- Great Scientists: Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was one of
the greatest scientists of recent times. He was born in England. He gave his laws of motion, equations of motion and theory of gravity in his book Principia. Before this book was written Kepler had given three laws describing planetary motions. However, the reason why planets move in the way described by Kepler's laws was not known. Newton, with his theory of gravity, mathematically derived Kepler's laws.
In addition to this, Newton did ground breaking work in several areas including light, heat, sound and mathematics. He invented a new branch of mathematics. This is called calculus and has wide ranging applications in physics and mathematics. He was the first scientist to construct a reflecting telescope.
