Physics taught by Pandemics

In a time similar to the one we find ourselves in today, the father of modern day physics made the most important discoveries of his life that would influence science and civilization forever. The pandemic was the plague, the setting was Woolsthorpe and the man was Newton. Lets derive some lessons beyond the science.

Following the lockdown of all universities and public places, Newton was forced to leave Cambridge and retreat to his family home in Woolsthorpe. Left in seclusion and deep in thought, Newton would develop the theory of gravity and calculus, far from any academic institution and hub of scientific development.

When the apple fell from the tree outside Woolsthorpe Manor, it began the Newton questioned why? Why does an airborne apple take the path it does and land on the ground? What prevents the apple from flying into space? It was questions like these that led to the universal theory of gravitation. All masses attract each other. Each mass exerts a force on all other masses. The force that causes the apple to be attracted to the Earth is the same force that causes the Earth to be attracted towards the apple, albeit at a much smaller scale.

When Newton further studied the flight of a falling object, he discovered that the speed of the falling apple increases every split second. The velocity of the falling object is an inherently fluctuating quantity (up-to a certain point) and there was no mathematics at the time that would deal with that problem. This led to the development of calculus as we know it today. Calculus allows us study changing quantities at infinitely small intervals.

The lesson however we should take from Newton in this time is not one of science but one of principle. In a time where tragedy struck England and Newton was in quarantine, he found meaning. He was free from the shackles of institution, liberated from discipline and rule. The most productive time of his life was the period where he was alone and left to delve deep into thought.

He was in a ‘flow state’. A state where you are so involved in an activity that nothing else matters. We can all achieve flow state but it requires us to find a problem/mission that matters to us above anything else and one we are willing to complete no matter how high the cost.

Find your mission, Reach your flow.