The biggest Newton mistake
Isaac Newton is arguably one of the greatest scientist who ever lived. To suggest he made a "mistake" seems almost sacrilegious. But he did make one. And it wasn't a small calculation error. It was a fundamental misinterpretation of reality that held physics back for over two hundred years. The irony of Newton’s legacy is this: he gave us the exact tools required to understand that gravity is an illusion, but he was so deep inside the illusion himself that he couldn't see it. The ghost forces To understand Newton's mistake, we first need to understand one of his most brilliant insights: the difference between a "true" frame of reference and an accelerating one. Newton established that if you are in a "distinguished frame" (what we now call an inertial frame )—like floating smoothly in deep space—the laws of physics are simple. Objects move in straight lines at a constant speed unless pushed. But if your frame is accelerating, things get weir...