What if Isaac Newton had a tree fall on him?

Static Eyes

Newbie
Feb 15, 2017
14
0
0
in the Earth's very core
We all know Isaac had an apple fall on him and then he was like "must be because of science".

And then he found out about gravity, told it to the world, and everyone was like: WOAH SCIENCE!

BUT WHAT IF:

he had a tree of apples fall on him, resulting in his death? Who would have then discovered gravity? Would gravity have been even discovered?

Post what you think because I'm clearly insane to even make this topic in the first place!
 

Ovais909

Proficient
Sep 4, 2012
566
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21
30
Karachi
Ofcourse it would have been discovered , If he didn't, someone else would eventually do it, but a lot of things science would had been delayed.
 

Benighted

Night is the new day
May 28, 2009
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Tartarus
This belongs to the chit chat, though I never quite understood the point of this section of the forums.

I agree with Ovais. Newton's gravity was the result of extraordinary insight and years of intellectual effort. Though there were many great scientists close to his timeline, his mathematical abilities were almost peerless at the time. Gravity would definitely have been discovered with or without Newton, but it might have come at a later time than it did in this..... version of reality.
 

MrGutsy

Active member
Aug 25, 2010
498
4
24
Lahore
It wouldn't matter either way because his definition is basically wrong or atleast doesn't fully explains everything.
Einstein's theory of relativity explains it better and in great detail.
Gravity is nothing but acceleration due to distortion in space time. There is no invisible force present which attracts everything dependent on their mass or distance.
Newton was wrong on so many aspects like about speed of light and other things.
 

Usbeh

New member
Aug 18, 2015
6
0
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Karachi, Pakistan.
The apple never fell ON him, but he saw it fall near him. So he'd just see a falling tree, which followed the same principle as gravity.
TL;DR Science would be unaltered!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Static Eyes

Newbie
Feb 15, 2017
14
0
0
in the Earth's very core
Nah, this doesn't really belong in chit chat. This is just a jo- a "science thread of fun". Yeah, that's it, haha....

Also, if indeed someone else discovered gravity...what would it's SI unit be? We all know it's Newton, but the name was given after Isaac's name, so...
g
Also, iirc, Isaac was sitting under a tree, so even if an apple fell near him (most likely just in front of him), he would still get crushed by an apple tree. For sitting under it.

Unless he sits behind an apple and a tree randomly falls down in front of him, from...somewhere...
 

Benighted

Night is the new day
May 28, 2009
2,476
2
44
31
Tartarus
It wouldn't matter either way because his definition is basically wrong or atleast doesn't fully explains everything.
Einstein's theory of relativity explains it better and in great detail.
Gravity is nothing but acceleration due to distortion in space time. There is no invisible force present which attracts everything dependent on their mass or distance.
Newton was wrong on so many aspects like about speed of light and other things.
Newton's contribution to physics remains enormous despite the fact that he was wrong "on so many aspects". He lived at a time when the answers to many questions were simply not possible, such as the nature of light, and the mysteries which he illuminated at the time that he did is nothing but an outstanding feat of human intellect. Every theory has its limitations, but the elegance with which Newton's theory explained the solar system had a tremendous impact on scientific thought for all times to come. Not to mention the fact that discoveries in mechanics and many other areas of physics would probably have been delayed if it weren't for Newton. The calculation of gravitational constant for instance would have taken much longer than it did. The inverse square law, which occurs in pretty much every branch of physics is thanks to Newton as well. Even the laws related to electrostatics bear close resemblance to Newton's gravity and Joseph Priestley had predicted Coulomb's Law before the man himself based solely on the qualitative observation of experiments, which allowed him to conjecture that the force relationships between charged bodies must be similar to Newton's gravity equation.

And Newton's gravity is still relevant today, used by rocket scientists all over the world to this day. By all criteria, the man was a freak of nature and his influence in the history of science is more significant than anybody else.
 
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