2006-08-20 17:21:18 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
I don't think Newton did much if any experimentation in this area. He had existing data to work with, including Galileo's pioneering experiments, which showed that gravity caused a constant acceleration. He was able to show the universality of gravity by showing how it proved Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and explained the orbit of the Moon.
2006-08-20 18:01:32 · answer #1 · answered by injanier 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The famous apple experiment that took place in the trinity college campus led Sir Issac Newton to discover gravity.
2006-08-21 03:02:38 · answer #2 · answered by s s 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, the apple story is total nonsense.
And Newton was certainly not Galileo's contemporary - Galileo died in the January of the year Newton was born.
Newton was actually trying to resolve the question of what keeps the planets and the moon in orbit. His assistant claims that he mused over an apple tree in his mother's garden and considered whether the same force that pulled an apple to the earth if it fell could be responsible. There is no record that any apple fell anywhere, least of all on his head.
But the experimental verificationof his theory came in his fitting the orbital motion of the moon to the theory.
2006-08-21 04:20:38 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
He really did not do an experiment, he was more of a theortician. He compared the acceleration of things falling on the surface of the earth to the acceleration of the moon "falling" around the earth and realized that the acceleration was related to the inverse of teh square of the distance between the two items, that the moon accelerates 3600 times less than an apple (lets say) because the moon is 60 times further away.
2006-08-24 20:16:20 · answer #4 · answered by kemchan2 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It wasn't an experiment, it was an observation, he was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell and hit him on the head. He was credited with discovering gravity. The real question should be, "Is he the first person to ever get hit on the head by a falling apple".
2006-08-21 00:29:40 · answer #5 · answered by nellie 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The story is that he didn't. He is supposed to have seen an apple fall from a tree, and asked himself why it fell. The answer: because earth attracted it. From this basic idea, he developed an entire theory of motion, and the necessary mathematics (calculus) to deal with it.
2006-08-21 00:28:54 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
He rolled a ball down a sloping piece of wood: the apple tale is myth. He was considering the implications of Galileo's experiments - they were contemporaries.
2006-08-21 00:28:58 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
An apple hit him on the head while he was sitting under an apple tree.
2006-08-21 00:26:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
an apple hit his head while he was reading a book it fell from a tree. what made it do that???? Gravity
2006-08-21 00:26:50 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Didn't he drop balls off the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
2006-08-21 00:27:42 · answer #10 · answered by Uglifull 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋