Plane and solid geometry

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was born on a farm in Lincolnshire and studied at Cambridge. When the plague closed the university in 1665, he went home and, in about two years, laid the foundations of calculus, of his theory of light and colour and of the idea of universal gravitation.

His Principia of 1687 explained the movements of the planets and the tides with the same laws that govern a falling apple, and Opticks showed that white light is made of colours. Later in life he ran the Royal Mint, chasing counterfeiters, and presided over the Royal Society, while privately studying alchemy and theology.