Four hundred years ago, men became famous for their character and the contributions they made to society. Sir Isaac Newton was a man who had both character and intellectual achievements. In fact, he was the first man to be called a genius in the modern sense of the word, someone truly gifted in science.

 

Sir Isaac Newton was born in England in 1642. He went to school and learned Latin and mathematics, and then went to study at Cambridge University.

 

Before Newton’s time, people had figured out that the earth goes around the sun. But they did not know why or how. It was still a mystery what supported the planets in space.

 

Sir Isaac Newton came up with an answer one day in the late 1660’s. He had been pondering a question of physics on a warm summer day and was beginning to nod off in the shade of his favorite apple tree. Then an apple hit him on the head. It also knocked an idea into his head! What made objects fall towards the ground? Perhaps they fall to the ground for the same reason the earth is attracted to the sun! He created a theory was that a heavy object exerts a force that attracts other objects to it.

 

What would Newton call this force? We can’t see it, but the effects are everywhere around us. He decided on the word gravity after the Latin gravitas, which means weight. Heavier objects have more gravity, so they have a stronger pull towards other objects. Newton wrote a book in Latin explaining his theory. He titled it Principia, or “first things.”

 

Newton established three laws describing the way objects behave based on his theory of gravity. These laws helped create modern physics and are still the foundation of our understanding of the way physical objects behave today.

 

When America sent the Apollo 11 rocket roaring to the moon, Mission Control on the ground asked ‘who was driving?’ Because no one had their hands on the controls at the moment, the astronauts replied, “Sir Isaac Newton.” Newton’s principles had enabled scientists to plan the mission to the moon.

 

Newton’s ideas were so revolutionary that many contemporary scientists were jealous and even accused him of stealing his ideas or plagiarizing. Newton, however, successfully defended his integrity in court.

 

In fact, Newton’s reputation for integrity and genius was so great that he was appointed to be the head of the National Mint. This means that he was in charge of the managing the coining of gold and silver money in England. Usually this position meant an easy job, but Newton took it seriously. At this point, up to 1 out of every 5 coins in England was counterfeit, or fake. However, forgers were rarely caught because no one new how to find who was making fake money. All the fake money circulating made the real money worth less and prices more expensive. The currency problem affected everyone from the common worker to the king.

 

Newton had an effective but unorthodox means of solving the problem. The renowned scientist would dress up as an ordinary man and go to taverns. He would then listen to conversations, make friends with suspicious looking strangers, and find out who was making illegal money. In just one year, he caught 28 forgers!

 

Newton was not just a scientist and detective. He actually spent more of his time studying the Bible than science, and his writings include a million words written about his study of Scripture.

 

Newton felt his book on the laws of motion and gravity was incomplete because it did not explain who sets the planets in motion. He said: “this beautiful system of the sun, planets, moons and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of a gracious God.”