Apples on a tree
"Amidst other discourse, he told me he was just in the same situation as when formerly the notion of gravitation came into his mind.
"Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself, occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.
"Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre? Assuredly, the reason is that the earth draws it."
The manuscript is one of a number published online to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, and can be accessed at www.royalsociety.org/turning-the-pages.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself, occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.
"Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre? Assuredly, the reason is that the earth draws it."
The manuscript is one of a number published online to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, and can be accessed at www.royalsociety.org/turning-the-pages.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------