Sir Isaac Newton
Change Seeker
By Judith
Biography
•
Isaac’s mom’s name was Hannah
Newton. When he was born he was small
enough to fit inside a quart jug. He was
so weak that people thought he would
die.
•
One day Isaac saw an apple tree
and an apple fell on his head and he
knew it was because of gravity.
•
Isaac Newton was so smart that he
invented gravity and a new branch of
mathematics called calculus.
•
Isaac’s father was a farmer and
Personal Qualities
• Isaac Newton had one
of the greatest minds
of all time.
• Isaac was shy and
modest and he didn’t
want other scientists
to criticize his work.
• He had a lot of
questions about math
and science.
• Isaac had a lot of
fights with other
scientists.
Motivation
• Isaac Newton stayed with the Clark family
when he was in grammar school. He
learned about chemistry in Mr. Clark’s
drug store.
• Arthur was a school bully that kicked
Isaac Newton in the stomach. Isaac beat
him up after school. This made Isaac want
to study hard and be better than Arthur in
school.
Hardships
• Isaac almost died as a baby because he
was so small.
• His father died before Isaac was born.
• His mother, Hannah Newton Smith, was
buried in Colsterworth church in 1679.
• When Isaac graduated college there was
a bubonic plague in Cambridge. Lots of
people died. So Isaac went back to his
farm for two more years and then came
back to Cambridge.
Hardships
• Isaac did
experiments with
light. He stared at
the sun so much
that he almost
went blind.
Accomplishments
• He invented calculus.
He also designed the
reflecting telescope.
• In 1687 he discovered
that gravity pulls
objects together. It
holds the moon in
orbit around earth.
Accomplishments
Gravity holds the
planets in orbit
around the sun.
He wrote a book
about gravity
called Principia
Mathematica and
this was his
masterpiece.
Accomplishments
• He proved that sun
light contains all the
colors of the rainbow.
• He invented a branch
of mathematics
called calculus.
• He used a prism to
study light. It is a
piece of glass with
many sides.
Accomplishments
• Isaac said, “If I have further then most
men, it is by standing on the shoulders of
giants.”
• He got ideas from other smart people.
• He learned about work of other great
scientists of Europe and used math to
prove his theories.
• He was made a knight and he is called
“Sir Isaac.”
Interesting Information
• The mint was located in the Tower of
London when Isaac Newton was warden.
• Newton was friends with a famous
scientist named Robert Hooke.
• Isaac didn’t like to be told that he was
wrong.
• When Isaac Newton was a kid he loved
to draw. He even drew on the school
walls.
Interesting Information
• Isaac experimented with
light sometimes.
• The mathematical bridge
over Cambridge, England
was constructed by Isaac.
• Robert Hooke sent Isaac
Newton a letter giving him
news of the scientific
world. He asked what
Newton was doing these
days. Newton wrote back
saying he was involved in
“other business.” He
added an experiment for
Robert to try.
More
• Isaac Newton was
the first person in
the world to come
up with the idea of
gravity.
Three questions I would like
to ask my Change Seeker:
• Did you ever visit America?
• What is your accent like?
• How old were you when the apple
fell on your head and did it hurt?