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Newton’s Tower-Drop Puzzle Explained: Lands Slightly East

By Drooid · Sep 29, 2026, 2:54 AM UTC · How we work

Summary

Story summary

Isaac Newton posed the tower-drop puzzle to Robert Hooke in 1679.
The solution shows the falling object lands slightly east of the tower’s base.
Eastward deflection occurs because the reduced radius increases angular velocity via conservation of angular momentum.
Claude Dechales’s 1674 *Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus* contains the earliest known diagram of the puzzle.
David Acheson supplied the puzzle and discusses it in his book *Wonders in Motion*.

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Story summary

Isaac Newton posed the tower-drop puzzle to Robert Hooke in 1679.
The solution shows the falling object lands slightly east of the tower’s base.
Eastward deflection occurs because the reduced radius increases angular velocity via conservation of angular momentum.
Claude Dechales’s 1674 *Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicus* contains the earliest known diagram of the puzzle.
David Acheson supplied the puzzle and discusses it in his book *Wonders in Motion*.