FACT FILE :
Sir Isaac Newton
BORN:
1643
(Recorded as Christmas Day 1642 by
those using the older Julian calendar!)
DIED:
1727
(1726, Julian calendar)
NATIONALITY:
English
GIFTED IN:
Physics, Astronomy, Maths, Philosophy
FAMOUS FOR:
AWARDS:
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“Discovering gravity”
Newton’s three laws of motion
Splitting white light into a rainbow
Calculus
Queen Anne knighted Newton in 1705. He was only the
second scientist after Sir Francis Bacon to become a ‘Sir’.
(Previous knighthoods rewarded only military service.)
FAMOUS FACT/ FICTION:
The story goes that one warm evening,
Newton drank tea under the shade of
some apple trees. An apple dropped and
Newton asked himself why apples always
fell downwards as though to a central point.
He realised there was a physical force at
work and named it “gravity”.
FUN FACT:
Principia is the name of Tim Peake’s 20152016 International Space Station mission.
Principia is also the name of Newton’s
revolutionary manuscript describing the
laws of motion, universal gravitation and
how gravity holds the solar system’s
planets in their orbits.
FINANCIAL FACT :
From 1978-1988, Sir Isaac Newton’s picture
8
FUSE
appeared on the Bank of England’s £1
note. The £1 note was withdrawn from
circulation after the introduction of the £1
coin in 1983.
FOUR-PAWED FABLE:
It is said that one day when Newton
was about 50 years old, his muchloved dog, Diamond, knocked over
a burning candle. 20 years of
Newton’s work and experiments
went up in flames and it took
almost a whole year to fully put
back together his theory of
gravity.
-Bad doggy!
CHECK OUT:
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iSCIENCE: GRAVITY & MICROGRAVITY
iWORLD: EGGS IN HISTORY
THINKING SKILLS: EGGHEAD HEROES
COOL WEBLINKS
FUSE SUMMER 2015: iSCIENCE, P8/9