Did the Apple really hit the Newton to trigger the theory of gravitation ? Weve all heard the story. A young Isaac Newton is sitting beneath an apple tree contemplating the mysterious universe. Suddenly - boink! -an apple hits him on the head. Aha! he shouts, or perhaps, Eureka! In a flash he understands that the very same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon falling toward the Earth and the Earth falling toward the sun What Newton actually said is available in the archives of Londons Royal Society in a manuscript containing the truth about the apple. Newton told the apple story to Stukeley, who relayed it as such: After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank thea, under the shade of some apple trees...he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasiond by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself... So it turns out the apple story is true - for the most part. The apple may not have hit Newton in the head, but Ill still picture it that way. Meanwhile, three and a half centuries and an Albert Einstein later, physicists still dont really understand gravity. Were gonna need a bigger apple.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 16:29:35 +0000
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