bd54d94525f7aa" alt="" style="width: 417.351px; height: 291.094px;"> I discovered that the force that holds the moon in orbit around the earth and allows the earth and other planets to revolve around the sun, is the same force that caused the apple to drop from the tree.I realised I lacked a piece of equipment to see faraway objects and in 1668, I built the first reflecting telescope to focus light from a curved mirror.UNEXPECTED EVENTSBack at Cambridge in 1669, I shared my ideas with my tutors and was quickly awarded my master’s degree and made a fellow of Trinity College. The following year, when I was 26 years old, I was made Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. This was the highest position for a mathematician in the country.My fascination with light and how it behaves continued, and in 1671, I wrote a book about it. I discovered that light was not a single colour but was really a whole spectrum of different colours.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2Fdf82fe19a90542c58e8c9899543c4458" alt="" style="width: 425px; height: 263.793px;"> I often worked alone, but one constant companion I had was my little dog, Diamond. One day, Diamond knocked a candle over my papers, burning important work that I’d been doing for close to 20 years. I was quite shocked at how easily important calculations could be lost. I needed to be more careful and had to redo my work. Despite this near disaster, I managed to rewrite my work called Newton’s Laws.HIGHEST HONOURSIn 1687, I published a guide to the principles and systems of measurement. In 1696, I was asked to be the warden of the Royal Mint, where coins were manufactured. Its work was crucial to economic stability. Deciding on the amount and value of money in circulation was important, and I was able to apply mathematics to these financial calculations. In 1699, I was promoted to Master of the Mint, a position I held for 28 years.I was made president of the Royal Society in 1703 and in 1705, Queen Anne made me a Knight of the Realm. So, at the age of 62, I became Sir Isaac Newton.Over the many years of my life, my work revealed a universe that obeyed mathematical logic. I discovered that starlight and sunlight are actually the same things and that stars could have their own system of planets orbiting them.I made many great discoveries in my life, but I said: ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants’.&nbsp;GLOSSARYNatural philosophy – the thoughtful and level-headed study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science.Scholarship – money given to a student to help pay for their studies.Bubonic plague – a dangerous disease that is spread by rats and which causes fever, weakness and swollen lymph nodes, and sometimes death.Spectrum – the complete range of something.LEGACY AND RECOGNITION<ul><li>Isaac Newton is talked about as ‘the greatest genius who ever lived’, and as the ‘father of modern science’.</li><li>He developed new laws of mechanics, gravity and motion, and also discovered calculus.</li><li>Isaac Newton’s work was recognised in various ways: he was appointed the president of the Royal Society, named the Master of the Royal Mint, held a seat in Parliament, and was eventually given a Knighthood.</li><li>Lots of scientific developments carry his name, such as Newton’s Theory of Colour, Newton’s Identities and Newton’s Method.</li><li>When he died, Isaac Newton was given a funeral fit for a king. It was attended by many important people. His coffin was carried by noblemen, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, London.</li><li>Isaac Newton’s image was featured on the back of the UK £1 banknote from 1978-1988 (Queen Elizabeth II’s image was on the front).&nbsp;</li></ul>IMAGE CAPTIONS AND CREDITSWoolsthorpe Manor, Claire Ward, CC BY-SA/2.0, Geograph Britain and IrelandSir Isaac Newton formulates gravitational laws, AlamyLight splitting through a prism, Johnrpenner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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