That Bothering Date

Wait... Is my brain deceiving me...? 

But the date must have some importance... 

I'm pretty sure. My brain won't lie. 

It might have got something mixed up, I guess.

The date may not even turn out to be that important.

Is my brain playing some tricks with me from the past many years when I see this date ?

Is it trying to make me aware that the loads of dates I have been keeping stored are now kind of getting baffled?

Why don't I just waste one more night, sleepless, in search of the date in the history of about a few centuries ago, without being sure if it really is important or not??? 

And, booooooom...

Whoa, finally! Eureka!! That date in history… 

Well, the fact is the date is of some great importance to me because I love stories. Even if it isn't the birth date of that great Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician and what not person, it is the date marked by one of his early biographers when this great mind happened to tell him ‘a story’, which in future, was going to be one of the most famous stories in the world.

Well, the date my brain has always kept flashing in front of me is April 15th. And, it was April 15th of 1726, when William Stukeley, who wrote one of the earliest biographies of this friend of his, met him and heard the story.

After all, some stories hold more importance as they ignite curiosity in the young minds. This story was ‘the Apple Story’ of Sir Isaac Newton.

Stukeley recorded in his Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life a conversation with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726:

We went into the garden, & drank thea under the shade of some apple trees, only he, & myself. Amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly the notion of gravitation came into his mind. "Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground," thought he to himself: occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood: "Why should it not go sideways, or upwards? But, constantly to the earth’s centre? Assuredly, the reason is that the earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in matter. & the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the earth must be in the earth’s centre, not in any side of the earth. Therefore, does this apple fall perpendicularly, or toward the centre. If matter thus draws matter; it must be in proportion of its quantity. Therefore, the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth draws the apple."

The reason behind sharing this story is, since childhood I happened to hear from many and also read some places that the apple story is a myth and that Sir Isaac Newton did not arrive at his theory of gravity at any single moment. 

There are many such stories in Science, which may or may not be true. However, stories have always held a great importance in learning. Stories have always made it simpler to visualize the situations. Stories have always made it better to learn something that might otherwise look boring, in an entertaining way.

I have always loved stories and sharing those stories too… and this one has always been one of my favourites.

✍ Sonal Thorve

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2170052-newtons-apple-the-real-story/