Although largely synonymous in the minds of the general public today with gravity and the story of the apple tree, Newton remains a giant in the minds of mathematicians everywhere (on a par with the all-time greats like Archimedes and Gauss), and he greatly influenced the subsequent path of mathematical development.
Over two miraculous years, during the time of the Great Plague of 1665-6, the young Newton developed a new theory of light, discovered and