A Mathematical History Tour: Sir Isaac Newton

Woolsthorpe Manor - Home of Isaac Newton

The famed apple tree of which Newton told his story

Near Newton's rooms at Trinity, a descendant of the Woolsthorpe apple tree of which Newton told his story

I fear "story" is going to be the key word from here on out in my travels and in my posts - or that I may be sticking more with pictures that with text from here on. Now that I am in Cambridge and have met up with Dr. Piers Bursill-Hall I have come to find out that much (most?) of what I "knew" of the history of mathematics is actually false! So I'm trying to be as careful as I can (and am feeling far less confident) as I write. To be learning what I am learning is both wonderful and terrifying. Sadly I only have a few days with him.

I say story because toward the end of his life Sir Isaac Newton said and wrote much about his life that was simply self-aggrandizing. It is from Newton himself that we have the story of the apple falling having inspired him to develop his gravitational theory, but just because he himself told it doesn't mean the event actually happened. Nevertheless, as you can see from the pictures above, the tree, and it's descendants are honored.

It is quite certain that Newton's laboratory was on this spot at Trinity College, as when this ground was dug up in order to lay cables for the internet, soil samples were taken and a scary chemical "soup" was discovered when the soil was analyzed that indicates that he did, in fact, do his alchemical experiments here.

It is also the case that Newton writes of himself as being a complete autodidact, having made his advances in physics, optics, astronomy and calculus in the isolation of his home in Woolsthorpe when the university was closed due to the plague. We now know, however, through the meticulous work of mathematical historian Tom Whiteside, that Newton spent time back in Cambridge when he was supposedly home and that he had the whole of what is now the Wren Library pretty much to himself. This doesn't change the fact that he made a giant leap forward from reading the arithmetical works of John Wallis and jumping to the forefront of cutting edge mathematics quite suddenly.

From the museum at Woolsthorpe

First Edition of Newton's Principia with his notes in Latin (left) for the second edition (Cambridge U. L.)

Newton was many things, a natural philosopher, an alchemist, President of the Royal Society, warden and master of the Royal Mint. He wrote about biblical chronology. He invented calculus. I also have it on good authority that he is not someone you would have wanted to invite home to dinner - have heard multiple stories of his nastiness of which I will share only one. Newton is well-known for having written (or quoted), "If I have seen farther than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." I had always loved that about him - his humility in giving honor to those who had gone before. It turns out, however, that Newton had a long-standing feud with Robert Hooke, who was a very short man, so this was actually a pointed insult. (That's actually the tamest nasty story I can tell; the others might make people lose sleep, so I'll let those go.)

To be fair I should share that Newton had a pretty rough start in life. His father died about 3 months before his birth. In fact, the father's death and Newton's baptism are to be found on the same page of the registry of the parish church. Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642 (according to the Julian calendar, which was in use at the time). He was born prematurely and was very small; his mother is reported to have said he would have fit in a quart jug. His mother remarried when he was 3 years old, leaving him with his maternal grandmother. Eventually his other was widowed again, and she had a strong desire for Newton to become a farmer.

One thing that keeps sticking out in my mind, as I think about the chemically still-tainted ground where his lab once stood and the other sorts of things that he did (such as sticking a bodkin, a long, flat needle, behind his eye to see what changing the shape of the eyeball would do to vision) - along with his rough start in life and the life-expectancy when he lived - and the fact that he would go without eating or sleeping for long periods of time when he was in the middle of focused work - is how on earth he lived to the ripe old age of 84. But those I am with tell me that it is probably because he never had any stress in his life - that he made life stressful for everyone around him, but that he never had any stress.

He accomplished amazing things - as poet Alexander Pope said of him:

NATURE and Nature’s Laws lay hid in Night:
God said, “Let Newton be!” and all was light.

Like I said, I am learning a lot, which is wonderful, but also scary - am needing to rewrite a lot of narratives in my own head about mathematics history in general and about biographies of mathematicians specifically.

Here are more pictures associated with this fantastically brilliant, but not very genial, man: