1. Sir Isaac Newton The man, the myth, the scientist….

2. We hear a lot about Newton’ s Laws, but who was Isaac Newton? Isaac Newton lived a LONG time ago, from 1642 until 1727. He was a very important man during his lifetime, teaching at Cambridge and making many important discoveries in the fields of optics, mathematics, astronomy and physics.

3. So is the apple tree story true? According to my research, while Newton was not actually hit on the head by an apple, he did start thinking about gravity by watching apples fall from a tree at his boyhood home This is supposedly the tree:

4. Later in his life, Newton wrote a book about the laws of physics:

5. We will learn about these laws.

6. Isaac Newton was knighted and chose this as his coat of arms:

7. This very famous quote may be misunderstood.

8. It was written in a letter to Robert Hooke, another scientist. While it is usually thought to refer to the fact that any scientist learns form the work of others before him, it may also be an insult to Hooke, who was very short and a bit of a hunchback. In other words, it may have double meaning and be a thinly veiled insult.

9. Isaac Newton was a very important man. Upon his death, he was buried in Westminster Cathedral.

10. At then end of his career, he had some rather unusual ideas… He studied alchemy and the occult. After his death, an autopsy was conducted and his hair was found to contain large quantities of mercury. Could this explain some of his odd ideas and interests later in life?

11. Newton’s importance and genius lives on. Sir Isaac Newton changed science forever with his ideas, theories and laws. His work is studied and used in classrooms and labs throughout the world. Albert Einstein was said to work at his desk with a picture of Isaac next to him on the wall. It has also been reported that one of his teeth was sold in 1816 for over $3,000…and made into a ring! But as for the story that Fig Newtons were named after him, that is sadly a myth. They were named after Newton, MA.