A closer look
Isaac Newton was a genius, but he actually fumbled the formula for kinetic energy. It took Émilie du Châtelet, an 18th-century French aristocrat, gambler, and Voltaire's brilliant lover, to set the record straight. While translating Newton's Principia, she proved that energy is proportional to velocity squared, not just velocity. She literally rewrote the foundations of modern physics between scandalous affairs and high-stakes casino runs, ultimately dying of childbirth complications just days after finishing her manuscript.
