Why is their always this mix up about gravity and what is so great about knowing about it?

i guarantee if you type in google 'who discovered gravity?' Sir Isaac Newtons name will be the one that comes up. @pianoplayingsteve:

@Abandoned95: the scientific community is the authority on science, not google. The general zeitgeist works on a different level to the scientific, just look at the scientific usage of the word theory in science compared to common usage for example. Look up "newtons laws of motion" that is what he came up with. Claiming newton discovered gravity sounds like everyone was floating around until he discovered it

@pianoplayingsteve: by your line of reasoning, Darwin discovered evolution...

There is a difference between inventing and discovering. Discovering something is when something was there all along you just came across it ie-gravity

Invention is when something isn't there and you create it ie- planes, cars, bikes, TV, phones, @pianoplayingsteve:

@Abandoned95: I full well know how science works, I work in medicine, my brother a physicist and my dad an engineer, hence I wanted to pull you up on your usage of terms. Do you think until newton came along, people didn't notice that something pulled them down, that they didn't know that if they jumped off a building, they would fall to the ground. Newton came up with laws that accurately described this, he didn't discover it. In the same way that Darwin formulated the laws of natural selection to explain evolution , rather than discovering evolution

You're from a family of scientist? Awesome!!! I wish I did. My question is this then (if it comes over sarcastic or snippy I don't mean it to) why do they tell us in school the discovered it rather than just say they laid the foundations for the laws of their perspective fields @pianoplayingsteve:

@Abandoned95: thank you for your humbleness. I'm going to try and not sound condescending but there are a few obvious things that need pointing out. as you progress up the levels of education, you are taught things in a more advanced way, and at early levels, i.e. when you are young, you are taught things in a very general easy to understand way. For example, electrons don't simply spin around an atom, which you learn when you are about 12. they form a cloud and are better placed into s, p, d and f shells, each which can hold a certain amount of electrons. You also get taught very basic concepts of certain words, like "theory" which general, and at an earlier level sounds like someone just pulling some idea out of nowhere. That would be more of a hypothesis. A theory is a tested model which explains a string of observable facts. Like the theory of natural selection, a model that explains the observational facts of evolution. And again with the "newton discovered gravity" that's an easy general way to ease people into an understanding of the subject. I guess it is true to say he did that on a very shallow level, but when it comes to what science actually says, he actually came up with various laws of motion, which will have a lot to do with gravity as gravity causes motion. He explained how an object, if uninterrupted, will continue at the same speed until a counter acting force is applied to it, or that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. As you can see, he didn't discover gravity, he laid the foundations for understanding how it works, but to the lay person, it's easier to start with the idea that he discovered gravity

makes sense. I'd love to pick your brain about a few other hypothesis I have in my mind on a scientific level. Whould you object to me pm you so we can chat? @pianoplayingsteve:

@Abandoned95: pm me at will