Isaac newton discovered gravity when an apple

Newton’s apple: The real story

We’ve all heard the story. A young Isaac Newton is sitting beneath an apple tree contemplating the mysterious universe. Suddenly – boink! -an apple hits him on the head. “Aha!” he shouts, or perhaps, “Eureka!” In a flash he understands that the very same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon falling toward the Earth and the Earth falling toward the sun: gravity.

Or something like that. The apocryphal story is one of the most famous in the history of science and now you can see for yourself what Newton actually said. Squirreled away in the archives of London’s Royal Society was a manuscript containing the truth about the apple.

It is the manuscript for what would become a biography of Newton entitled Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Lifewritten by William Stukeley, an archaeologist and one of Newton’s first biographers, and published in 1752. Newton told the apple story to Stukeley, who relayed it as such:

“After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank thea, 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 contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself…”

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The Royal Society has made the manuscript available today for the first time in a fully interactive digital form on their website at royalsociety.org/turning-the-pages. The digital release is occurring on the same day as the publication of Seeing Further (HarperPress, £25), an illustrated history of the Royal Society edited by Bill Bryson, which marks the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary this year.

So it turns out the apple story is true – for the most part. The apple may not have hit Newton in the head, but I’ll still picture it that way. Meanwhile, three and a half centuries and an Albert Einstein later, physicists still don’t really understand gravity. We’re gonna need a bigger apple.

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Legend has it that a young Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when he was bonked on the head by a falling piece of fruit, a 17th-century “aha moment” that prompted him to suddenly come up with his law of gravity. In reality, things didn’t go down quite like that. Newton, the son of a farmer, was born in 1642 near Grantham, England, and entered Cambridge University in 1661. Four years later, following an outbreak of the bubonic plague, the school temporarily closed, forcing Newton to move back to his childhood home, Woolsthorpe Manor. It was during this period at Woolsthorpe (Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667) that he was in the orchard there and witnessed an apple drop from a tree. There’s no evidence to suggest the fruit actually landed on his head, but Newton’s observation caused him to ponder why apples always fall straight to the ground (rather than sideways or upward) and helped inspired him to eventually develop his law of universal gravitation. In 1687, Newton first published this principle, which states that every body in the universe is attracted to every other body with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, in his landmark work the “Principia,” which also features his three laws of motion.

In 1726, Newton shared the apple anecdote with William Stukeley, who included it in a biography, “Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life,” published in 1752. According to Stukeley, “After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden, & drank thea 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…. occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.”

The esteemed mathematician and physicist died in 1727 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. His famous apple tree continues to grow at Woolsthorpe Manor.

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7 of Isaac Newton’s Most Important Ideas

Isaac Newton was one of the greatest thinkers in human history who practically invented modern physics.

When you think about Isaac Newton, you probably think of the apocryphal story about an apple falling on his head, giving him the idea for the theory of gravity. Y ou might also think about the fact that he is one of the most influential physicists and scientists of all time.

Born in 1642, Sir Isaac Newton was raised by his grandmother until the age of 12. His mother pulled him out of school at age 12 to have him tend the farm. Newton found farming monotonous, and he was soon sent back to school.

He studied law at Trinity College Cambridge, taking care of wealthier students’ rooms to pay his bills. During his time at Cambridge, Newton kept a set of notes, entitled «Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae» («Certain Philosophical Questions«). The notes reveal that Newton had already discovered the key ideas behind a new approach to mathematics: calculus. He graduated without honors or distinctions but did earn the title of scholar and four years of financial support for future education.

In 1699, Newton received his Master of Arts degree. He also came across Nicholas Mercator’s published book on methods for dealing with infinite series, which sparked a renewed interest in mathematics. He published a treatise, De Analysi , expounding his own ideas. This came to the attention of the mathematics community, and Newton was eventually given the Lucasian professorship at Cambridge.

Over the course of his life, Newton was responsible for a number of important ideas and theories. Let’s take a look at just 7.

Newton’s Laws

In 1687, Isaac Newton developed his three laws of motion after discovering and studying gravity. They are:

1. Every object stays in its state of rest or uniform motion unless disturbed by an external force. (Law of Inertia)
2. Force equals mass times acceleration.
3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Orbital Cannon

Isaac Newton liked to play with ideas around the concept of universal gravitation. In thought experiments about it, he described a mountain that would be so tall it poked into space. He considered that if such a mountain existed, you could place a cannon on its peak to launch objects into orbit.

This was a way to explain how one object might orbit another.

He theorized that if you gave the cannonball the perfect amount of gunpowder on the launch, you could give it enough velocity to fall towards earth at the same rate the planet curved away from it. The cannonball would continue in free fall all the way around the planet, in effect, orbiting it.

The Philosopher’s Stone

Isaac Newton was not only interested in mathematics and physics, but he also worked in areas that strayed away from what we now consider more traditional science, and into the realm of alchemy and mysticism, including ways to concoct the magical philosopher’s stone.

The «philosopher’s stone» was a mythical substance that alchemists believed had magical properties, including being capable of bestowing the abilities of transmutation and immortality. In theory, the stone could turn lead into gold, or cure any disease.

It is important to remember that when Newton was alive, alchemy was still seen by some as legitimate science.

Documents that have recently come to light give Newton’s handwritten instructions for making «philosophic» mercury. The document title translates, in part, to «Preparation of the [Sophick] Mercury for the [Philosophers’] Stone.»

Calculus

Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz are said to have independently invented calculus at around the same time, although each claimed the other had stolen his work. Newton discovered that algebra and geometry weren’t powerful enough for the science he was working on, so he developed a new means of mathematics in order to decode the world around him properly.

At its most basic, calculus is all about studying the rate of change of a quantity over time. In his work on gravity, Newton first tried to describe the speed of a falling object. When he did this, he found that the speed of a falling object increases every second, but that there was no existing mathematical explanation for this. The issue of movement and the rate of change had not yet been explored to any significant degree in the field of mathematics.

Newton also incorporated planetary ellipses into his theory of gravity, to try to explain the orbit of the planets. By using calculus, he could explain how planets moved and why the orbits of planets are in an ellipse.

One of his major breakthroughs was finding that the gravitational force that holds us to the ground is the same force that causes the planets to orbit the Sun and the Moon to orbit Earth.

Refraction of Light

In 1704, Newton wrote a book on the refraction of light titled Opticks. It changed the way that scientists thought about light and color.

Scientists in the early 18th century knew that rainbows formed when the light was refracted through water, but they had no perception as to why this produced so many colors. The common theory was that the water «dyed» the rays of the sun or that color was created by the mixing of light and dark.

Beginning in 1666, Newton conducted studies with a lamp and a prism. Newton developed a setup that allowed him to refract the rainbow rays back into white light, which demonstrated that the white light is actually made up of a mixture of distinct colored rays, which are distinguishable when refracted in a prism. His experiments also revealed that color arose primarily from selective absorption of light by materials.

Cool ing

Newton became particularly interested in the physics of how things cool. During his studies, he particularly focused on red-hot iron balls in different fluids. He noticed that the difference in temperature between the iron ball and the air surrounding it ended up being less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit, or roughly a difference of about 28 degrees Celcius.

He established a correlation between the rate of heat loss and the temperature difference of the ball and fluid.

Newton’s Law of Cooling states that the rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings. This law has become a guiding principle in the field of thermodynamics.

Gravity

While the legend is that Isaac Newton discovered the principles of gravity when he was hit by a falling apple, that story probably only has a grain of truth.

Whatever really happened, Newton realized that some force must be acting on falling objects, like apples, because otherwise, they would not start moving in the first place (see Newton’s First Law of Motion).

Newton publicized his Theory of Universal Gravitation in the 1680s. It set forth the idea that gravity was a predictable force that acts on all matter in the universe, and is a function of both mass and distance. The theory states that each particle of matter attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

As Newton also began observing planets, he realized that the moon should just move in a straight line away from Earth unless there was a force keeping it close to our planet. This force was gravity.

The work of Newton actually helped prove that the Earth was not at the center of the solar system, rather that it moved along with other planets and orbited around the sun.

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Рабочая тетрадь Spotlight 9. Workbook. Страница 39

1. Complete the text by using the correct form of the word in bold. — Закончите текст, используя корректные формы слов, выделенных жирным шрифтом.

Video gaming is a popular form of 1) entertainment for millions of people around the world. Perhaps the biggest 2) development in video game technology has come with the 3) introduction of the Wii, the Nintendo console, in 2007. Wii allows users to play games interactively using a special piece of wireless 4) equipment called a Wiimote. You can bowl, box or golf by making the same physical 5) movements required for these activities in real life. Despite advances in technology, 6) discussion about the negative effects of video games continues. Many parents claim that video games distract teenagers’ attention from their 7) schooling. Others call for the 8) omission of violence from video games. However, video games continue to grow in popularity. Recent research has led to the 9) discovery that more and more adults are enjoying video games. It seems that for now, millions of people around the world will ‘game on’.

Видеоигры — популярная форма развлечения для миллионов людей по всему миру. Возможно, самая большая разработка в технологии видеоигр пришла с появлением Wii, консоли Nintendo, в 2007 году. Wii позволяет пользователям играть в игры интерактивно, используя специальное беспроводное оборудование под названием Wiimote. Вы можете играть в боулинг, бокс или гольф, делая те же движения, которые необходимы для этих видов спорта в реальной жизни. Несмотря на технологические достижения, обсуждение негативных последствий видеоигр продолжается. Многие родители утверждают, что видеоигры отвлекают внимание подростков от их школьного обучения. Другие призывают к исключению насилия из видеоигр. Тем не менее, популярность видеоигр продолжает расти. Недавние исследования привели к открытию, что все больше и больше взрослых наслаждаются видеоиграми. Похоже, что скоро миллионы людей по всему миру будут играть.

2. Match the phrasal verbs to their definitions and then use them in their correct form to complete the sentences. — Сопоставьте фразовые глаголы с их определениями, затем используйте их в правильной форме, чтобы закончить предложения.

1. break down — e) stop working — сломаться, перестать работать
2. break into — a) go into a building by force to steal sth — вломиться силой в здание, чтобы украсть что-нибудь
3. break up — с) stop having a relationship with sb — разорвать отношения с кем-нибудь
4. break out — d) start happening — начаться, произойти
5. break out of — b) escape from a place — вырваться, освободиться

1. The police stopped cars on the motorway in search of the criminal who had broken out of the local prison. — Полиция на трассе останавливала машины в поисках преступника, который бежал из местной тюрьмы.
2. Fighting broke out between opposing football fans after last night’s game. — После вчерашней игры между футбольными фанатами команд соперников произошла потасовка.
3. The couple broke up but got back together a month later. — Пара разошлась, но через месяц они снова сошлись.
4. When her car broke down she called a local garage to ask for help. — Когда ее машина сломалась, она позвонила в ближайшую мастерскую и попросила помощи.
5. The police are looking for two men who were filmed as they were breaking into an electrical shop last night. — Полиция разыскивает двух мужчин, которые были засняты во время их проникновения в магазин электротехники прошлой ночью.

3. Correct the sentences. Use the words: discovered, research, electric, engine, download, affected. — Исправьте предложения. Используйте слова: discovered, research, electric, engine, download, affected.

1. His car machine wouldn’t start, so he had to take the bus to work.
   His car engine wouldn’t start, so he had to take the bus to work. — Двигатель его автомобиля не заводился, поэтому ему пришлось добираться до работы на автобусе.
2. Isaac Newton invented gravity when an apple fell on his head.
   Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head. — Исаак Ньютон открыл гравитацию, когда на его голову упало яблоко.
3. The Internet has effected the way people communicate with each other.
   The Internet has affected the way people communicate with each other. — Интернет повлиял на то, как люди общаются между собой.
4. According to recent experiments, more and more people are doing their shopping online.
   According to recent research, more and more people are doing their shopping online. — В соответствии с последними исследованиями, все больше людей совершают покупки онлайн.
5. You should access an anti-virus programme from the Internet so that you can protect your computer.
   You should download an anti-virus programme from the Internet so that you can protect your computer. — Тебе нужно скачать антивирусную программу из Интернета, чтобы защитить твой компьютер.
6. Grandma often uses an electronic blanket to keep warm at night.
   Grandma often uses an electric blanket to keep warm at night. — Бабушка часто использует электрическое одеяло, чтобы согреться ночью.

4. Fill in the gaps with: for (x2), from, with, in or on. — Вставьте: for (x2), from, with, in, on

A MUSICAL BREAKFAST!

Very few of us enjoy mornings, apart 1) from during the weekend. 2) In theory, morning should be a happy time, but 3) for many people it is a stressful time of the day. Most of us are anxiously getting ready for school or work. But at least you can rely 4) on the Toaster Radio to start your day 5) with a smile! The Toaster Radio is a new kitchen appliance that caters 6) for all the family. You can enjoy listening to your favourite morning radio show while you wait for your toast to pop up!

Музыкальный завтрак

Очень немногие из нас наслаждаются утром, кроме выходных. В теории, утро должно быть счастливым временем суток, но для многих людей это напряженное время. Большинство из нас судорожно готовятся к школе или к работе. Но, по крайней мере, вы можете положиться на тостер-радио, чтобы начать свой день с улыбки! Тостер-радио — это новинка в кухонная техники, которая обслуживает всю семью. Вы можете наслаждаться прослушиванием вашего любимого утреннего радиошоу, пока вы ждете, что ваш тост выскочит!

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