The Apple Incident
The Apple Incident is a very well known story - A young Isaac Newton was sitting in his garden when an apple falls onto his head and an idea enters his mind – could the same force explain the motions of the Moon and the planets? In that instant the theory of gravity is born! But, there was probably something more to just an apple falling.
Newton saw an apple fall in the late summer of 1666 which caused him to speculate about the nature of gravity. In other accounts it states that Newton was sitting at his garden at Woolsthorpe Manor near Grantham in Lincolnshire when the incident occurred. The story of Newton's apple could be traced back in 1752 in a manuscript written by William Stukeley, who recorded Memoirs of Newton's Life in a conversation with Newton in Kensington on April 1726.
Stukeley's manuscript states "It (the notion of gravity) was occasioned 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. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the Earth's centre?"
"Therefore does this apple fall perpendicularly or towards the centre? If matter thus draws matter; it must be proportion of its quantity. Therefore the apple draws the Earth, as well as the Earth draws the apple."
It is said that the apple tree that inspire Newton about gravity, still exists and is now owned by The National Trust in Newton's home in Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire.
This discovery meant that we are able to explain why the universe exists the way it does through the law of universal gravitation. We are able to understand the universe better as the planets, solar systems and galaxies formed and behave in accordance with Newton's law. His law states "every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them."
Without the Apple Incident, there would be no discovery, and without this discovery, humanity's modern understanding of physics and astronomy would not be to the extent it is today.
Newton saw an apple fall in the late summer of 1666 which caused him to speculate about the nature of gravity. In other accounts it states that Newton was sitting at his garden at Woolsthorpe Manor near Grantham in Lincolnshire when the incident occurred. The story of Newton's apple could be traced back in 1752 in a manuscript written by William Stukeley, who recorded Memoirs of Newton's Life in a conversation with Newton in Kensington on April 1726.
Stukeley's manuscript states "It (the notion of gravity) was occasioned 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. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the Earth's centre?"
"Therefore does this apple fall perpendicularly or towards the centre? If matter thus draws matter; it must be proportion of its quantity. Therefore the apple draws the Earth, as well as the Earth draws the apple."
It is said that the apple tree that inspire Newton about gravity, still exists and is now owned by The National Trust in Newton's home in Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire.
This discovery meant that we are able to explain why the universe exists the way it does through the law of universal gravitation. We are able to understand the universe better as the planets, solar systems and galaxies formed and behave in accordance with Newton's law. His law states "every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them."
Without the Apple Incident, there would be no discovery, and without this discovery, humanity's modern understanding of physics and astronomy would not be to the extent it is today.