Did Newton Actually Discover Gravity with an Apple?

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SUMMARY

The discussion confirms the authenticity of the story regarding Isaac Newton's inspiration for the law of gravitation stemming from an apple falling from a tree. This account originates from William Stukeley's biography, "Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life," published in 1752. The Royal Society has digitized Stukeley's manuscript, providing access to this historical narrative. Contrary to popular belief, the story does not involve an apple falling on Newton's head but rather his contemplative observation of an apple's descent.

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  • Explore the Royal Society's digital archives for primary scientific manuscripts
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Historians, educators, science enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the intersection of folklore and scientific history will benefit from this discussion.

g.lemaitre
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I decided to track down whether or not the story of Newton's apple did in fact happen. Here's what I found:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/Newtons-apple-the-real-story.html

t is the manuscript for what would become a biography of Newton entitled Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life written 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..."
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.

So it looks like it's true.
 
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Issac Newton had other reasons to be interested in apples..

http://www.Newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00101

...What sort of fruit are best to be used, and in what proportion they are to be mixed, and what degree of ripeness they ought to have? Whether it be material to press them as soon as gathered, or to pare them? Whether there be any circumstances to be observed in pressing them? or what is the best way to do it? If you can direct us to, or procure for us a short narrative of the way of making and ordering cyder in the cyder countries, which takes in a resolution of these, or the most material of these queries, you will oblige your humble servant,

"Is. Newton."