Isaac Newton

• Sir Isaac Newton was one of the greatest scientists. His book the mathematical principles of natural philosophy is the most influential science book ever written.
• Newton was born on December 25, 1642 in wools Thorpe in Lincoln, England. He said that is Theory of Gravity was inspired by seeing an apple fall from a tree.
• Newton invented an entirely new branch of mathematics called calculus. He also discovered that sunlight is a mixture of all colors.
• Newton’s greatest achievement his laws of Motion.
• Newton never married and at times he was almost a recluse. Shortly before he died in 1727 he said: `I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself In now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me’.

Albert Einstein

• Albert Einstein (1879- 1975) was the most famous scientist of the 20 century. He was half German half Swiss but when Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein shifted to the USA.
• Einstein completed his theory of general Relativity in 1915 while Germany was at war. He was once reported to have said that only 12 persons in the world could understand his theory. He, however, denied saying it.
• On August 2, 1939, Einstein wrote a letter to US president Franklin Roosevelt in which he persuaded the president to launch the Manhattan project to develop the nuclear bomb.
• Einstein was married twice. His first wife was Mileva Maric. His second wife Elsa was also his first cousin.

Fact file

*You can see another galaxy besides the Milky Way with the naked eye- the Andromeda galaxy, over 214,000 light-years away.

*To stay in orbit 200km up, up a spacecraft to fly at over 8km per second.