Madelyn King
College Prep & Planning
1/20/2023
Biographical Research Paper Rough Draft
Sir Isaac Newton is a popular figure in today’s age for his many inventions, books, and
discoveries. Newton is best known for his Theory on the Law of Gravity. Isaac was born on
January 4 , 1643, in wools Thorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Isaac’s father who was a farmer
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passed just 3 months before Isaac was born. For most of Newton’s childhood he spent living with
his maternal grandfather after his mother got remarried. She married a well-to-do minister named
Barnabas Smith and left Isaac to live with Barnabas.
Growing up Isaac attended the King’s school in Grantham, in 1661 he enrolled at the
university of Cambridge trinity college. Newton began to study a classical curriculum while at
Cambridge. He later became interested by modern philosophers such as Rene Descartes,
according to History.com it states, “Isaac even devoted a set of notes to his outside readings he
titled “quaestiones quaedam Philosophicae” “(certain philosophical questions).” In 1665 the
great plague closed Cambridge allowing Newton to return home. Shortly after the closing of
Cambridge Newton started formulating theories on calculus, light, and color.
2 years later after the closing of Cambridge he returned and was elected a minor fellow.
The following year Newton invented the first reflecting telescope. The very next year newton
received his Mast of Arts degree, he then took over as Cambridges lucasian professor of
mathematics. 3 years after his reflecting telescope was invented, he was asked to demonstrate it
at the Royal society of London in 1671. He then was elected to the Royal Society the next year
and soon published his notes regarding optics for his fellow peers.
Newton then discovered that white light is a composite of all the colors on the spectrum.
He argued that light was made up of particles instead of waves. Not much time went by before
Newtons Method drew some sharp rebukes from Robert Hooke and established member, who
was unsparing again with Newton’s follow-up paper in 1675. A heated battle followed soon after
regarding Hooke, Newton was known for his temperamental defensiveness with his work and
studies, this soon led to a nervous breakdown from Newton causing him to withdraw from the
public eye in 1678. As stated in Stem Site it says, “In the following years, he returned to his
earlier studies on the forces governing gravity and dabbled in alchemy.” Newton came back to
his studies a year later.
