Comment by dredmorbius
7 days ago
Irony is that Newton was seriously pursuing alchemy. The whole gravity thing was a side quest.
Turns out though that gravity was the philosopher's stone he was looking for.
7 days ago
Irony is that Newton was seriously pursuing alchemy. The whole gravity thing was a side quest.
Turns out though that gravity was the philosopher's stone he was looking for.
Gravity is boring, at least in Newtonian physics. It involves a whole bunch of calculation but not much to experiment with IRL.
Alchemy on the other hand was the perfect hobby for any medieval or early modern nerd. Alchemists were basically trying to hack chemistry together. There was a promise of gold, sprinkled with an air of mystery, with lots of booms and bangs along the way. It must have felt like Dungeons and Dragons.