Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Newton's apple

‘After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank tea, 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 occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself…’
From William Stukeley's Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life, online in facsimile here.

Via History Today.

1 comment:

dearieme said...

It's sad to see that state that The Royal has fallen into today.