The Truth About Isaac Newton's Difficult Childhood

At the age of 10, Isaac Newton was reunited with his mother after his stepfather died. Hannah returned to Woolsthorpe Manor with Newton's three half-siblings in tow. This reunion didn't last long, however. Newton was sent away to school in nearby Grantham when he was 12 years old. He lived with the local apothecary, a person who made and sold medicines, because the walk to and from Woolsthorpe was too far. Newton wasn't the best student at first. He was far too interested in making his own mechanical devices, including a model windmill (via the National Trust). Newton later started making up his own experiments, including an effort to measure wind speed.

Around the time he turned 17, Newton was forced back to Woolsthorpe by his mother. She wanted him to manage the family's lands. But Newton was no farmer at heart, and he preferred to read a book than tend to a flock of sheep. Luckily, this failed agricultural experiment only lasted nine months, and Newton was allowed to return to his studies (via History). He later went to Trinity College at Cambridge University in 1661. At Trinity, Newton found his intellectual home and began to thrive. It was in a courtyard there that he first pondered his thoughts on gravity, and the rest is scientific history.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCAlGpvbmtfqbWmedOrrK2gXZavsMHTZqCsmZGYeq%2Bx1q2mp6tdmbanssicrKWsXZi1qrjDoaaonF8%3D