Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

For Whitehead and Russell's work, see Principia Mathematica.

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Title page of Principia, first edition (1687)
AuthorIsaac Newton
LanguageNeo-Latin
Publication date
1687
Publication placeEngland
Published in English
1728
LC ClassQA803 .A53
Original text
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica at Latin Wikisource
TranslationPhilosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica at Wikisource

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (English: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy),[1] often referred to as simply the Principia (/prɪnˈsɪpiə, prɪnˈkɪpiə/), is a book by Isaac Newton that expounds Newton's laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. The Principia is written in Latin and comprises three volumes, and was authorized, imprimatur, by Samuel Pepys, then-President of the Royal Society on 5 July 1686 and first published in 1687.[2][3]

The Principia is considered one of the most important works in the history of science.[4] The French mathematical physicist Alexis Clairaut assessed it in 1747: "The famous book of Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy marked the epoch of a great revolution in physics. The method followed by its illustrious author Sir Newton ... spread the light of mathematics on a science which up to then had remained in the darkness of conjectures and hypotheses."[5] The French scientist Joseph-Louis Lagrange described it as "the greatest production of the human mind".[6] French polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace stated that "The Principia is pre-eminent above any other production of human genius".[7] Newton's work has also been called "the greatest scientific work in history", and "the supreme expression in human thought of the mind's ability to hold the universe fixed as an object of contemplation".[8]

A more recent assessment has been that while acceptance of Newton's laws was not immediate, by the end of the century after publication in 1687, "no one could deny that [out of the Principia] a science had emerged that, at least in certain respects, so far exceeded anything that had ever gone before that it stood alone as the ultimate exemplar of science generally".[9]

The Principia forms a mathematical foundation for the theory of classical mechanics. Among other achievements, it explains Johannes Kepler's laws of planetary motion, which Kepler had first obtained empirically. In formulating his physical laws, Newton developed and used mathematical methods now included in the field of calculus, expressing them in the form of geometric propositions about "vanishingly small" shapes.[10] In a revised conclusion to the Principia (see § General Scholium), Newton emphasized the empirical nature of the work with the expression Hypotheses non fingo ("I frame/feign no hypotheses").[11]

After annotating and correcting his personal copy of the first edition,[12] Newton published two further editions, during 1713[13] with errors of the 1687 corrected, and an improved version[14] of 1726.[13]

  1. ^ "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", Encyclopædia Britannica, London, archived from the original on 2 May 2015, retrieved 13 February 2015
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Principia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Motte was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ J. M. Steele, University of Toronto, (review online from Canadian Association of Physicists) Archived 1 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine of N. Guicciardini's "Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton's Mathematical Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736" (Cambridge UP, 1999), a book which also states (summary before title page) that the "Principia" "is considered one of the masterpieces in the history of science".
  5. ^ (in French) Alexis Clairaut, "Du systeme du monde, dans les principes de la gravitation universelle", in "Histoires (& Memoires) de l'Academie Royale des Sciences" for 1745 (published 1749), at p. 329 (according to a note on p. 329, Clairaut's paper was read at a session of November 1747).
  6. ^ Jeans, J. H. (26 March 1927). "Isaac Newton". Nature. 119 (2995supp): 28–30. doi:10.1038/119028a0x. ISSN 0028-0836.
  7. ^ Newman, James R. (1956). The World of Mathematics. Vol. 1. George Allen & Unwin. p. 275.
  8. ^ Berlinski, David (1995). A Tour of the Calculus (1st ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-679-42645-5.
  9. ^ G. E. Smith, "Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" Archived 13 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2008 Edition), E. N. Zalta (ed.).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference geomcalc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference gschol-hnf was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Newton, Isaac. "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Newton's personally annotated 1st edition)". Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
  13. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference variorum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Hermann, Claudine (2008). "La traduction et les commentaires des Principia de Newton par Émilie du Châtelet". Bibnum. Textes Fondateurs de la Science (in French). doi:10.4000/bibnum.722. S2CID 164354455. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2021. translate.google.co.uk : "améliorée" Archived 9 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine
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