Isaac Newton Discovered Gravity While in Quarantine
Solitude and self-isolation is the time for deep thinking.
Isaac Newton was an incredibly smart guy. A genius, who changed the views on our world with the laws of gravity, discovered that colors are a property of light, and invented calculus along the way.
Truth to be told, he is also said to have had a terrible personality. He didn’t go along with most other people and was described as rude, untrusting, and petty. He preferred to spend his time in solitude with his own intellectual thoughts. But in that kind of self-company, who can blame him?
Newton’s work during isolation
The following quotes are from “The Ascent of Gravity: The Quest to Understand the Force that Explains Everything” by Marcus Chown.
In August 1665, bubonic plague was raging in London. So great was the dread of contamination that in Cambridge, 55 miles to the north-east, the university was closed.
Just like in our Corona-times, the University was closed. Toilet paper was not yet invented in 1665, so Newton did not have to worry about that.
Newton, twenty-two years old, unremarkable, unknown, made the trek, by foot, by horse-drawn cart, back to his family farm in Woolsthorpe…
