Isaac Newton Trivia

1. Newton was born on Christmas Day in 1642. Can you tell me where in England that he was born?

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: He was born at Woolsthorpe, near Colsterworth, Lincolnshire.

Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe Manor, a modest two-story house of gray limestone, on Christmas Day, 1642. Woolsthrorpe was located near the village of Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, about seven miles south of Grantham. (The date of Newton's birth is that of the Julian calendar, as the Gregorian calendar was not adopted in England until 1672).

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: December 25, 1642

His birth date was revised to January 4, 1643 by the Gregorian calendar, which was not in use in England until after his death.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: Farmer

Isaac Newton was born in September of 1606. He was a prosperous yeoman farmer who owned around one hundred acres of fields, woods, pasture, and orchards. Newton died in early October, 1642, only five months after his marriage to Hannah Asycough and three months before his son's birth on Dec. 25, 1642.

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire

In a bedroom of Woolsthorpe Manor.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: Singing and playing a harp

Newton was always interested in how things worked. As a young boy at Woolsthorpe, Newton constructed sundials accurate within fifteen minutes. During the years he attended Kings Grammar School in Grantham, from the age of twelve until sixteen, he built working models of windmills and a four feet tall working water clock. He also made the first paper kites seen around Grantham, which he enjoy setting on fire and flying at night, causing the local people to think they were comets. He also loved to draw and sketch.

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: A church minister

His mother and step-father moved away leaving young Isaac in the care of his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough.

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: Cambridge University

Sir Isaac attended Trinity College, Cambridge from 1661.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: 27 years old

Isaac Barrow became Cambridge's first Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1664. The colleges of Cambridge closed during the plague months of 1665-1666, and Newton returned to Woolsthorpe, where he did much of his serious work on optics, light, and motion. In 1667, when he returned to Trinity, he was elected as a Trinity Fellow. He helped edit Barrow's lectures on optics for publication in 1669, but he did not tell Barrow that his own experiments proved much of Barrow's findings obsolete. (Newton had not yet made his own work known). Barrow resigned in 1669, and he recommended Newton, then twenty-seven, as his replacement. On Oct. 29, 1669 Newton became Cambridge's second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: The University closed because of the Plague

Cambridge University closed due to the Plague, in the summer of 1665, and did not re-open until 1667.

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: Mathematics, optics, physics and astronomy

The story of the apple, supposedly took place in the orchard of his home, during that time.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: Edmund Halley

"Principa Mathematica" was Newton's great work and contained his three Laws of Motion. It is still considered to be the most influential book written in the field of physics. Edmund Halley presented Part I of Newton's "Principa Mathematica" (which consisted of Parts I, II, and III) to the Royal Society on April 28, 1668. After presenting Part III on May 19, 1668, Halley received approval for it to be printed under the Royal Society's license. The Society was short on cash, so Halley was charged with arranging and paying for the costs of publication. "Principa Mathematica" was first published in July of 1687.

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: Principia

Newton published these papers in 1687. Their full name was, 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica'.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: Sir Godfrey Kneller

Newton sat for several portraits. His first portrait was painted when Newton was forty-six by Sir Godfrey Kneller in 1689. His last portrait was painted by John Vanderbank in 1725 when Newton was eighty-two.

From Quiz Hey! Who Threw That Apple?

Answer: Sir Edmond Halley

Sir Edmond would have benefited greatly from Newton's theories.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: Warden of the Mint

In the 1690's Charles Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, took on the monumental task of withdrawing all of England's old coins from circulation and coining new money. Newton left for London in 1696 to take the position of Warden of the Mint. He became Master of the Mint in 1700. He was diligent in his work and became a justice of the peace to prosecute counterfeiters. Newton continued his work at the Mint until his death in 1727.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: Queen Anne

On April 16, 1705, Queen Anne and her court traveled from the royal residence in Newmarket, to Cambridge, where she conferred twenty-three doctorates and knighted three men, one of whom was Newton.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: Never

Newton chose to live a life of celibacy, and he never married. Fellows at Trinity took an oath of celibacy, and it was frowned upon even for a Master to marry. Newton took this oath seriously and even after leaving Trinity, there is nothing written about him, or by him, linking him with any women.

From Quiz Sir Isaac Newton's Life

Answer: 24 years

In the seventh year of Newton's Trinity fellowship, he was expected to be ordained into the Anglican church or resign his professorship. On Feb. 9, 1675, Newton went to London and petitioned King Charles II for a dispensation. While in London, Newton attended his first meeting of the Royal Society and was admitted as a member. He became president of the Royal Society in 1703 and served until his death on Mar. 27, 1727. On April 27,1675, the king granted Newton's petition, and the Lucasian professorship was no longer tied to the taking of holy orders.

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