In 1666 , the Great Plague of London was in full swing , kill scores of residents and causing others to flee to outlying area . Among them wasIsaac Newton , who left Cambridge for Woolsthorpe Manor , the pastoral home of his mother . In his young environs , Isaac continue to puzzle over the lunation ’s electron orbit around Earth . As he lounged under an apple tree in the house garden , he was off in the question with a falling apple and – eureka –he discoveredgravity .
Newton ’s orchard apple tree is one of the most democratic and enduring anecdotes in scientific history , told to school children and repeated in educational books . But did it actually happen ? It ’s true that Newton leave London , as did many multitude at the time , in an effort to break away the pestilence [ source : The National Archives ] . It ’s also true that he took resort at his childhood rest home and expend clip in its garden , where there was reportedly at least one Malus pumila Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . His discovery of gravity , however , was more likely the issue of many moments of enquiry and contemplation rather than just one moment in which an orchard apple tree bonked him on the head .
Although Newton never show the exact minute he distinguish gravity , a few of his colleagues came near . William Stukeley , who tell take the air with Newton in the family garden and booze teatime under the shade of an Malus pumila tree , wrote one such report .
Stukeley , who also penned one of Newton ’s early biographies , recalled a discussion with Newton about the notion of gravity , one in which Newton pointed to a nearby apple on a branch as an example . Newton enquire why the Malus pumila should always fall to the ground , rather than fall obliquely or upward when it eject from the branch . The solution , Newton sound out , is that the earthly concern attracts the apple using a yet - unidentified military group . Thanks to Newton , this military force would later become know as somberness [ generator : Stukeley ] .
Newton himself was adoring of telling the apple anecdote , especially in his late days . However , historians suspect that by then he had honed the tale in such a direction that it succinctly illustrated his find of solemnity , boil it down so that it was easy to abide [ source : Connor ] .
A more accurate description of Newton ’s gravity discovery may come from something he aver near the end of his life : " I do not experience what I may appear to the world ; but to myself I seem to have been only like a son play on the seashore , and diverting myself now and then in finding a quiet pebble or prettier carapace than average , while the great sea of truth lay all unexplored before me " [ reference : life story ] .
