The popular story of an apple falling on Sir Isaac Newton’s head, leading to his discovery of gravity, is more myth than fact. The tale suggests that Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple hit him on the head, sparking his revolutionary thoughts on gravity. However, the truth is less dramatic.

The earliest account of this story comes from William Stukeley, Newton’s biographer, who in 1752 recounted a conversation where Newton mentioned seeing an apple fall. This observation led him to ponder why apples always fall straight down. Importantly, Stukeley never said the apple hit Newton on the head.

Newton himself never mentioned such an incident. His groundbreaking work on gravity was the result of years of observation, experimentation, and mathematical formulation, not a single moment of inspiration from a falling apple. The story of the apple hitting his head likely became popular because it is a vivid and memorable anecdote, but the reality involves a much more complex process of scientific discovery.