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		GRAVITATION & MOTION Newton's great work - Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica - was not published until the 1680's. But Newton had already made most of his discoveries in relation to gravitation when a young man, newly appointed to the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University, England. A number of circumstances during that time provided Newton with ideal conditions for concentrated, uninterrupted thought.	Isaac Newton 1642-1727

GRAVITATION & MOTION

Newton's great work - Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica - was not published until the 1680's. But Newton had already made most of his discoveries in relation to gravitation when a young man, newly appointed to the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University, England.

A number of circumstances during that time
provided Newton with ideal conditions for concentrated, uninterrupted thought.

Isaac Newton 1642-1727

ewton's book


	In 1667, the plague reached Cambridge. The young mathematics professor fled to his father's farm in Lincolnshire.	In the peace and quiet of the countryside, Isaac had all the time in the world to think about the mechanisms that drive the solar system.	Puzzling away at the problem of rotating heavenly bodies, he might even have found inspiration in the earthy practices of the country people.


	It is said that the penny finally dropped when he was working on a sunny day under an apple tree in his father's orchard.	An apple fell from the tree onto the table before him. Isaac considered how this might have happened. Why did the apple not fall upwards, or sideways? Why exactly so?	True or not, this story expresses the essence of the gravitational problem ... in a world where upwards, downwards and sideways have no real meaning.

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