Sir Isaac Newton - To the discoverer of attraction. Philosophical significance of Newton's discoveries

Isaac Newton. Modest seeker of truth Ilya Buzukashvili He discovered the great laws of nature, but always dreamed of more - he dreamed of penetrating the essence of the divine plan. He was called the adornment of the human race, but he saw himself as just a seeker on the ocean shore

The English physicist Sir Isaac Newton, whose brief biography is provided here, became famous for his numerous discoveries in the field of physics, mechanics, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy.

Inspired by the works of Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Kepler, Euclid and Wallis, Newton made many important discoveries, laws and inventions that modern science still relies on.

When and where was Isaac Newton born?

Isaac Newton House

Sir Isaac Newton (Sir Isaac Newton, years of life 1643 - 1727) was born on December 24, 1642 (January 4, 1643 new style) in the country-state of England, Lincolnshire, in the city of Woolsthorpe.

His mother went into labor prematurely and Isaac was born premature. At birth, the boy turned out to be so physically weak that they were afraid to even baptize him: everyone thought that he would die without living even a couple of years.

However, such a “prophecy” did not prevent him from living to old age and becoming a great scientist.

There is an opinion that Newton was Jewish by nationality, but this is not documented. It is known that he belonged to the English aristocracy.

I. Newton's childhood

The boy never saw his father, also named Isaac (Newton Jr. was named after his father - a tribute to memory), - he died before he was born.

The family later had three more children, whom the mother, Anna Ayscough, gave birth to from her second husband. With their appearance, few people were interested in the fate of Isaac: the boy grew up deprived of love, although the family was considered prosperous.

His uncle William on his mother’s side made more efforts in raising and caring for Newton. The boy's childhood can hardly be called happy.

Already at an early age, Isaac showed his talents as a scientist: he spent a lot of time reading books and loved making things. He was withdrawn and uncommunicative.

Where did Newton study?

In 1655, a 12-year-old boy was sent to school in Grantham. During his training, he lived with a local pharmacist named Clark.

At the educational institution, abilities in the field of physics, mathematics, and astronomy showed, but mother Anna took her son out of school after 4 years.

16-year-old Isaac was supposed to manage the farm, but he didn’t like this arrangement: the young man was more drawn to reading books and inventing.

Thanks to his uncle, schoolmaster Stokes and a teacher from Cambridge University, Isaac was reinstated into the ranks of the school's students to continue his educational activities.

In 1661, the guy entered Trinity College, Cambridge University for free education. In 1664 he passed the exams, which transferred him to the status of a student. From this moment on, the young man continues his studies and receives a scholarship. In 1665 he was forced to quit studying due to the closure of the university for quarantine (plague epidemic).

Around this period he created his first inventions. Afterwards, in 1667, the young man was reinstated as a student and continued to gnaw on the granite of science.

A significant role in Isaac Newton's passion for the exact sciences is played by his mathematics teacher Isaac Barrow.

It is curious that in 1668 the mathematical physicist received the title of master and graduated from the university, and almost immediately began giving lectures to other students.

What did Newton discover?

The scientist’s discoveries are used in educational literature: both in school and university, and in a wide variety of disciplines (mathematics, physics, astronomy).

His main ideas were new for that century:

1. His most important and significant discoveries were made between 1665 and 1667, during the bubonic plague in London. The University of Cambridge was temporarily closed and its teaching staff disbanded due to the raging infection. The 18-year-old student left for his homeland, where he discovered the law of universal gravitation, and also conducted various experiments with spectral colors and optics.
2. His discoveries in mathematics include third-order algebraic curves, binomial expansion, and methods for solving differential equations. Differential and integral calculus were developed almost at the same time as Leibniz, independently of each other.
3. In the field of classical mechanics, he created an axiomatic basis, as well as such a science as dynamics.
4. It is impossible not to mention the three laws, where their name “Newton’s laws” comes from: the first, second and third.
5. The foundation was laid for further research in astronomy, including celestial mechanics.

Philosophical significance of Newton's discoveries

The physicist worked on his discoveries and inventions from both a scientific and religious point of view.

He noted that he wrote his book “Principles” not in order to “belittle the Creator,” but still emphasized his power. The scientist believed that the world was “quite independent.”

He was a supporter of Newtonian philosophy.

Books by Isaac Newton

Newton's published books during his lifetime:

1. "Method of differences".
2. "Enumeration of lines of third order."
3. "Mathematical principles of natural philosophy."
4. "Optics or a treatise on the reflections, refractions, bendings and colors of light."
5. "A New Theory of Light and Colors."
6. "On the quadrature of curves."
7. "Motion of bodies in orbit."
8. "Universal Arithmetic".
9. "Analysis using equations with an infinite number of terms."

1. "Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms" .
2. "The World System".
3. "Method of fluxions ».
4. Lectures on optics.
5. Notes on the book of the prophet Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John.
6. "Brief Chronicle".
7. "A Historical Tracing of Two Notable Corruptions of Holy Scripture."

Newton's inventions

He began taking his first steps in invention as a child, as mentioned above.

In 1667, all the university teachers were amazed by the telescope he created, which was invented by the future scientist: it was a breakthrough in the field of optics.

In 1705, the Royal Society awarded Isaac a knighthood for his contributions to science. Now he was called Sir Isaac Newton, he had his own coat of arms and a not very reliable pedigree.

His inventions also include:

1. A water clock powered by the rotation of a wooden block, which in turn vibrates from falling drops of water.
2. A reflector, which was a telescope with a concave lens. The device gave impetus to research into the night sky. It was also used by sailors for navigation on the high seas.
3. Windmill.
4. Scooter.

Personal life of Isaac Newton

According to contemporaries, Newton’s day began and ended with books: he spent so much time reading them that he often forgot to even eat.

The famous scientist had no personal life at all. Isaac was never married; according to rumors, he even remained a virgin.

When did Sir Isaac Newton die and where is he buried?

Isaac Newton died on March 20 (March 31, 1727 - new style date) in Kensington, UK. Two years before his death, the physicist began to have health problems. He died in his sleep. His grave is in Westminster Abbey.

A few not so popular facts:

1. An apple did not fall on Newton's head - this is a myth invented by Voltaire. But the scientist himself really sat under the tree. Now it is a monument.
2. As a child, Isaac was very lonely, as he was all his life. Having lost her father early, her mother focused entirely on her new marriage and three new children, who were quickly left without a father.
3. At the age of 16, his mother took her son out of school, where he began to show extraordinary abilities at an early age, so that he began managing the farm. The schoolteacher, his uncle and another acquaintance, a member of Cambridge College, insisted on the boy returning to school, from which he successfully graduated and entered the university.
4. According to the recollections of classmates and teachers, Isaac spent most of his time reading books, forgetting to even eat and sleep - this was the life he most desired.
5. Isaac was the keeper of the British Mint.
6. After the death of the scientist, his autobiography was released.

Conclusion

Sir Isaac Newton's contribution to science is truly enormous, and it is quite difficult to underestimate his contribution. His discoveries to this day are the foundations of modern science as a whole, and his laws are studied in school and other educational institutions.

The National Library at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem continues to study the handwritten legacy of Isaac Newton - the same Newton who laid the foundations of modern physics and mathematics and is rightfully included in the top ten greatest geniuses of mankind. These manuscripts, of course, have long been inventoried and even digitized, but a significant part of them still remains not only unstudied, but not even carefully read, and therefore we can only guess about the secrets and revelations that they hide.

The very story of these manuscripts and their arrival at the National Library of Israel is quite interesting and deserves to be told - at least briefly.

The great scientist, as we know, did not have a wife or children, and after his death in 1727, his entire archive was transferred to his nephews and stored at their home. For many decades, Newton's heirs tried to sell this archive, sincerely believing that it should be worth hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling - like the archives of Faraday, Maxwell and other greats. Several times, in order to weigh the possibility of such a purchase, employees of the Cambridge Library, the British National Museum and other equally respected institutions visited them, but after a quick acquaintance with the manuscripts, they recoiled from them like the plague, and the conversation about the purchase ended.

Finally, in 1936, Newton's archive was put up for auction. Here, part of the manuscripts related to the alchemical research of Isaac Newton was acquired by Lord John Maynard Keynes. Later, based on their study, he published the scandalous article “The Other Newton,” in which he argued that the great physicist considered himself, first of all, a mystic and theologian, and at the same time believed... in God not so much in the Christian, but in the Jewish sense of this words.

After this, it became a little clear what frightened historians of science so much when looking through the archives of Sir Isaac Newton - his handwritten legacy did not fit in with the image of a materialist, a supporter of “pure science”, an adherent of testing theory by practice, which was created by his biographers. These manuscripts themselves exploded this image and were an attack on the shrine.

Meanwhile, at the same auction, another - large - part of Isaac Newton's handwritten legacy was purchased by a certain Abraham Shalom Yehuda. A native of Jerusalem, he was a passionate anti-Zionist, which is why he moved from Mandatory Palestine to the States, where he studied the Bible and, first of all, the book “Neviim” (“Prophets”). Yehuda was familiar with Newton’s book “Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms,” and therefore hoped to find new ideas for his research in the works of the genius.

Yehuda showed his new acquisition to his friend Albert Einstein, and together they decided that such a treasure should be kept not at home, but in a public place - and offered it as a gift, first to Harvard and then to Yale University. But both of these temples of science categorically refused these manuscripts even from the hands of such an authority as Einstein.

In 1951, doctors told Abraham Shalom Yehuda that he was terminally ill. By this time, he had radically changed his views, became a convinced Zionist, and therefore decided to donate Isaac Newton's archive to the National Library in Jerusalem. The library accepted it with gratitude, but after Yehuda’s death, his heirs began a long legal process, and as a result, the manuscripts did not arrive in Jerusalem until the late 1960s. Their real study began only in the 1980s, and since then, in their wake, several monographs devoted to the worldview of the great physicist have been published. And yet, we repeat, they are still hiding their main secrets. But even what has already been revealed to us cannot but cause, at least, amazement. But before talking in the most superficial way about the contents of these manuscripts, it is worth at least briefly recalling the main milestones in the biography of Isaac Newton.

This biography, in general, has been thoroughly studied for a long time. The future genius was born on Christmas night 1642, and was so weak that immediately after giving birth, the mother left the child to die in the attic - so as not to see his agony. But the baby screamed so loudly throughout the house that the young woman came back for him, realizing that he had a chance to survive. Then, having married a second time, she sent her son to relatives, having become a widow again, she returned him to the house, tried to force him to take over the family farm at the age of 15, but young Isaac was adamant - he wanted to study, and not dig in manure. At the age of 19, he entered Trinity College Cambridge to study for a Bachelor of Theology and from that time on, for 35 years, his life would be inextricably linked with this university.

Newton was never obsessed with a thirst for fame, but at the same time he was undoubtedly driven by an indomitable, comparable only to sexual, passion for understanding the world.

This is evidenced by the fact that Newton apparently made a significant part of his outstanding discoveries in physics and mathematics before the age of 25, but shared them only with his teacher and friend Henry Barrow, but asked to keep them secret; the hour for their publication will come only decades later.

But the following story, which is directly related to our conversation, testifies to the impeccable inner honesty and decency of Isaac Newton, as well as the fact that already in his youth he came to certain ideological insights that he was not ready to give up at any price.

In 1669 he finally received a position as professor of mathematics at Trinity College. This place promises a stable income and the opportunity to quietly engage in science. There is only one little thing left: all college teachers must take an oath that they believe in the Holy Trinity and its unity, that is, in the main doctrine of the Christian church. But the young candidate for professor categorically refuses to take such an oath. There is no trinity, he tries to explain, all this is speculation, in fact, God is one, one and all-encompassing.

Many historians have tried to attribute in connection with this demarche his commitment to various heretical movements in Christianity, but, as is easy to see, this position of his is closest to Judaism, and not to any other religion or its branch. And Newton expressed this opinion publicly, at the college named after the Holy Trinity!

Because of this adherence to principles and unwillingness to make deals with his conscience, Newton could well have said goodbye to his position as a professor, but Professor Barrow and other members of the academic fraternity were able to persuade King Charles II to sign a decree abolishing the clause on the obligatory oath of allegiance to the Holy Trinity.

In 1686, Newton’s most famous work, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” (referred to simply as “Principles”), was published, incorporating his most outstanding discoveries in the fields of mechanics, astronomy, the structure of the Earth, acoustics, optics, etc. This book also contains those “Newton’s laws” that we all remember from school and seem to bring such clarity to the structure of the universe, about which S.Ya. Marshak wittily remarked in the first part of his famous epigram:

This world was shrouded in deep darkness.

Let there be light! And then Newton appeared...

But Satan did not wait long for revenge:

Einstein came and everything became the same as before...

But even then, and even more so today, few people paid attention to the fact that behind the series of mathematical formulas and precise formulations of the fundamental laws of the material world there are also hidden the deepest esoteric ideas. Physics for Newton is nothing more than one of the tools for understanding the Creator and his fundamental laws. He interprets the line of the 19th Psalm of David, “The heavens tell of the glory of God, the firmament tells of the works of His hands,” he interprets unambiguously: the very harmony of the structure of our world, the unity and interconnectedness of the laws operating in it testify to its creation and the existence of God...

This is a thought that two centuries later Albert Einstein would come to for a long time and painfully (due to his atheistic upbringing), but for Newton it was natural and unambiguous. Moreover, Newton was sure that he had not discovered anything new, but had simply touched only the very tip of a huge iceberg of the deepest knowledge that the ancients once possessed and which was encrypted in the sacred Jewish books. And driven by the same thirst for knowledge, Newton begins to deeply study Hebrew in order to read the TANAKH in the original, and then immerse himself in the secrets of Kabbalah - the Jewish mystical teaching.

From the book “Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms” already mentioned here and Newton’s manuscripts already studied, a more or less complete, although still full of blank spots, picture of his worldview is being built.

God, he repeated after Rambam, is one, and there is no resemblance to his Uniqueness. He is the Creator of the world, the Creator of the laws of nature and human society, and He, being present everywhere, invisibly guides all human history. He told the secret knowledge about the structure of the universe to the first man Adam, and then they were passed on to the chosen people of their generation after generation and reached the survivor of the flood Noah (Noah), and then were transferred to the forefather of the Jewish people Abraham. Seeing that other peoples were distorting the teachings transmitted to them, the Almighty chose the Jewish people as the custodian and transmitter of this knowledge, and this, from Newton’s point of view, determines the role of the Jews in world history. But in their open form, these secrets have always been accessible to a few. Apart from Noah, they were revealed only to the prophet Moses, and then carefully encrypted in the structure of the portable Tabernacle of the Covenant, which Moses erected in the desert, as well as in the Temple of Jerusalem built by Solomon.

“The very structure of the First Temple of the true faith, open to humanity, is intended to show - through the very symbolism of the Temple - humanity the path to understanding the framework of the existence of this world... It is not surprising that the priests of the Temple rose above the rest of the people with their knowledge of the laws of the universe and introduced them into their theological writings,” - says one of the manuscripts kept in Jerusalem.

The Temple of Jerusalem was, according to Newton, a model of our solar system; the fire on the altar symbolized the Sun; the arrangement of each of its parts proportionally exactly corresponded to the arrangement of the planets in our system, every ritual performed by the priests, the Kohanim and Levites, the order of sacrifices, etc. were filled with the deepest secret meaning...

Newton considered the Torah to be another source of secret knowledge. He did not accept the Judaic idea that the Torah preceded the creation of the world and was handed down word by word to Moses by God, but he recognized that the greatest secrets must be encoded in it, and perhaps it hides another text or even texts - if you try to read it in some other way. More than two centuries would pass, and the invention of computers would be required before the Israeli mathematician Eliyahu Rips would create a special program and discover that when reading through a different number of letters in the Torah, new layers of text would be revealed - and thus confirm Newton's brilliant guess.

The next source of “true knowledge” about the world, about the past and future of humanity, according to Newton, were other books of the TANAKH, primarily revelations revealed to the Jewish prophets, which also had to be deciphered. The historicity and undoubted truth of all the books of the TANAKh did not raise any doubts in him.

In a word, Isaac Newton really came so close to the basic truths and doctrines of Judaism that it seemed that all he had to do was convert.

But, of course, he did not do this and until the end of his life he considered himself a true Christian, although his understanding of Christianity was very peculiar. He denied the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and in his essay “Historical Tracing of Two Notable Corruptions of the Holy Scriptures” he tried to prove that this doctrine itself was born as a result of an error in the understanding and translation of the original text. He did not believe in the Divine origin of Jesus, but at the same time he recognized his “divine mission.” According to his version, the founder of Christianity and his disciples were simply a group of Jews who were carriers of the same “secret knowledge” discussed above and who decided to follow Divine instructions as they understood them, that is, he put Jesus on the level of a prophet, almost commensurate with Moses (which, of course, is already extremely far from Judaism).

Newton also believed that with the help of spiritual instruments one can influence the material world. This was precisely what explained his interest in alchemy - he believed that the process of transforming base metals into noble ones was possible, but with the help of certain spiritual mechanisms rather than material ones.

The methods Sir Isaac Newton used to date biblical events and decipher the writings of the prophets can be judged from the posthumously published “Notes on the Book of the Prophet Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John.”

It is clear that such a Newton seemed to the adherents of academic science to be an old man gone crazy, a speculator and profanator, in no way compatible with the idea of ​​​​the author of the basic laws of mechanics, the law of universal gravitation, refraction of light, etc., on whose monument is engraved “With his mind he surpassed the race human". And that is why they so recoiled from his handwritten legacy. But if he really “exceeded the human race in intelligence,” then maybe it’s still worth paying attention to these works of his?

Moreover, by combining a variety of methods - both purely scientific and theological - Newton tried to look beyond the veil of the future and, following the Jewish mystics, to calculate the date of the coming of the Messiah and the end of human history as a history of wars and disasters, as well as to predict a number of individual future ones. events.

In particular, based on these calculations, he argued that in the 1880s, Jews would begin to return to the land of their ancestors - and this prediction came true “100 percent.” Newton foresaw that in the 1940s, after some terrible cataclysm in which millions of people would die, the Jewish state would be reborn in the land of Israel. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, this prophecy would have seemed complete nonsense to everyone, but, as we see, it came true.

Newton timed the coming of the Messiah to the 2060s. Will this “nonsense” of the great physicist and theologian come true? Well, whoever survives will be able to check...

Isaac Newton left a significant mark on physics, mathematics, and philosophy. He did not strive for fame, but was a member of parliament and head of the Royal Society of London. The son of a simple farmer, he was awarded a knighthood.

The life of the great scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was entirely devoted to science. Based on the mathematical method he created, he united disparate disciplines - mechanics, astronomy, optics, etc. - into a single fundamental scientific theory, which in those days was commonly called natural philosophy, i.e. philosophy of nature. At the same time, Newton’s activity was not limited to theoretical reasoning, but was filled with practical research and development, in which the fruits of his numerous discoveries in mathematics were widely used.

But let's start from the very beginning. On Christmas Day 1643, in the village of Wolstrop, Lincolnshire, a boy was born into a wealthy farming family. He was a “posthumous” child; his father died before his birth. The newborn seemed so frail and sickly that for a long time they were afraid to baptize him. Then no one could have said that this baby would live for 84 years.

When Isaac was three years old, his mother remarried. In her new marriage, she gave birth to three children and completely focused on the new family, into which little Isaac did not fit into. Apart from the uncle (mother's brother), almost no one was interested in the child. Isaac became withdrawn. Books and the construction of all sorts of gizmos, such as sundials and water dials, attracted him more than games with peers and hooligan pranks. Loneliness, a feeling of isolation from other people and the inability to communicate remained with him for the rest of his life. He never married.

Seven years later, the mother was widowed. She passed on the inheritance from her husband to her eldest son, but this did not bring them closer. Two years later, Isaac went to school, where teachers noticed his rare talent. However, the mother wanted her son to return home and partially take over the management of the household. But farming was alien to Isaac; he still spent his time reading and creating various mechanisms. Thanks to the intervention of his uncle and the persuasion of school teachers, his mother nevertheless allowed him to continue his studies.

In 1661, Isaac Newton became a student at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and became immersed in science. He was occupied not only and not so much by the works of classics, such as Aristotle, but by the discoveries of the last century; he became acquainted with the works of Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler. At his first exam in mathematics, Newton amazed the professors by the fact that he did not know the treatises of the founding father of this science, Euclid, but read the works of the recently deceased Descartes.

In 1664, Newton received his bachelor's degree. But the plague epidemic that broke out in England forced the authorities to temporarily close the University of Cambridge. Newton spent almost two years at Woolstrop, where, in his own words, “he was at the best age for discoveries and thought more about mathematics and philosophy than ever later.” The result of these years was the discovery of infinite series and the formula for reducing any degree to these series (Newton's binomial), differential and integral calculus. Judging by Newton's notes, the law of universal gravitation was discovered at the same time (around 1666), and it is doubtful that the apple played an important role in this. But later, thanks to biographers and the witty Voltaire, the legend of a fallen apple, which prompted the scientist to make a brilliant discovery, became firmly rooted in people’s heads.

When the plague subsided, Newton returned to her native Trinity College and even began teaching there, although he was an unsuccessful teacher; students skipped his lectures.

Continuing to engage in science, Newton discovered the phenomenon of dispersion - different refractions of light, which made it possible to build a telescope with a significantly higher magnification than previous models. For this discovery, in 1672 the scientist was accepted into the Royal Society of London, the leading scientific association in England. But many members of the Society did not understand Newton’s work, disputes and conflicts began that tired the scientist, so for a long time he suspended communication with most of his colleagues.

But in the mid-70s, I met a person in absentia who perfectly understood what Newton wrote about in his writings. This man was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, already at that time a fairly well-known philosopher and researcher, who also spent several years studying the problem of infinite series. Newton and Leibniz exchanged several messages, but the topic was no longer of much interest to Newton, so the correspondence quickly fizzled out. As a result, Leibniz's version of calculus became known to the general public much earlier than Newton's first published works on the subject. History clearly shows Newton's attitude towards fame and recognition: he did not need them, moreover, he avoided them.

Nevertheless, under the influence of friends, the scientist agreed to publish a work on the “general theory of motion.” And in 1687, Newton’s most significant work, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” written in Latin, was published in London, in which, based on mathematical research methods, the author sought to substantiate the general laws of the universe. The book not only deduced the famous law of universal gravitation and the three laws of classical mechanics, but also explained the attraction of massive spheres, the problems of the movement of the Moon, and the ebb and flow of the tides. And in the introductory part, Newton almost completely described the theory of limits. It was the mathematical approach to describing the laws of nature that fundamentally distinguished Newton from his predecessors. The treatise did not contain speculative reasoning, but calculations, drawings, tables and conclusions based on strict evidence. At the same time, in order not to shock his fellow scientists, Newton abandoned the methods of mathematical analysis that he had already developed and built an evidence base on old generally accepted methods.

During Newton's lifetime, "Principia" was republished three times, and each time he added and refined his work.

The treatise became the pinnacle of Newton's scientific career. Subsequently, without abandoning his research, Sir Isaac was engaged in more varied activities. He quarreled with King James II, who demanded that a Catholic monk be given a scientific title. After the expulsion of James II, Newton was elected to represent Cambridge University in Parliament.

Then followed two years of serious illness, caused either by poisoning during experiments in chemistry, or by overwork, or by shock after the Great Fire of London, when part of the archive was destroyed in the fire.

By the end of 1693, Newton had recovered, and in 1695 he was able to accept the position offered to him as keeper of the London Mint. Four years later he became its director. During this time, thanks to Newton’s efforts, the number of counterfeit money in the country decreased noticeably. While working at the Mint, Newton met Tsar Peter I, who was then visiting London. Subsequently, the scientist sent several copies of the new edition of “Beginnings” to Russia.

In 1703, Isaac Newton was elected head of the Royal Society of London. He remained in this post until his death. Fame still overtook him. In 1705, he became the first person in history to receive a knighthood for scientific services.

Newton's lectures on algebra were soon published, marking the beginning of computational mathematics.

The second half of the 1700s was marked by an ugly dispute with Leibniz over the authorship of the theory of calculus. As mentioned above, Newton, unlike Leibniz, was in no hurry to publish the results of his discoveries, so when the first article appeared about the version of analysis proposed by Newton, the Englishman was accused of plagiarism. Outraged, Newton insisted on convening an international commission to resolve the issue. The commission confirmed that he was right and accused Leibniz of theft. A real war broke out between supporters of both scientists, which ended with the death of Leibniz.

Newton outlived his opponent by eleven years. At the end of his life, he worked on the historical treatise “Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms” and was preparing the next edition of his main work. Sir Isaac died in his sleep on March 20, 1727. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.