Q 01/05

In which year was Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica first published?

A) 1687

B) 1665

C) 1672

D) 1704

Answer · why

A) 1687

The book laid out the laws of motion and universal gravitation and is often called the most important single work in the physical sciences.

Q 02/05

Newton shares credit for inventing calculus with which German mathematician?

A) Leonhard Euler

B) Carl Friedrich Gauss

C) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

D) Johannes Kepler

Answer · why

C) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Both men developed it independently, but it is the German's notation that mathematicians still use, adopted by British mathematicians only after 1820.

Q 03/05

Newton was born at a manor house in which English county?

A) Yorkshire

B) Lincolnshire

C) Somerset

D) Wiltshire

Answer · why

B) Lincolnshire

Woolsthorpe Manor, his birthplace, is now a Grade I listed building cared for by the National Trust.

Q 04/05

According to the Julian calendar then used in England, Newton was born on which holiday in 1642?

A) New Year's Day

B) Easter Sunday

C) Midsummer Day

D) Christmas Day

Answer · why

D) Christmas Day

By the modern Gregorian calendar the date works out to 4 January 1643, which is why sources disagree about the year.

Q 05/05

Newton was born prematurely. His mother said the newborn could have fit inside what?

A) A shoebox

B) A man's hat

C) A soup bowl

D) A quart mug

Answer · why

D) A quart mug

His father, also called Isaac, had died three months earlier, so the tiny baby was born into a house already in mourning.