"Dr. Pemberton tells us a that the first thoughts, which gave rise to Newton's Principia, occurred to him when he had retired from Cambridge into Lincolnshire, in 1666, on account of the plague. Voltaire had his information from Mrs. Catharine Barton, Newton's favourite niece, who married Conduitt, a member of the Royal Society, and one of his intimate friends: from having spent a great portion of her life in his society, she was good authority for such an anecdote, and she related that some fruit, falling from a tree, was the accidental cause of this direction to Newton's speculations."
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Mathematicians from EnglandAcademics from the United KingdomAlchemistsAstronomers from EnglandPhysicists from England
Original Language: English
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Sources
. Historical Essay on the First Publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia. (1838), pp. 1β2; Lead paragraph of the first chapter
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
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Isaac Newton
1643 β 1727
englischer Physiker und Mathematiker
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