Rubes by Leigh Rubin for October 01, 2010

Wow!!! Gravitation still exists.

Honestly, children, he used Math to discover Gravity. Just as Einstein used Math to discover Relativity. No apples, trees, or in Einstein’s case trolley cars required.

I didn’t know they said, “Wassup?” back in the day.

@C A Brobst:

it’s a comic

laugh with the rest of us

@C A Probst – While Newton indeed used math to develop his theories of Gravitation (not “discover” gravity, since everyone knew gravity existed), scientists are often (if not always) inspired by the real world. And the Apple story is more-or-less true. From a reliable friend of Newton himself:

“After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank thea, under the shade of some apple trees…he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself…”

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/newtons-apple-the-real-story.html

And you’re also wrong about Einstein, but this post is long enough.

i’ve been feeling down ever since

A wiseman said, “There is no gravity–the earth sucks!”