One of the most beloved stories in the history of science is, without a doubt, Isaac Newton resting under an apple tree when, suddenly, an apple falls on his head and … Eureka! The Universal Gravitation Law was born at that moment. It is such a perfect story, so clean, so cinematographic that it almost hurts to admit that reality was considerably more complex. But no less fascinating.
Contrary to popular belief, no apple hit Newton’s head. The real story, although less dramatic, remains a wonderful example of how casual observation can trigger deep scientific reflections.
In 1666, a 23 -year -old Newton was in Woolshorpe Manor, the family home in Lincolnshire. The University of Cambridge had temporarily closed due to a bubonic plague outbreak, and Newton had returned home.
During this period – which he would later describe as his Annus Mirabilis or “wonderful year” -, he had time to think deeply about mathematics, optics and, of course, gravitation.
William Stukeley, Newton’s friend and biographer, said in 1726 the closest version to the source. According to Stukeley, Newton told him that the idea of gravitation came while he was in a contemplative attitude: «The idea of gravitation came to mind … caused by the fall of an apple. Why does that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground? He thought for himself. Why not go up, or to the side, but constantly towards the center of the earth?
Here is the real seed of the story: Newton observed an apple fall – not on his head – and wondered why objects always fall perpendicularly to the earth, never towards the sides or up. This seemingly trivial observation led him to one of the most revolutionary ideas in the history of physics.
The year that changed science
The period 1665-1666 was extraordinarily productive for Newton. In addition to starting to formulate his ideas about gravitation he developed the differential and integral calculus and conducted pioneer experiments with light and prisms. All this while it was “isolated” as a consequence of the plague.
He is tempting to imagine Newton sitting under an apple, receiving lighting instantly, but the reality is that the Law of Universal Gravitation was the result of years of reflection, calculations and verifications. The apple may have been an initial spark, but the fire of its discovery fed with years of methodical work.
Approximately twenty years would pass from that moment on Woolshorpe to the publication of his masterpiece, the ‘Philosophiæ Naturalis Mathematica’ (1687), where he formally presented the Law of Universal Gravitation and the three laws of movement.
Why do we love this story so much?
Newton’s legend and apple persists because it embodies something we yearn to science: sudden epiphany, the Eureka moment where everything makes sense. We prefer to think of geniuses that have instant revelations instead of scientists who work for decades between errors, dead ends and occasional advances.
Simplified history offers us a comforting narrative: that great discoveries can occur at an instant of accidental inspiration. And although there is a really core in this – serendipia plays an important role in science – omits the most important part: recognizing the meaning of what is observed requires a mind prepared by years of study and reflection.
To really appreciate the story we have to understand the man. Newton was not simply a genius that was lucky with a fallen apple, he was a complex individual, often difficult, obsessive in his work and notoriously sensitive to criticism.
The fascinating thing in the history of the apple is not so much the physical object, but what it represents: the ability to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. The apples had been falling since there are apple trees, but it was Newton who wondered why they always fall down and connected that simple fact with the movement of the planets.
This ability to recognize patterns and make connections between apparently unrelated phenomena is a defining characteristic of many scientific advances. Newton realized that the same force that makes an apple fall could be the one that keeps the moon into orbit around the earth.
It was an amazing conceptual leap: unifying terrestrial and celestial physics, which until then were considered separate kingdoms governed by different laws. From Aristotle, it was believed that the heavens were perfect and immutable, following different rules to those of the imperfect and changing world under the moon. Newton demolished this distinction with a single equation.
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