Synopsis
Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and His System of the World is a seminal work in the field of physics and mathematics. It was first published in 1687 and is considered one of the most important scientific texts of all time. The book presents Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, which together form the foundation of classical mechanics. The book is divided into three parts. The first part lays out the laws of motion and explains how they apply to objects in motion. The second part introduces the law of universal gravitation and explains how it can be used to calculate the motion of planets and other celestial bodies. The third part applies these laws to the study of fluids and the motion of objects through them. The book is written in a highly mathematical style, with numerous equations and diagrams. However, it is also accessible to non-experts and has been widely read and studied by scientists and scholars for centuries. Newton's work revolutionized our understanding of the physical world and laid the groundwork for modern physics and engineering.1686. Translated into English by Andrew Motte in 1729, this book is a complete volume of Newton's mathematical principles relating to natural philosophy and his system of the world. Newton, one of the most brilliant scientists and thinkers of all time, presents his theories, formulas and thoughts. Included are chapters relative to the motion of bodies; motion of bodies in resisting mediums; and system of the world in mathematical treatment; a section on axioms or laws of motion, and definitions.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
About the Author
ISAAC NEWTON was born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, on December 25, 1642. His father having died before his birth and his mother having remarried, Newton was sent to live with his maternal grandmother in the neighboring town of Grantham, where he attended school. An inattentive student, Newton nonetheless showed a great aptitude for making mechanical contrivances such as windmills and water clocks. While at school, Newton boarded with an apothecary, who may have imparted to the youngster a lifelong love of chemical experiments.
In 1656, following the death of her second husband, Newton's mother removed him from school and brought him back to Woolsthorpe with the idea of making her son a farmer. Newton's teacher at Grantham, recognizing the boy's talents, prevailed upon her to allow Newton to prepare for entrance to Cambridge University. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1661, under the tutelage of Isaac Barrow, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, and took his degree four years later.
Between 1665 and 1667, Newton made great strides in his method of "fluxions" (an early form of differential calculus) and began work on gravitation. It was also at this time that Newton inaugurated his studies on the nature of light: he demonstrated that differences in color resulted from differences in refrangibility, i.e., the ability of a ray of light to bend when passed through a refracting medium. In 1667, Newton returned to Cambridge from Woolsthorpe (where he had gone to escape the plague); two years later he succeeded Barrow as Lucasian Professor. In 1672 Newton was elected to the Royal Society.
Newton's great work, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, or The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687), grew out of his ongoing investigations into gravitation and planetary motion. Written over a period of only eighteen months, this book was immediately hailed as a masterpiece: it demonstrated how the law of gravitation could explain diverse phenomena, ranging from the tides to the irregularities of the moon's motion, and made possible a mathematical principle, unrealized up to that time, of the workings of a dynamic universe. Although Newton's system needed to be revised in the twentieth century in view of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, it remains valid for systems of ordinary dimensions, involving velocities that do not approach the speed of light.
Newton's contributions to science brought him fame and financial security: in addition to his professorship at Cambridge, Newton served for two years as a member of the Convention Parliament following the overthrow of King James II during the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. In 1696 Newton was appointed warden, and later master, of the mint, a lucrative position he held until his death. In 1704 he was made president of the Royal Society, and in 1705 he received a knighthood from Queen Anne. While a member of Parliament, Newton came into contact with such luminaries as the philosopher John Locke and the diarist Samuel Pepys.
Newton's life was not without bitterness, however: a protracted controversy raged over whether Newton or Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz had been first in the invention of calculus, which strained scientific relations between England and the Continent. And, despite the Principia's enthusiastic reception, Newton's system would not be fully accepted among scientists and in university teaching until after his death.
Following his retirement from Cambridge in 1701, Newton prepared revised editions of the Principia (1713, 1726) and published his second great treatise, the Opticks, in 1704. He died in Kensington, England, on March 20, 1727.
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