What fruit fell on Isaac Newton's head causing him to consider gravity?

Answer 1

Most people think it was an apple, but that's a myth because apples didn't grow in England during the 17th century. It was actually a watermelon.

Answer 2

Isaac Newton was supposed to have been in a grave situation when an apple according to historical description ;with out any wind an apple tree had one of its fruit fall down on Newton .The apple produced a force on his head. He called that gravity.
It was a hard apple and he must have had a reaction in the form of a forced lump on his head.He realized that in any grave situation where there is an action a reaction occurs as well.
And as Sherlock Holmes would say" Elementary...".
Never the less Newton never figured out whether the apple tree pushed down its fruit or it was pulled down by some sort of influence. The dilemma was so pressing that he no longer wished to explain what the cause of gravity really was.
It wasnt till 3 centuries later that Einstein took a crack at the problem;He concluded that it must have been a space time curvature that caused the apple to fall down to form a lump on Newtons Head. This is the simplest non mathematical explanation that can be given for the description of what happened to Newton theory of gravity.

Answer 3

Newton said that the idea of gravity came to him wile he sat contentedly beneath a tree, and was occasioned by the fall of an apple. He never said that he was struck by the apple.

Answer 4

Isaac develop into not in any appreciate hit through an apple. His assistant suggested that about him. it fairly is Ben Franklin and the major. He not in any appreciate tied it to a kite. He theory about it, yet he not in any appreciate did it. The apple develop right into a metaphor.

Answer 5

An apple - although it was an observation of an apple falling

Just for interests sake - there is an apply tree on the campus of Cambridge University, England, where Newton was on the faculty, that is said to be the offspring of the famous apple tree at his home in the country, where he was staying at the time to escape the plague.

Since someone gave me a "thumbs down" here is some additional information from multiple sources:

Newton and the Apple

The story that Newton's hypothesis of universal gravitation was prompted by the fall of an apple, is probably based on fact. There are several reliable accounts from the last few years of his life which record him describing such an event. (There is no indication an apple fell on his head though...)


The first was recorded by William Stukeley, who said that after dining with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726:


The weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank tea, under shade of some apple-trees, only he and myself. Amidst other discourses, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned 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. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre.


From Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life pp19-20.


John Conduit recorded a similar story:


In the year 1666 he retired again from Cambridge ... to his mother in Lincolnshire & whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much farther than was usually thought. Why not as high as the moon said he to himself & if so that must influence her motion & perhaps retain her in her orbit.


Keynes Collection, King's College Cambridge, MS 130.4 pp10-12


There are also two versions published by Voltaire in the eighteenth century. In the Essay on the Civil War in France(1727) he stated that Sir Isaac Newton walking in his Garden had the first thought of his System of Gravitation, upon seeing an Apple failing down from the Tree. In the Letters Concerning the English Nation(1733) he referred instead to a fruit falling from a tree and that he had this story from Newton's niece, Catherine Barton who was also Conduitt's wife. It should be remembered that Voltaire was in London for the last year of Newton's life and for two years after and met several of his friends - although he got no closer to Newton than his funeral.


The story is also repeated by Robert Greene in his Principles of the Philosophy of the Expansive and Contractive Forces(1727, p972) who cites Martin Folkes, the vice-president of the Royal Society.


The tree shown to inquisitive visitors to Woolsthorpe Manor in the eighteenth century no longer survives. However, various saplings grow in Newtonian sites around the world, including the Babson College Library and on the lawn to the right of Great Gate of Trinity College Cambridge, in the garden Newton once owned.


Both the saplings and the apple trees currently growing at Woolsthorpe are of the species Flower of Kent, a pear-shaped cooking variety.

The incident is also discussed by Richard de Villamil in his Newton: the Man.

I would include the photo that I took of the above mentioned tree on the Cambridge University campus in 2004 but an image cannot be pasted into the answer field.

Answer 6

Apple.

Answer 7

Hi. The apple did not fall on his head. But after watching things in general fall, he had the insight to think about why.

Answer 8

Galileo. But I really like Kevin H's response. Goring was just a bit too textbookish for me. I do not think that it is his. Again, maybe the fruit's name was Mott.

Answer 9

most think it is an apple, i have no reason to think otherwise, does it matter if it was an orange? although a durain would not have been good

Answer 10

an apple