Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was a monumental English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and author who is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time. A key figure in the scientific revolution, his seminal work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), published in 1687, established the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Beyond mechanics, Newton made groundbreaking contributions to optics, determining that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors, and he shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus. In his later years, he served as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint and was the second scientist to be knighted, cementing a legacy that fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the natural world.