38 Materials and Thru 



up the work of development. Improvement now 

 proceeds at a much more rapid pace than in any 

 previous era, because for years we have been able 

 to print cheaply information about what has been 

 accomplished in the past. 



Section II 

 The Man and the Possibilities 



Newton and the Falling Apples. Perhaps 

 some of you remember the old tale of the astron- 

 omer, Sir Isaac Newton, whose studies of the 

 heavens had so important a result for the suc- 

 ceeding generations. It is told of him that he 

 was out in his garden one pleasant day in the fall 

 and, to shade himself from the sun, had sat down 

 under an apple tree to read. There was a gentle 

 breeze blowing and the branches of the tree 

 swayed sufficiently to loosen some of the ripe 

 apples. The noise of the apples striking the 

 ground attracted his attention and he finally began 

 to wonder why these apples fell. He knew that 

 things always had fallen, but he had not thought 

 about why they fell until the apples set him to 

 thinking. 



It was Newton who formulated for us the great 

 laws which underlie gravitation, by which we 

 know, not only why things fall to the earth, but 

 why they fall with greater force if they fall from a 

 greater height. Knowledge of that law of gravi- 

 tation makes it possible for us to measure the 

 exact speed of a pound weight at the moment 



