While visiting friends in Rutland for
the weekend I went with a group of friends to Woolsthorpe Manor which was the
birthplace and Lincolnshire home of Isaac Newton.
Newton was a yeoman farmer’s son. After school he went to
Trinity College at, Cambridge, and when the plague struck in 1665, came home to
Woolsthorpe Manor. Newton then used observation
and experimentation to develop his revolutionary theories on optics, motion and
mathematics.
Later in life Newton was elected president of the Royal Society.
In the orchard at
Woolsthorpe Manor is a very special apple tree. This is the tree from which it is supposed that
an apple fell and caused Newton to ask the question: “Why do apples always fall
straight down to the ground?” He began
to think about why everything always fell down and not sideways or upwards. Newton came to the conclusion that there must
be a power that draws them. He wondered
how far would that power could extend and whether this could be as far as the
moon. From these musings came the notion
of gravity.
We spent a pleasant time
wandering around the scientific exhibits and then the manor house. The rooms of Woolsthorpe Manor are simple but
it was thought provoking to think this was where Newton did many of his
experiments. Finally we went out into
the orchard to look at the legendary apple tree.
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