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I read in Slashdot (ehem) that he was a virgin.

Didn't he lose a fortune in the South Seas Company bubble? -- Davidme

I heard he wasn't born on Christmas, but his parents put down December 25th as all their childrens' birthdays to protest Cromwell's abolishment of Christmas. True or Urban Legend?

Some non-religious people have attempted to combine conformity and rebellion by celebrating Isaac Newton's birthday. But it is doubtful that Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day. Isaac's Anglican parents listed December 25th on the birth certificates of all their children as a protest against the anti-Christmas Cromwell government.[1])

-- Xiaopo's Talk 01:10, Dec 27, 2003 (UTC)wow! thanx! i really needed that:].............

My source for reverting the date change is Richard Westfall, Never at Rest ISBN 0-521-27435-4 page 40. Ancheta Wis 17:04, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

He in fact was never married. The losing a fortune in the South Seas Company is an Urban Legend and the the fact about his parents giving all their children a December 25th birthdate is an untrue fact wfedczuk@yahoo.com

Surely the section "Later life" comes under "Biography"?--[[User:HamYoyo|HamYoyo|TALK]] 01:11, Jul 1, 2004 (UTC)

Well, I found a large part of "Biography" titled "Newton on Optics" that wasn't about optics. So I divided it up into two more sections. I'll change "Biography" into "Early Life" for now. -- Brutannica

doesn't isaac newton's "book" sound like an "alien" language? oh, well, i was just bored out of my skull.:]by the way, that was a smiley face!!!!!!!by: jackie gormon.... that's my "codename!!! my name is really jackie merlo......... bye!!!!!! how do you edit issac newton's "home page"?HELP!!!!!

The current opening makes clear the difference between Newton's birth and death dates in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. However, the next sentence mentions the date of publication for Principia without indicating which calendar is being used. I'm guessing we need a statement that the rest of the dates in the article are all Gregorian dates. But how to do this without being too obtrusive - a comment in small text italics at the top? an asterisked footnote on the next date used? or perhaps a small right aligned sidebar, like an infobox. -- Solipsist 19:17, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Footnote formatted per Manual of Style. Ancheta Wis 21:16, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I modified the sentence to be more neutral. Petrvs

An editor added the following paragraph which has POV problems

Newton attempted to find secret meanings within the Bible. His attempts were not successful, as it was impossible without modern computers.

I can't remember exactly, but it seems likely that Newton did look for secret meanings in the Bible. The problem is that most people would then continue - His attempts were not successful, as there is no secret meanings to be found. If someone can come up with an NPOV phrasing, it is probably worth including in the article. -- Solipsist 19:53, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The spurious sentence about being a childhood prodigy reminded me that he really didn't excel in school until after he beat up an older boy. Also he built a lot of fun toys, using a guide book given to him. More relevantly, he was a very poor shepherd, and his mom and stepfather concluded that he shouldn't remain in that field. Probably these stray facts could be collected into a paragraph sometime. Ancheta Wis 22:55, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

With or without the sheep puns? --Instant Classic 21:58, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I've read that Newton's parents wanted him to be a farmer. --Petrus 15:34, May 22, 2005 (UTC)

Yes but he made a very poor one. He ended up in court for letting his animals wander through not keeping his fences in good repair. He gave it up as soon as he could convince his parents to let him return to school. -- Derek Ross | Talk 16:10, 27 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Can anyone fact-check the Susan Storer/Anne Storey change? a google search turns up both as having no link to newton. time to go to the old paper and ink. Bonus Onus 03:28, Mar 16, 2005 (UTC)

This is from the 3rd paragraph of the main article:

He was quite simply the greatest scientist in the world. Ever. No-one would challenge his basic laws governing the universe until Einstein, and even then his ideas only apply if you're travelling on a beam of light or if you're out in deep space.

Is it just me or is the a little too editorial? This is hardly an objective observation about Isaac Newton. Perhaps it should be changed?

Nigelquinine 00:15, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This is one of the few cases where hyperbole is close to fact. Newton may not have been the greatest scientist in the world ever but it is difficult to think of another who could come so close to filling that position. He fundamentally changed our worldview and over 300 years later, despite advances in scientific knowledge that have improved upon some of his work, we still live in a fundamentally Newtonian world. There are many people who have done admirable work in Science but anyone who studies the History of Science will quickly come to realise that Newton really was in a class of his own. -- Derek Ross | Talk 15:41, 27 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Nigel's comment. This is not a neutral entry, but a hagiography. The mosy important scientist in history? Would have to say Ptolemy, though Galen comes a close second. His scientific work is of the very first degree, and he is one of the most important scientists ever but I think objectivity is being strained here. -- Emre Yigit 19:31, 3 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Under Religion I read: "Despite his fame as one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived, the Bible was Sir Isaac Newton's greatest passion." This is about as crazy as to write "Despite his fame as one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived, Sir Isaac Newton loved his wife." The prejudice that you have to be somewhat stupid to believe in the Bible should be avoided in the Wikipedia. --O'Barend 10:39, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I think the idea is that although he became famous for his scientific studies, it was his study of the bible that was most important to him. The remarkable thing being pointed out in the sentence you quoted isn't that Newton was a religious man and a scientist; the remarkable thing is that Newton's religious study was more important to him than the scientific theories that made him famous.

For instance, the sentence "Despite his fame as one of the greatest physicists ever to have lived, Newton's greatest passion was for biology" would a fair amount of sense (if it were true) and clearly isn't casting aspersions on biology. Aquillion 19:31, 3 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

You make a good point, but it still seems that a POV is being inserted when the Bible and science are treated with such exclusivity as they are in this article. Newton's passion for the Bible is only surprising if one believes that such exclusivity exists, and the existence of the exclusivity is far from established, so there is impermissable POV at work here. A.T. Cook 17:13, 14 July 2005

I think it's fair to say something along these lines about his interest in the Bible, just there is no reason to mention that this was despite his being a great scientist. One of the things that made him a great scientist was being inquisitive and having an open mind for new ideas or interpretations of existing dogma (scientific, religious, whatever), in some cases this lead to breakthroughs, in others it led to dead ends (at least for him). Sfnhltb 22:02, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

What do you guys think of this? So far there's been no luck hunting down a reference. Is it a good candidate to be merged? Do you think it is factually accurate? --Davril2020 19:48, 16 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Many of those books and websites listed under "Further reading" and "External links" would be better classified as References. I already moved all the ones I knew were being used as references to the section; if anyone knows that more are so, please move them accordingly. --DanielNuyu 05:01, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"The British always get their priorities right!" - unnecessary invective. I've removed this an edited the preceding sentance appropriately. -- ae, 3 May 2005

Someone wrote about Newton's pet animals, but I'm not sure as to whether it was vandalism; I do recall reading something about Newton's pets, but I am not sure if it is fact.

I recall that scene as Hendrix playing tennis with Ben Franklin (not Newton, as stated in the article). I could be wrong about that. Does anyone else know for sure?--JW1805 8 July 2005 19:23 (UTC)

Actually, I'm pretty certain Hendrix was playing with Bach, which for obvious reasons makes more sense.

• I'm going to go ahead and remove this from the article (unless somebody comes up with definite proof that it really was Newton). --JW1805 05:25, 2 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

In the article Caloric theory#Successes there is a reference to Newton's pulse equation. Any idea what this is? Cutler 20:30, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

The cat has since been removed, but for future reference, there doesn't seem to be very much evidence that Newton was a conscious vegetarian. --Fastfission 14:08, 16 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

In the Asexuality article, it claims that Newton was believed to be an asexual. Yet there is nothing in this article backing that claim up. Does anyone have any sources on that? Should it be added to the article? Ryan 06:13, July 29, 2005 (UTC)

Newton's only known "romantic" friendship was with the stepdaughter of his landlord in Grantham when he was a boy -- and we only have her word on that. There is no other evidence of any kind that Newton had any female close friends or lovers. Interestingly we can also rule out male lovers because not even his enemies accused him of having any -- and Newton may not have had many firm friends but he certainly had a lot of firm enemies who would have jumped on such an accusation if there had been even the slightest rumour that it was so. -- Derek Ross | Talk 16:05, 27 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

While it makes sense for him to be listed in the Asexuality article as there is a reasonable position that he might have been, it's not really particularly notable as far as his personal history is concerned, particularly with the amount of encyclopedic information that should have a far higher priority on this page. Comparatively if we were talking about Oscar Wilde then his Homosexuality would be encyclopedic as it was a significant factor in his life and work. Sfnhltb 21:57, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It is pretty well established that Isaac Newton invented the cat flap, but the cat flap article could use better references for this. I've started some discussion at Talk:Cat_flap and I'm guess that some folks here are reading the right biographies.

In particular it would be nice to determine the approximate year of invention and where. The story about not wanting to interupt optics experiments seems plausible and could pin point it to sometime in his twenties, perhaps during the two years he spent back at Woolsthorpe ~1665-1667. -- Solipsist 07:28, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I do believe I do believe that Isaac Newton was the shiznit and will continue to be one of the most Impactual men of the millenia. Thank yoiu and have a nice day. although that would be cool if he invented the cat flap, I dont think he did?...

Newton apparently had a paranoid psychotic episode at age 51, but this isn't mentioned, though the article does mention supposed autism on pretty thin evidence.--Jack Upland 07:38, 17 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]