Newton reading QQC

Newton reading QQC

Quote: "suppose two nails are driven at random into a wall,
and let the upper nail be connected to the lower by a wire
in the shape of a smooth curve. What is the shape of the wire
down which a bead will slide (without friction) under the
influence of gravity so as to pass from the upper nail to
to the lower in the least possible time?"

Response:This problem was put in the paper, and it said to all the worlds greatest scientests can anyone figure this out. When I first read this problem, I thought how could anyone possibly figure this out. I thought about how I might try and figure out the problem. However every diffrent method I thought of didn't seem to work.Some of the methods I thought of was I would try and make 2 variables one for each nail. Then have another variable for the wire connecting both of the nails. But then they had to add to the confusion, and say what is the shape of the wire down which a bead will slide. I couldn't think of how you could figure out the wire connecting the nails, and now they ask what shape will a bead slide down it. Even if someone told me the equation to properly do this equation. I still think it would take me awhile before I could get the correct answer. But Newton figured out this equation before he went to bed the day he heard it. This was back in the 1600s, and even back then he could figure out this equation with little effort.This was before calculators, computers, it was supposed to be something no one could answer, but Newton answered the question in under a day. That shows just how genius he was for his time. Which makes me wonder if he was alive today, would he come up with some new math equations that we haven't thought of yet.