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An Essay on Newton's “Principia”

Abstract

THE name of Newton has become now quite a household word amongst us, and one instance of its familiarity was strikingly brought home in an answer given by a small child, who when asked who was Newton, replied, “the man who found the first apple!” That two important epochs in the world's history should have been marked by the presence of this fruit, seems curious indeed; and Mr. Ball informs us that the apple anecdote in Newton's case rests on good authority, for besides written evidence, local tradition confirms it by the careful treatment the tree received, which kept it alive until the year 1820.

An Essay on Newton's “Principia.”

By W. W. Rouse Ball. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1893.)

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An Essay on Newton's “Principia”. Nature 49, xii–xiii (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049xiia0

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