The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
Newton, Isaac
An English scientist and mathematician of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Newton made major contributions to the understanding of motion, gravity, and light (seeoptics). He is said to have discovered the principle of gravity when he saw an apple fall to the ground at the same time that the moon was visible in the sky. He also invented calculus. (SeeNewton’s laws of motion.)
