Talk:Isaac Newton's apple tree

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Text and/or other creative content from Isaac Newton was copied or moved into Isaac Newton's apple trees. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists.

A fact from Isaac Newton's apple tree appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 17 July 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Newton's apple tree was blown down in a storm in 1816?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2023/July. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Isaac Newton's apple trees.

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Did you know nomination[edit]

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Vaticidalprophet (talk) 17:59, 15 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

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... that Newton's apple tree was blown down in a storm in 1816? Source: Isaac Newton's Apple Trees, page 104
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Robin Hayes (businessman)

Created by FuzzyMagma (talk). Self-nominated at 17:58, 30 June 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Isaac Newton's apple trees; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.[reply]

I'll be honest, this being an article that not only exists but is actually pretty well-written was amusing to me. New enough (created 7 June; moved from draft on 30 June) and long enough. Hook is interesting and cited. The article lede could be longer but as per usual, I'll leave that for a potential GA nom. I would recommend some changes to the starting header before this goes up. "The Apple incident" reads a bit unencyclopedic; maybe "The apple myth"? In any case, "apple" shouldn't be capitalized. The article does mention that there are some contradicting opinions on which tree is the true one, so consider changing "was blown down" to "may have been blown down". Krisgabwoosh (talk) 11:29, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

thanks for the kind words. I have amended the article as you requested and I will expand the lead once I finish reading and hopefully before the GA nom. As for the tree being blown, that is well-established fact and I am yet to find any source that contradict that fact (maybe the year as 1827 and 1820 were also mentioned) FuzzyMagma (talk) 12:15, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Animation of apples hitting Newton on the head[edit]

I really dislike the animation of apples hitting Newton on the head. However I am not going to remove it just because I do not like it. It seems childish and is distracting while trying to read. I doubt anyone needs this point illustrated. See MOS:PERTINENCE. If I can get consensus from others to remove it, I will. If this post gets ignored I will leave it. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 17:16, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I like it. It summarises things FuzzyMagma (talk) 21:55, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Remove it. It’s childish and non-encyclopaedic. Step hen 22:17, 16 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I dislike it also. You have my support for removing it. oatco (talk) 02:08, 17 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed it for now, but that might generate more discussion. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 02:26, 17 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Adding a thought: the fact that it's unstoppable is the issue. I don't mind a silly little GIF of Newton being hit by an apple, it's cute. What I do mind is having my eyes be pulled off the text, onto this image I've already seen, every 1.8 seconds, and being able to do nothing about it. It's just how my eyes work. My experience was this: I clicked on the "did you know" link (because it was interesting), started reading, scrolled down (I have a narrow window), and within a few loops of the GIF – 10-ish seconds – I thought "well, that's annoying", and came here to open up a discussion in order to remove it. I'm surely not the only person who clicked away out of annoyance, which is a real shame, since the article is well-written.

It's an accessibility issue, but sort of "in reverse": MOS:ANIMATION instructs us how to make a GIF seen, while there isn't anything to make it not be seen. (FWIW, I also agree with the MOS:PERTINENCE issue: it's (IMO) cute, but it's not like those animations in e.g. straightedge and compass construction, which are actually informative.) — oatco (talk) 02:29, 17 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think that seals it then FuzzyMagma (talk) 05:59, 17 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The article makes clear that the story, as told by multiple acquaintances of Newton (who said they got the story directly from Newton) NEVER involved the apple hitting him on the head. He SAW an apple fall, and this led him to further hypotheses (according to the story). The bit about it hitting him on the head was a later (jocular) embellishment that has zero historical foundation. I am going to change the introduction that mentions this false aspect.Ajrocke (talk) 17:50, 15 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]