“It is the most famous apple in science. The fruit that bounced from Sir Isaac Newton’s head, as he pondered the universe in his orchard, supposedly inspired the great scientist to develop his theory of gravity. Unfortunately, like so many tempting tales, this one is not quite true.
Now, anyone who wants to study the best original source of one of science’s key insights can do so. The Royal Society is making available online for the first time a 100-page manuscript by the physician William Stukeley, who wrote the Memoirs of Newton’s Life.
“After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank tea, under the shade of some apple trees,” wrote Stukeley, in the papers published in 1752 and previously available only to academics. “He told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion’d 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.”"
Read more at Guardian (Thanks SonOfSam)
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Perhaps the smartest man that ever lived. There are tons of things about Newton that most people don’t know about and one of his greatest “champions” today is Dr. Neil Tyson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiOwqDmacJo about 4 minutes in if you can’t wait
Apparently Archimedes only shouted “Eureka” in the bath as his bits touched the water, not when it overflowed
I think the best thing I ever read about Sir Isaac Newton was his study in to the human eye. He thought that, if the images that were captured by the eye were to make sense, they must be interpreted by the brain; so there had to be a nerve connecting the eye to the brain (the optic nerve.) To see if this was true, he dug a knitting needle behind his own eye.
and let’s not ferget apple’s newton…