Newton's Law of Gravitation: Empirical or Theoretical?

[ozziesci]

One more question in the same context ..............if newtons law of gravitation is empirical................. isnt it supporting circular argument? for gravity will always be dependent on the experimental or observational data........................ so ..... we can say that "gravity exists bcoz apple fell down" and "apple fell down bcoz gravity exists"......... and so on............

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[Physics-Student]

Newton's laws are factually correct based on current knowledge man possess. But like everything new ideas and knowledge are developed so theories will evolve accordingly.

[bubsir]

Empirically derived theory.

The inverse square law for "cause/effect" can be derived theoretically with pretty much just an assumption of Euclidean Space. But the acceleration of gravity was arrived at by empirical methods.

Einstein used theory to "predict" the curvature of space which was then measured: so only empirically tested