Newton's Real Discovery

When Newton came up with his laws, there was a widespread belief derived from Aristotle that there were two sets of rules for the physical world. It was called the superlunary and the sublunary spheres. It was named that because the barrier was supposed to be at the Moon; where the Moon's orbit is, there starts to obtain a whole new set of laws.

The reason people thought this is quite reasonable. You look at the stars, and they're following these very regular patterns that we can chart and know more and more through observations. You look at things around here, and they don't move like that kind of clockwork.

Surely when Newton comes out with the Principia, for the first time we now think, "Oh, he discovered gravity." Yes, of course, he outlines the way of calculating the force of gravity between two masses. But at a much, much deeper level, what he does is he shatters the barrier between the sublunar and the superlunar spheres.

Because now, he is showing underlying unity. Right? Here's the three rules that will govern not only the arc of a comet across the sky but the descent of an apple from a tree.