The unit of force called the newton (small n) is named after the famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton lived between 1642 and 1726. He was an English physicist and mathematician. He is recognised as one of the most important scientists of all time and one of those who produced the scientific revolution. At the time this combination of physics and mathematics was called natural philosophy. That is why his famous book is called by the long title Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"). It was published in 1687. Today we might call it 'how the world works'. It was a study of forces, and the world works as a result of forces. But he was also responsible for many new insights into Light and also was responsible for the development of a new branch of mathematics called calculus.

Newton's book laid out laws of movement and also explained the idea of gravity. No one had known about gravity before Newton. He also showed that the laws did not just apply here on Earth, but also everywhere in the Universe, and also demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies could be described by the same laws. He even predicted that the Earth should be a slightly flattened globe, and this was later found to be the case.

Newton also built the first reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the way that a prism splits white light into the many colours of the spectrum (rainbow). He suggested a law of cooling, and worked on the speed of sound.

Newton was based at Trinity College Cambridge. He was a strange man, believing in both Christianity and alchemy, for this was before the days of chemistry as we know it. In his later life, Newton became president of the Royal Society. He also served the British government as Warden and Master of the Royal Mint.

In honour of his achievements the unit of force is called the newton (the amount needed to accelerate 1 kilogramme of mass at the rate of 1 metre per second squared).