SparkNotes: Isaac Newton: Review Test

1. In what town was Newton born?

(A) Cambridge

(B) London

(C) Woolsthorpe

(D) Winchester

2. When did Newton's father die?

(A) When Newton was three

(B) Before Newton was born

(C) A month after Newton was born

(D) A month after Newton died

3. What did Newton's mother do when he was three?

(A) She died

(B) She remarried

(C) She sent him away to school

(D) She divorced his father

4. Who ruled England during Newton's youth?

(A) James II

(B) William and Mary

(C) Elizabeth I

(D) Oliver Cromwell

5. What was the dominant religious group in England in the 1550s?

(A) The Quakers

(B) The Puritans

(C) The Catholics

(D) The Presbyterians

6. The return of King Charles II in 1660 was known as what?

(A) The Reformation

(B) The Glorious Revolution

(C) The Interregnum

(D) The Restoration

7. Where did Newton become a student in 1616?

(A) Trinity College

(B) Jesus College

(C) Eton

(D) Oxford

8. In what year did London suffer a disastrous fire?

(A) 1663

(B) 1669

(C) 1640

(D) 1666

9. In 1666, Newton retreated to his mother's home to escape the...

(A) London Fire

(B) Inquisition

(C) Civil war

(D) Plague

10. In 1666, Newton discovered that white light is composed of:

(A) Green and red light

(B) White photons

(C) Air and water

(D) A spectrum of all the colors of light

11. What did Newton call his method of doing calculus?

(A) Trigonometry

(B) The quadratic equation

(C) Vortices

(D) Fluxions

12. The famous story of how Newton came to discover gravity involves the fall of a(n)

(A) Lightning bolt

(B) Apple

(C) Dynasty

(D) Rock

13. What was the name of the Frenchman who explained the orbit of planets using a theory of vortices?

(A) Descartes

(B) Laplace

(C) Galileo

(D) Leibniz

14. According to Newton, how does the force of gravity vary in regard to planets?

(A) Inversely with the cube of their diameter

(B) Inversely with the square of their distance from the sun

(C) Directly with the square of their distance from the Earth

(D) Directly with the square of their mass

15. In 1669, Newton was appointed to which position?

(A) The Lucasian Chair of Mathematics

(B) Master of the Royal Mint

(C) Member of the Royal Society

(D) President of Trinity College

16. Who composed the Royal Society?

(A) Scientists and intellectuals

(B) Clergymen

(C) Nobles

(D) The King's friends

17. In what year did Newton join the Royal Society?

(A) 1672

(B) 1665

(C) 1660

(D) 1685

18. Newton's first paper presented to the Royal Society detailed his research into which field?

(A) Gravity

(B) Optics

(C) Calculus

(D) Alchemy

19. Who was Newton's great rival in the Royal Society?

(A) Edmund Halley

(B) Christopher Wren

(C) Robert Hooke

(D) Gottfried von Leibniz

20. The orbit of a planet, according to both Kepler and Newton's inverse square law, traced the shape known as a(n)

(A) Parabola

(B) Circle

(C) Ellipse

(D) Hyperbola

21. Which astronomer encouraged Newton to publish his work on gravity?

(A) Christian Huygens

(B) Robert Hooke

(C) Edmund Halley

(D) Johannes Kepler

22. The title of Newton's great work, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, was frequently shortened to what name?

(A) Mathematica

(B) Naturalis

(C) Principia

(D) Novum Organum

23. What does the title Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica mean in English?

(A) Natural Philosophy of Mathematics

(B) Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

(C) Principles of Mathematical Philosophy

(D) Mathematics, the Prince of Nature and Philosophy

24. What did Newton's third law of motion state?

(A) A body in motion tends to stay in motion

(B) To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction

(C) The change in motion is proportional to the motive force impressed, and is made in the direction of the straight line in which that force is impressed

(D) The universe is composed of space-time

25. Which of the following things was not accounted for by Newton's theory of universal gravitation?

(A) The bending of light as it passes through a prism

(B) The tides

(C) The earth's bulge at the equator, and the flattening at the poles

(D) The behavior of comets

26. How did Newton conceive of his scientific explanations in relation to religion?

(A) They were a way for mankind to come closer to understanding God

(B) They disproved the existence of God

(C) They proved that prophecies and miracles could not happen

(D) They supported the divine right of kings

27. The complete edition of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was first published in what year?

(A) 1685

(B) 1687

(C) 1693

(D) 1713

28. According to Hooke, Newton had stolen the ____ from him

(A) First law of motion

(B) Principle of ellipses

(C) Theory of relativity

(D) Inverse square law

29. The political events of 1688-89 are known as the:

(A) Restoration

(B) Glorious Revolution

(C) American Revolution

(D) English Civil War

30. In 1688-89, the English throne passed from ____ to ____

(A) Charles I; Charles II

(B) James II; George III

(C) Charles II; William

(D) James II; William and Mary

31. Newton suffered a nervous breakdown in what year?

(A) 1693

(B) 1699

(C) 1706

(D) 1689

32. In 1696, Newton was appointed to what post?

(A) President of the Royal Society

(B) Professor of Mathematics at Oxford

(C) Warden of the Mint

(D) Prime Minister

33. What was alchemy the study of?

(A) The signs of the zodiac

(B) The interpretation of biblical prophecy

(C) The transmutation of base elements into valuable elements

(D) The divinity of Christ

34. What came of Newton's experiments with alchemy?

(A) He met with failure

(B) He predicted the Second Coming

(C) He transmuted lead into gold

(D) He discovered the principle of flight

35. Which Christian heresy did Newton subscribe to?

(A) Arianism

(B) Puritanism

(C) Donatism

(D) Mormonism

36. After 1699, what post did Newton acquire?

(A) Master of the Mint

(B) First Lord of the Admiralty

(C) Chancellor of the Exchequer

(D) Minister of Science

37. Newton wrote more than a million words on what subject?

(A) The philosopher's stone

(B) Theology and the interpretation of the Bible

(C) The electromagnetic spectrum

(D) Descartes' theory of vortices

38. For Newton and his religious friends, interpreting prophecy offered a way to discover the date of what event?

(A) Jesus' birth

(B) The creation of the world

(C) The Second Coming

(D) The conquest of England

39. Newton was elected President of the Royal Society in what year?

(A) 1703

(B) 1672

(C) 1687

(D) 1714

40. Newton attained the Presidency of the Royal Society only after the death of which man?

(A) Halley

(B) Hooke

(C) Leibniz

(D) Descartes

41. In 1704, Newton published which work?

(A) Propositiones de Motu

(B) The third edition of the Principia

(C) Novum Organum

(D) Opticks

42. With which European mathematician did Newton quarrel in the early 1700s?

(A) Christian Huygens

(B) Gottfried von Leibniz

(C) Rene Descartes

(D) Robert Hooke

43. This quarrel was over which man had developed ___ first.

(A) Universal gravitation

(B) Calculus

(C) The particle theory of light

(D) The philosopher's stone

44. In 1705, Newton received a ___ from Queen Anne

(A) Dukedom

(B) Medal

(C) Knighthood

(D) Earldom

45. What was the name of the royal astronomer who attempted to challenge Newton in the early 1700s?

(A) Halley

(B) Leibniz

(C) Flamsteed

(D) Descartes

46. Which of the following describes Newton's romantic life?

(A) He never married, but had several mistresses

(B) He was a self-declared homosexual

(C) He never married, nor did he have mistresses or lovers at any point

(D) He was married twice, but had no children

47. When did Newton die?

(A) 1727

(B) 1714

(C) 1693

(D) 1711

48. Where was Newton buried?

(A) The Vatican

(B) Westminster Abbey

(C) Trinity College

(D) St. Paul's Cathedral

49. Which 20th-century scientist modified Newtonian physics?

(A) Niels Bohr

(B) Richard Feinman

(C) Edwin Hubble

(D) Albert Einstein