AbracadabraA woman, under the mistaken impression that Isaac Newton was an astrologer, once asked him to help her find her purse - lost, she said, somewhere between London Bridge and Shooters' Hill.
Newton declined and sent her away, but the woman proved tenacious, returning more than a dozen times. Finally, exasperated, Newton donned an eccentric sorcerer's costume, chalked a figure on the ground, and intoned, "Abracadabra! Go to the facade of Greenwich Hospital, third window on the south side. On the lawn in front of it I see a dwarfish devil bending over your purse."
The excited woman then scurried off and - according to legend - found her purse on the Greenwich Hospital lawn!
[While this tale may be apocryphal, it neatly reflects the awe with which scientists were held at the dawn of the scientific revolution.]
Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727) English physicist and mathematician, President of the Royal Society (from 1672), Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University (1689) [noted for his development of calculus; for his formulation of the law of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion underlying classical mechanics; and for such seminal scientific works as Principia Mathematica (1686-87) and Optics (1704)]
[Sources: STUDIO Byrn, oaks.nvg.org]More Sir Newton anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Mistaken Identity Coincidences Incredible ESP Lost Psychics Surprises Irony Help Assistance
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