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Is the story of Newton and Apple true?
The textbook records that Newton inspired the concept of gravity because he saw the apple fall to the ground, and then discovered the law of gravity. Is this story true? Is Newton alone responsible for the discovery of the law of universal gravitation? \ r \ nAs we know, Newton died on March 2th, 1727, and there was no record of the apple falling before his death. After Newton's death, the story about apple falling gradually spread. The person who recorded this story in the most detail was brest, an Englishman. In 1831, he mentioned it again in his book The Life of Newton. \ r \ nLater, in 1855, he raised this issue in the book "Newton's Life, Works and Discovered Memories". He recorded it this way: "The apple fell from the tree in Walthorpe, which made Newton think of this problem. \ r \ n In 1814, when I was in Walthorpe, I saw this apple tree. Part of the tree had begun to wither, and part of its trunk had broken away from its roots. By 182, the tree had completely decayed and fallen. The specimen of this tree was carefully preserved by Yi Turner. " The story about the preservation of the specimen of this tree by Yi Turner was told to Taranz by his great-grandson in 1939. His great-grandson said that when his great-grandfather Yi Turner went to Newton's former residence in Walthorpe village, he saw that a new apple tree had been replanted in the place where the old dead apple tree had died, and the replanted apple tree had already borne fruit. Up to now, there are still many tourists in Britain who visit this apple tree in Newton's former residence. \r\n In Newton's biography, brest, on the one hand, described the idea of gravity inspired by the landing of apples, and at the same time, expressed doubts about it. Brest didn't believe that the story of the apple falling to the ground was true. He thought that many scientists had the idea of gravity before Newton, and Newton should also know about it. In other words, Newton's concept of gravity may come from predecessors. Apple falling is a common phenomenon, and Newton may also see it, but it is not necessarily the source that inspired Newton to discover the law of gravity. Brest also pointed out in the book: The story of the apple falling to the ground was told by the famous Greene and Voltaire, which had a great influence on readers' minds and was widely circulated. In the year of Newton's death, Green talked about the story of an apple falling to the ground in the book Principles of Philosophy. He said, "One day, Newton was thinking about a problem in the garden, and suddenly an apple fell from the tree, which made Newton think of the law of gravity." But Green heard the story of Newton's apple falling from Fox. Voltaire of France also heard it from Newton's niece Catherine Bavo. In Voltaire's Philosophical Correspondence (published in 1733), the story of the apple falling to the ground is as follows: "In 1666, Newton returned to his former residence near Cambridge University due to the epidemic of plague. One day, when he was walking in the garden, he saw an apple fall from the apple tree, which made Newton think of the origin of gravity that many scientists had studied but had not broken through. " \r\n Voltaire thinks that Newton has made a lot of contributions to natural science and has a great influence on France, so he should introduce Newton's original ideas to the European continent. This is why Voltaire introduced the theory of gravity in two books, Philosophical Correspondence and Newton's Philosophical Thought, and also relayed the story of the apple falling to the ground. Therefore, the story of Apple's landing has also spread from Britain to Europe, becoming a well-known scientific story. Shortly after Newton's death, Stukeley wrote in his biography of Newton: On April 15th, 1726, I visited Newton's apartment and stayed with him all day. During the conversation, he talked to me about the apple falling to the ground. He said, "One day, while he was thinking about gravity in the garden, an apple fell from the tree. At this time, he thought, why do apples always fall vertically to the ground? Why don't apples move outward or upward, but always move toward the center of the earth? Undoubtedly, this is the earth pulling it down, and there is a downward pulling force acting on the object, and the sum of this downward pulling force must point to the center of the earth, not to other parts of the earth. So apples always fall vertically, or always face the center of the earth. The apple is facing the earth, and it can also be seen that the earth is facing the apple. Objects move towards each other. The force between objects must be proportional to their mass. This force is what we call gravity. " \r\n Stukeley is Newton's good friend, and his story about the apple falling to the ground is relatively complete, and unlike Green and Voltaire, Stukeley quoted directly from Newton, while Green and Voltaire heard it from others. This is the first apple landing story directly from Newton in the history of science, so it has great authority. \ r \ nHowever, there are still many doubts, namely: Why was there no story about the apple falling before Newton's death? Why did Newton himself never tell such a story in public? Why didn't many scientists or Newton's friends hear the story of the apple falling to the ground at that time, but it was gradually spread after Newton's death? So its authenticity is worth analyzing and studying.