All areas5 of 20 fields
Dominant Mechanics & Relativity
Mechanics & Gravity · Electricity, Magnetism & Light · Astronomy & Space
My prism experiments of 1666–1672 showed that white light is a mixture of colours, that a prism refracts each colour by a different angle, and that colour belongs to the light, not to the object. My 1672 paper underpins all later research on colour.
I began my method of fluxions in 1664; by 20 May 1665 I could compute the tangent and curvature at any point of a continuous curve, and by year's end I had a systematic calculus unifying differentiation and integration.
From 1679 I proved that an inverse-square force produces elliptical orbits, then expanded that proof into the Principia (5 July 1687): three laws of motion and universal gravitation, the foundation of classical mechanics and modern physical science.
I work across mathematics, physics, astronomy and optics. My Principia states the laws of motion and universal gravitation, I built calculus, and I showed that white light is a spectrum of colours.
