Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was an English polymath known primarily as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. He is one of the most influential figures in the history of science, having founded classical mechanics with his three laws of motion and formulated the law of universal gravitation. Newton made seminal contributions to optics such as the theory of color based on the decomposition of white light with a prism and is credited, alongside Leibniz, with developing calculus. His work laid the scientific foundation that dominated physics until the theory of relativity took precedence. Newton also contributed to the development of the scientific method and was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution. He published his masterpiece, "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica," in 1687, which unified the physics of celestial and terrestrial bodies.
