Newton credited the discovery of the inverse square law of gravity to Pythagoras (5th century BC), just as Coperinicus had credited heliocentrism to him. Here is Newton's argument:
"For Pythagoras, as Macrobius avows, stretched the intestines of sheep or the sinews of oxen by attaching various weights, and from this learned the ratio of the celestial harmony. Therefore, by means of such experiments he ascertained that the weights by which all tones on equal strings .. were reciprocally as the squares of the lengths of the string by which the musical instrument emits the same tones. But the proportion discovered by these experiments, on the evidence of Macrobius, he applied to the heavens and consequently by comparing those weights with the weights of the Planets and the lengths of the strings with the distances of the Planets, he understood by means of the harmony of the heavens that the weights of the Planets towards the Sun were reciprocally as the squares of their distances from the Sun."
That's an interesting suggestion I've never heard before, but your link appears to be down. I'm getting a 404. Is it possible this passage is referring to the reciprocal Pythagorean theorem? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem#Reciprocal...
My apologies, here is the article and citation. And no, not the reciprocal Pythagorean theorem -- learning about Pythagoreanism is a real rabbit hole, highly recommended :)
McGuire, J. E., & Rattansi, P. M. (1966). Newton and the ‘Pipes of Pan’. Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, 21(2), 108-143.
"For Pythagoras, as Macrobius avows, stretched the intestines of sheep or the sinews of oxen by attaching various weights, and from this learned the ratio of the celestial harmony. Therefore, by means of such experiments he ascertained that the weights by which all tones on equal strings .. were reciprocally as the squares of the lengths of the string by which the musical instrument emits the same tones. But the proportion discovered by these experiments, on the evidence of Macrobius, he applied to the heavens and consequently by comparing those weights with the weights of the Planets and the lengths of the strings with the distances of the Planets, he understood by means of the harmony of the heavens that the weights of the Planets towards the Sun were reciprocally as the squares of their distances from the Sun."
This article has more: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098