English Original
Most people know the story of Newton and the falling apple, which led to his discovery of the law of gravity. But what else do we know about this great scientist and his place in the history of science?
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, and grew up in the English countryside. From an early age, he was fascinated by the mysteries of nature. A central scientific problem of his time was the question of motion. Why do objects move? Scientists observed stones rolling down hills, wind blowing leaves, and objects falling to the ground. After Copernicus, they also began to accept that the Earth itself moved. This led them to ask: "Are there universal laws governing all these different kinds of motion?"
The ancient Greeks had believed that different rules applied to motion on Earth and in the heavens, and that some earthly motions were unnatural.
Galileo Galilei was the first to challenge this Greek view. A follower of Copernicus, he found it illogical to have separate rules for earthly and celestial motion. He made two key discoveries: first, he demonstrated that motion is not unnatural—an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Second, he developed a mathematical formula to describe the motion of falling objects on Earth.
However, Galileo did not provide a complete explanation for all motion in the universe. Since Copernicus, much work had been done to observe and record the movements within the solar system. The task remained for a great mathematical mind to synthesize this knowledge into universal laws.
At age twenty-three, Newton moved from Cambridge to his country home. There, he pondered the problems of motion. As he later recounted, while sitting in his garden one evening, he noticed a falling apple. This simple event sparked his curiosity about the nature of falling objects.
He realized that the force causing the apple to fall must operate equally well at greater distances from Earth's center—on top of buildings or mountains. Newton wondered if this same force extended even farther, all the way to the moon. Could it be the force that kept the moon in orbit around Earth? And if so, could the same force explain the orbits of the planets around the sun? This line of thought prompted Newton to seek a mathematical expression for his revolutionary idea.
中文翻译
大多数人都知道牛顿和掉落苹果的故事，这导致了他对万有引力定律的发现。但关于这位伟大的科学家及其在科学史上的地位，我们还知道些什么呢？
艾萨克·牛顿出生于1642年的圣诞节，在英格兰乡村长大。他从小就对自然界的奥秘着迷。他那个时代的一个核心科学问题是关于运动。物体为什么会运动？科学家们观察到石头滚下山坡、风吹动树叶、物体坠向地面。在哥白尼之后，他们也开始接受地球自身在运动这一事实。这让他们不禁发问：“是否存在支配所有这些不同种类运动的普遍定律？”
古希腊人曾相信，地球上的运动与天体运动适用不同的规则，并且认为地球表面的一些运动是非自然的。
伽利略·伽利莱是第一个挑战这种希腊观点的人。作为哥白尼的追随者，他认为为地球和天体运动设定不同规则是说不通的。他做出了两项关键发现：首先，他证明运动并非不自然——运动中的物体会倾向于保持运动状态。其次，他为地球上所有下落物体的运动推导出了一个数学公式。
然而，伽利略并未能解释宇宙中所有的运动。自哥白尼以来，人们在观测和记录太阳系内天体运动方面做了大量工作。剩下的任务，就是等待一位伟大的数学头脑将这些知识综合起来，归纳成普适的定律。
二十三岁时，牛顿从剑桥搬回了乡下的家中。在那里，他开始深入思考运动的问题。据他后来讲述，一天傍晚，他正坐在花园里思考，注意到一个苹果掉落。这个简单的事件引发了他对下落物体运动本质的好奇。
他意识到，导致苹果下落的力，在离地心更远的地方——比如建筑物或山顶——应该同样起作用。牛顿猜想，这个相同的力是否延伸得更远，甚至到达月球？这是否就是使月球围绕地球运行的力量？如果是这样，同样的力能否解释行星围绕太阳的运行呢？这一思路促使牛顿开始为他的革命性想法寻找一个数学表达式。