Isaac Newton's rooms. View of the rooms occupied by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) at Trinity College, Cambridge. His rooms were on the first floor between the Great Gate and the Chapel. The small room projecting from the Chapel was probably his alchemical laboratory. Newton spent nearly 40 years at Trinity College, first as undergraduate, and then as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. It was here that he wrote his most influential scientific work: Principia Mathematica", which describes his three laws of motion. From these laws he deduced the law of universal gravitation. Newton also invented the mathematics of calculus; and theories on mechanics and optics."