:: wikimiki.org ::

Motion

Motion

:This article is about motion in physics. See also motion (legal), motion (democracy) and Apple Motion. In physics, motion means a change in the position of a body with respect to time, as measured by a particular observer in a particular frame of reference. Until the end of the 19th century, Newton's laws of motion, which he posited as axioms or postulates in his famous Principia, were the basis of what has since become known as classical physics. Calculations of trajectories and forces of bodies in motion based on Newtonian or classical physics were very successful until physicists began to be able to measure and observe very fast physical phenomena. At very high speeds, the equations of classical physics were not able to calculate accurate values. To address these problems, the ideas of Henri Poincaré and Albert Einstein concerning the fundamental phenomenon of motion were adopted in lieu of Newton's. Whereas Newton's laws of motion assumed absolute values of space and time in the equations of motion, the model of Einstein and Poincaré, now called the special theory of relativity, assumed values for these concepts with arbitrary zero points. Because (for example) the special relativity equations yielded accurate results at high speeds and Newton's did not, the special relativity model is now accepted as explaining bodies in motion (when we ignore gravity). However, as a practical matter, Newton's equations are much easier to work with than those of special relativity and therefore are more often used in applied physics and engineering. In the newtonian model, because motion is defined as the proportion of space to time, these concepts are prior to motion, just as the concept of motion itself is prior to force. In other words, the properties of space and time determine the nature of motion and the properties of motion, in turn, determine the nature of force. In the special relativistic model, motion can be thought of as something like an angle between a space direction and the time direction. In special relativity and euclidean space, only relative motion can be measured and that absolute motion is meaningless.

Motion (legal)

A legal motion is a procedural device in law to bring a limited but contested matter before a court for decision. A motion may be thought of as a request to the judge (or judges) to make a decision about the case. Motions may be made at any point in the proceedings, although that right is regulated by court rules which vary from place to place.

Common motions

A "motion to dismiss" asks the court to decide that a claim, even if true as stated, is not one for which the law offers a remedy. For example, a claim that the defendant failed to greet another on the street would be dismissed for failure to state a valid claim. A claim that has been presented after the statute of limitations has expired is also subject to dismissal. If granted, the claim is dismissed without any evidence being presented by the other side. A motion to dismiss has taken the place of the common law demurrer in most modern civil practice. A "motion for summary judgment" asks the court to decide that the available evidence, even if taken in the most favorable light, does not support a claim or a defense. This motion is usually only made when sufficient time for discovering all evidence has expired. For example, a claim that a doctor performed malpractice by prescribing a drug would be subject to dismissal on summary judgment if the plaintiff failed to obtain expert testimony indicating that the drug was improperly prescribed. However, in some jurisdictions, a motion for summary judgment may be filed at any time. Summary judgment hearings are not evidentiary hearings; instead, any evidence that either the movant or the respondent wish the Court to consider must be incorporated in the motion itself, either through affidavits or exhibits. Motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment are types of dispositive motions. A "motion in limine" asks the court to decide that certain evidence may or may not be presented to the jury at the trial. A motion in limine generally addresses issues which would be prejudicial for the jury to hear in open court, even if the other side makes a timely objection which is sustained, and the judge instructs the jury to disregard the evidence. For example, the defendant may ask the court to rule that evidence of a prior conviction that occurred a long time ago should not be allowed into evidence at the trial because it would be more prejudicial than probative. If the motion is granted, then evidence regarding the conviction could not be mentioned in front of the jury, without first approaching the judge outside of the hearing of the jury and obtaining permission. The violation of a motion in limine can result in the court declaring a mistrial. A "motion for a directed verdict" asks the court to rule that the plaintiff or prosecutor has not proven the case, and there is no need for the defense to attempt to present evidence. This motion is made after the plaintiff has rested its case, and prior to the defense presenting any evidence. If granted, the court would dismiss the case. A "motion for judgment n.o.v." (non obstante veredicto, or notwithstanding the verdict) asks the court to reverse the jury's verdict on the grounds that the jury could not reasonably have reached such a verdict. This motion is made after the jury's verdict. If granted, the court enters a new verdict. Typically, this motion can be used in a criminal case only to reverse a guilty verdict; not guilty verdicts are immune to reversal by the court. In U.S. federal criminal cases, the JNOV motion is unavailable; its function is served instead by the motion for judgement of acquittal. Under Rule 50 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the motion for directed verdict and JNOV have been replaced by the motion for judgment as a matter of law, which can be made at the close of the opposing party's evidence and "renewed" after return of the verdict (or after the dismissal of a hung jury). A motion for new trial asks to overturn or set aside a court's decision or jury verdict. Such a motion is proposed by a party who is dissatisfied with the end result of a case. This motion must be based on some vital error in the court's handling of the trial, such as the admission or exclusion of key evidence, or an incorrect instruction to the jury. Generally the motion is filed within a short time after the trial (7-30 days) and is decided prior to the lodging of an appeal. In some jurisdictions, a motion for new trial which is not ruled upon by a set period of time automatically is deemed to be denied. A "motion to set aside judgement" asks to vacate or nullify a judgment and/or verdict. Motions may be made at any time after entry of judgment, and in some circumstances years after the case has been closed by the courts. Generally the grounds for the motion cannot be ones which were previously considered when deciding a motion for new trial or on an appeal of the judgment. A "motion for nolle prosequi" ("not prosecuting") is a motion by a prosecutor or other plaintiff to drop legal charges, usually in exchange for a diversion program or out-of-court settlement. A "motion to compel" asks to court to order either the opposing party or a third party to take some action. This sort of motion most commonly deals with discovery disputes, when a party who has propounded discovery to either the opposing party or a third party believes that the discovery responses are insufficient. The motion to compel is used to ask the court to order the non-complying party to produce the documentation or information requested, and/or to sanction the non-complying party for their failure to comply with the discovery requests.

Motion (democracy)

A motion is a formal step to introduce a matter for consideration by a group. It is a common concept in parliamentary procedure and in the procedure of trade unions, students' unions, corporations, and other deliberative assemblies. Motions can be oral or in writing, the written form being known as a resolution. A motion is generally proposed by an individual, usually a member of the body, for the consideration of the body as a whole. The person making the motion, known as the mover, first needs to be recognized by the assembly in order to speak. This process is called obtaining the floor, and in most assemblies it involves being recognized by the chair as being entitled to speak. Once the mover has obtained the floor, the mover states the motion, which begins with the phrase "I move." For instance, at a meeting of the board of directors of a corporation, a director may state "I move that the corporation delays the launch of the new product from April to July." If the motion was in writing, the mover would say "I move the resolution at the desk" or "I move the following resolution" and would then read it. Generally, once the motion has been proposed, consideration by the assembly occurs only if another member of the body immediately seconds the motion. If the motion has been proposed in advance of a conference or similar assembly, it may then be composited with other motion with related proposals. A common next step is to allow the submission of amendments to the motion, which are motions in their own right. Again, these must often be seconded. The motion is then considered by the assembly. A common procedure is to first read the motion, then take votes on each amendment to it in turn. In many cases, sections of motions and amendments can be debated and voted on separately by taking [the motion] in parts. Once the amendments have been voted upon, the motion, with the adopted amendments, is debated and voted upon. Depending on the nature of the motion and the assembly, it may require a simple majority, a two-thirds majority or some other formulation in order to be adopted. If the motion is adopted, it becomes part of the assembly's policy. Motions are also used in debating events and competitions that mimic legislative assemblies or other deliberative bodies. Motions in this case are often prefaced with the phrase This House..., e.g. This House would ban smoking in public places. Category:Parliamentary law

Observer

In general, an observer is any system which receives information from an object. Observer can have the following meanings:
- A person that is observing, its role in observational sciences and physical reference frames: see observation
- A delegate in an organization that is sent to observe and report on the proceedings of an assembly or a meeting but that can not vote or otherwise participate.
- An aircrew member of a (military) aircraft responsible for searching (usually visually) for intelligence, opposing forces and survivors of interest to the mission
- A UK Sunday newspaper: see The Observer
- A Sri Lanka Sunday and Evening newspaper: See List of newspapers in Sri Lanka
- A design pattern used in computer programming: see Observer pattern
- "The Observer", a track from the Flaming Lips' 1999 album The Soft Bulletin

19th century

:Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) The 19th century lasted from 1801 to 1900 in the Gregorian calendar (using the Common Era system of year numbering). Historians sometimes define a "Nineteenth Century" historical era stretching from 1815 (The Congress of Vienna) to 1914 (The outbreak of the First World War).

Europe

For Europe, the period is marked with revolution, social upheaval, and the emergence of a united conservatism from the monarchs of Europe in response to the emerging republican firestorm spreading from revolutionary France. There were many revolutions in Europe in 1848. Furthermore, the later end of the century was dominated by what many call the New Imperialism, which was the rapid aquisition of colonies worldwide by European powers, most noteworthy is the Scramble for Africa. Many countries in Europe underwent an Industrial Revolution, especially Britain and Germany, that spread elsewhere by the end of the century, with factories and railway lines built all over the continent. The start of the 19th century there was a struggle between France and Britain and their allies for control of Europe and the world during the Napoleonic Wars, with Napoleon being finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815. During the rest of the century, the British empire became the largest and most powerful empire in history, during the period known as the Pax Britannica.

Americas

In the Americas, the United States slowly grew economically, militarily, and politically, but nevertheless faced dramatic changes domestically, best seen in the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the expansion across the American continent known as Manifest Destiny. Industrially, America will explode following the Civil War, and would eventually begin expansion outward across the Pacific Ocean and in Latin America.

Other countries

For the rest of the world, there were few places not influenced by the West in some fashion, whether through colonialism, imperialism, or war. European powers gained increasing influence in China, where Qing control had weakened, and wars were fought by the western powers against China, such as the first and the second Opium wars and Sino-French War. Japan, which was forcibly opened to Western trade, began a rapid industrialisation. Africa which was largely free from European control at the start of the century, was almost completely dominated by Europe at the end of it, with the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. Large European settlement, especially British, of colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony continued during the nineteenth century.

Events

- 1801: The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merge to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1803: The United States buys out France's territorial claims in North America via the Louisiana Purchase.
- 1804-06: Americans Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead an expedition to the Pacific Coast and back.
- 1805-48: Muhammad Ali modernizes Egypt.
- 1806: Holy Roman Empire dissolved as a consequence of the Treaty of Lunéville.
- 1809: Napoleon strips the Teutonic Knights of their last holdings in Bad Mergentheim.
- 1813-1917: The contest between the British Empire and Imperial Russia for control of Central Asia is referred to as the Great Game.
- 1815: Congress of Vienna redraws the European map.
- 1815: Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo brings a conclusion to the Napoleonic Wars and marks the beginning of a Pax Britannica which lasts until 1870.
- 1816: Year Without a Summer
- 1816-28: Shaka's Zulu kingdom becomes the largest in Southern Africa.
- 1819: The modern city of Singapore is established by the British East India Company.
- 1820: Liberia founded by the American Colonization Society for freed American slaves.
- 1830: France invades and occupies Algeria.
- 1830: The Belgian Revolution in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands led to the creation of Belgium.
- 1833: Slavery Abolition Act bans slavery throughout the British Empire.
- 1834: Spanish Inquisition officially ends.
- 1835-36: The Texas Revolution in Mexico resulted in the short-lived Republic of Texas.
- 1837-1901: Queen Victoria's reign is considered the apex of the British Empire and is referred to as the Victorian era.
- 1845-49: Irish Potato Famine
- 1848: The Communist Manifesto published.
- 1848: Revolutions of 1848 in Europe
- 1848-58: California Gold Rush
- 1850: The Little Ice Age ends around this time.
- 1851-60s: Victorian gold rush in Australia
- 1851-64: The Taiping Rebellion in China
- 1854: The Convention of Kanagawa formally ends Japan's policy of Sakoku.
- 1855: Bessemer process enables steel to be mass produced.
- 1856: World's first oil refinery in Romania
- 1857-58: Indian rebellion of 1857
- 1859: The Origin of Species published.
- 1864-67: French intervention in Mexico
- 1865-77: Reconstruction in the United States
- 1866: Successful transatlantic telegraph cable follows an earlier attempt in 1858.
- 1866: Creation of the North German Confederation and the Austrian-Hungarian Dual Monarchy.
- 1866-69: Meiji Restoration in Japan
- 1867: The United States purchased Alaska from Russia.
- 1867: Canadian Confederation formed.
- 1869: First Transcontinental Railroad completed in United States.
- 1869: The Suez Canal opens linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
- 1870-71: Unifications of Germany and Italy.
- 1871-1914: Second Industrial Revolution
- 1870s-90s: Long Depression in Western Europe and North America
- 1872: Yellowstone National Park created.
- 1874: The British East India Company is dissolved.
- 1877: Great Railroad Strike in the United States may have been the world's first nationwide labor strike.
- 1877-78: The Balkans are freed from the Ottoman Empire after another Russo-Turkish War.
- 1878: First commercial telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1880-1902: Great Britain conquers Dutch settlers in South Africa in two Boer Wars.
- 1882: First electrical power plant and grid in Manhattan.
- 1884-85: The Berlin Conference signals the start of the European Scramble for Africa. Attending nations also agree to ban trade in slaves.
- 1885: Unification of Bulgaria
- 1890: The Wounded Knee Massacre is the last battle in the American Indian Wars.
- 1894-95: After the First Sino-Japanese War, China cedes Taiwan to Japan and grants Japan a free hand in Korea.
- 1895-1896: Ethiopia defeated Italy in the First Italo-Abyssinian War.
- 1896: Olympic games revived in Athens.
- 1896: Klondike Gold Rush in Canada
- 1898: The United States gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.
- 1898-1900: The Boxer Rebellion in China is suppressed by an Eight-Nation Alliance.

Wars

List of wars 1800–1899
- 1799-1815: Napoleonic Wars.
- 1801-15: Barbary Wars between the United States and the Barbary States of North Africa.
- 1806-12: Russo-Turkish War
- 1810-21: Mexican War of Independence.
- 1810s-20s: South American Wars of Independence.
- 1812-15: War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain.
- 1821-32: Greek War of Independence.
- 1828-29: Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829
- 1833-76: Carlist Wars in Spain.
- 1839-60: After two Opium Wars, Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia gain many concessions from China.
- 1854-56: Crimean War between Great Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire and Russia.
- 1861-65: American Civil War between the Union and seceding Confederacy.
- 1866: Austro-Prussian War.
- 1877-78: Russo-Turkish War.
- 1879: Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa.
- 1879-84: War of the Pacific between Peru, Bolivia and Chile.
- 1880-81: First Boer War.
- 1894-95: First Sino-Japanese War.
- 1895-96: First Italo-Abyssinian War.
- 1899-13: The Philippine-American War.

Significant people

- Gilbert and Sullivan, playwright, composer
- William Gilbert Grace, English cricketer
- Baron Haussmann, civic planner
- Sándor Körösi Csoma, explorer of the Tibetan culture
- Fitz Hugh Ludlow, writer and explorer
- Florence Nightingale, nursing pioneer
- Ignaz Semmelweis, founder of hygiene
- Dr. John Snow, the founder of epidemiology
- F R Spofforth, Australian cricketer

Science

- Henri Becquerel, physicist
- Charles Darwin, biologist
- Thomas Alva Edison, inventor
- Michael Faraday, scientist
- Gottlob Frege, mathematician, logician and philosopher
- Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician, physicist, astronomer
- James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist
- Gregor Mendel, biologist
- Louis Pasteur, biologist
- Nikola Tesla, inventor
- Amedeo Avogadro, physicist
- Johann Jakob Balmer, mathematician, physicist
- Pierre Curie, physicist
- Christian Doppler, physicist, mathematician

Philosophy and Religion

- Bahá'u'lláh, Persian religious leader and founder of Bahá'í Faith
- Báb, Persian prophet and founder of Bábísm
- Nikolai of Japan, religious leader who introduced Eastern Orthodoxy into Japan.
- Mikhail Bakunin, anarchist
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher
- Søren Kierkegaard, philosopher
- Karl Marx, political philosopher and economist
- John Stuart Mill, philosopher
- Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher
- Joseph Smith, Jr., religious leader, founder of Mormonism
- Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Hindu mystic
- Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher
- Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, founder of French socialism
- Brigham Young, Mormon religious leader
- William Morris, social reformer

Politics

- Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor
- Napoleon Bonaparte, French general, first consul and emperor
- Guiseppe Garibaldi, unifier of Italy and Piedmontese soldier
- Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. general and president
- Theodor Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism
- Andrew Jackson, U.S. general and president
- Thomas Jefferson, American statesman, philosopher, and president
- Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian governor; leader of the war of independence
- Hong Xiuquan, revolutionary, self-proclaimed Son of God
- Benjamin Disraeli, novelist and politician
- Libertadores, Latin American liberators
- Robert E. Lee, Confederate general
- Abraham Lincoln, U.S. president; led the nation during the Civil War
- Mutsuhito, Japanese emperor
- István Széchenyi, aristocrat, leader of the Hungarian reform movement
- Queen Victoria, British monarch
- Klemens von Metternich, Austrian Chancellor

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

List of 19th century inventions
- Department stores
- Electromagnetism
- Epidemiology
- Mail order businesses
- Philology
- Postage stamps
- Public busses
- Subway
- The invention of the telegraph connected the world like never before, leading to quicker communication and interaction.
- One of the more devestating technologies emerging from this period is the machine gun, first used during the Civil War (considered the first modern war)

Decades and years

Category:19th century Category:Centuries Category:Romanticism als:19. Jahrhundert zh-min-nan:19 sè-kí ko:19세기 ja:19世紀 simple:19th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 19

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, PRS ( – ) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist and philosopher associated with the scientific revolution and the advancement of heliocentrism. He was one of the most influential scientists in history. Among his scientific accomplishments, Newton wrote the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, wherein he described universal gravitation and, via his laws of motion, laid the groundwork for classical mechanics. With Gottfried Leibniz he shares credit for the development of calculus. Newton was the first to promulgate a set of natural laws that could govern both terrestrial motion and celestial motion, and is credited with providing mathematical substantiation for Kepler's laws of planetary motion, which he expanded by arguing that orbits (such as those of comets) could include all conic sections (such as the ellipse, hyperbola, and parabola). Newton realised that the spectrum of colours observed when white light passed through a prism is inherent in the white light and not added by the prism (as Roger Bacon had claimed in the 13th century), and also notably argued that light is composed of particles. Newton additionally developed a law of cooling, proved the binomial theorem, and discovered the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. Newton is regarded by many as having "unrivalled mathematical genius" [see Dampier & Dampier]. The mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), Director of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, said this about Newton: ::"Newton was the greatest genius that ever existed and the most fortunate, for we cannot find more than once a system of the world to establish." [See Shapley.]

Biography

Early years

Newton was born in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth (at Woolsthorpe Manor), a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire. Newton was prematurely born and no one expected him to live; indeed, his mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, is reported to have said that his body at that time could have fit inside a quart mug (Bell, 1937). His father, Isaac, had died three months before Newton's birth. When Newton was two years old, his mother went to live with her new husband, leaving her son in the care of his grandmother. According to E.T. Bell (1937, Simon and Schuster) and H. Eves: :Newton began his schooling in the village schools and was later sent to Grantham Grammar School where he became the top boy in the school. At Grantham he lodged with the local apothecary, William Clarke and eventually became engaged to the apothecary's stepdaughter, Anne Storer, before he went off to Cambridge University at the age of 19. As Newton became engrossed in his studies, the romance cooled and Miss Storer married someone else. It is said he kept a warm memory of this love, but Newton had no other recorded 'sweethearts' and never married. Cambridge University From the age of twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated at Grantham Grammar School. His family then removed him from school and attempted to make a farmer of him. However he was thoroughly unhappy with the work and eventually with the help of his uncle and of his schoolteacher, he managed to persuade his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his schooling. This he did at the age of eighteen, achieving an admirable final report. His teacher said: :His genius now begins to mount upwards apace and shine out with more strength. He excels particularly in making verses. In everything he undertakes, he discovers an application equal to the pregnancy of his parts and exceeds even the most sanguine expectations I have conceived of him. In 1661 he joined Trinity College, Cambridge, where his uncle William Ayscough had studied. At that time, the college's teachings were based on those of Aristotle, but Newton preferred to read the more advanced ideas of modern philosophers such as Descartes, Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler. In 1665 he discovered the binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical theory that would later become calculus. Soon after Newton had obtained his degree in 1665, the University closed down as a precaution against the Great Plague. For the next two years Newton worked at home on calculus, optics and gravitation. He later continued his studies at Woolsthorpe Manor. The popular tradition has it that Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, and that this made him understand that earthly and celestial gravitation are the same. A contemporary writer, William Stukeley, recorded in his Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life a conversation with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726, in which Newton recalled "when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre." In similar terms, Voltaire wrote in his Essay on Epic Poetry (1727), "Sir Isaac Newton walking in his gardens, had the first thought of his system of gravitation, upon seeing an apple falling from a tree." These accounts are exaggerations of Newton's own tale about sitting by a window in his home (Woolsthorpe Manor) and watching an apple fall from a tree. It is now generally considered probable that even this story was invented by Newton in later life, to illustrate how he drew inspiration from everyday events.

Middle years

Mathematical research

Woolsthorpe Manor.]] Newton became a fellow of Trinity College in 1669. In the same year he circulated his findings in De Analysi per Aequationes Numeri Terminorum Infinitas (On Analysis by Infinite Series), and later in De methodis serierum et fluxionum (On the Methods of Series and Fluxions), whose title gave the name to his "method of fluxions". Newton is generally credited as the discoverer of the binomial theorem, an essential step toward the development of modern analysis. Newton and Gottfried Leibniz developed the theory of calculus independently, using different notations. Although Newton had worked out his own method before Leibniz, the latter's notation and "Differential Method" were superior, and were generally adopted throughout the world. Though Newton belongs among the brightest scientists of his era, the last twenty-five years of his life were marred by a bitter dispute with Leibniz, whom he accused of plagiarism. The dispute created a divide between British and Continental mathematicians that persisted even after Newton's death. He was elected Lucasian professor of mathematics in 1669. Any fellow of Cambridge or Oxford had to be ordained at the time. However the terms of the Lucasian professorship required that the holder not be active in the church (presumably so as to have more time for science). Newton argued that this should exempt him from the normal ordination requirement, and Charles II, whose permission was needed, accepted this argument. This prevented the conflict that would have occurred between his religious views and the orthodoxy of the church.

Optics

From 1670 to 1672 he lectured on optics. During this period he investigated the refraction of light, demonstrating that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum of colours, and that a lens and a second prism could recompose the multicoloured spectrum into white light. He also showed that the coloured light does not change its properties, by separating out a coloured beam and shining it on various objects. Newton noted that regardless of whether it was reflected or scattered or transmitted, it stayed the same colour. Thus the colours we observe are the result of how objects interact with the incident already-coloured light, not the result of objects generating the colour. For more details, see Newton's theory of colour. Many of his findings in this field were critized by later theorists, the most well-known being Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who postulated his own colour theories. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe From this work he concluded that any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colours, and invented a reflecting telescope (today, known as a Newtonian telescope) to bypass that problem. By grinding his own mirrors, using Newton's rings to judge the quality of the optics for his telescopes, he was able to produce a superior instrument to the refracting telescope, due primarily to the wider diameter of the mirror. (Only later, as glasses with a variety of refractive properties became available, did achromatic lenses for refractors become feasible.) In 1671 the Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope. Their interest encouraged him to publish his notes On Colour, which he later expanded into his Opticks. When Robert Hooke criticised some of Newton's ideas, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate. The two men remained enemies until Hooke's death. In one experiment, to prove that colour perception is caused by pressure on the eye, Newton slid a darning needle around the side of his eye until he could poke at its rear side, dispassionately noting "white, darke & coloured circles" so long as he kept stirring with "y^e bodkin." Newton argued that light is composed of particles; thus he could not explain the diffraction of light. Later physicists instead favoured a wave explanation of light to account for diffraction. Today's quantum mechanics recognises a "wave-particle duality"; however photons bear very little semblance to Newton's corpuscles (e.g., corpuscles refracted by accelerating toward the denser medium). Newton is believed to have been the first to explain precisely the formation of the rainbow from water droplets dispersed in the atmosphere in a rain shower. Figure 15 of Part II of Book One of the Opticks shows a perfect illustration of how this occurs. In his Hypothesis of Light of 1675, Newton posited the existence of the ether to transmit forces between particles. Newton was in contact with Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist who was born in Grantham, on alchemy, and now his interest in the subject revived. He replaced the ether with occult forces based on Hermetic ideas of attraction and repulsion between particles. John Maynard Keynes, who acquired many of Newton's writings on alchemy, stated that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason: he was the last of the magicians." Newton's interest in alchemy cannot be isolated from his contributions to science.² (This was at a time when there was no clear distinction between alchemy and science.) Had he not relied on the occult idea of action at a distance, across a vacuum, he might not have developed his theory of gravity. (See also Isaac Newton's occult studies.) In 1704 Newton wrote Opticks, in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. The book is also known for the first exposure of the idea of the interchangeability of mass and energy: "Gross bodies and light are convertible into one another...". Newton also constructed a primitive form of a frictional electrostatic generator, using a glass globe (Optics, 8th Query).

Gravity and motion

glass In 1679, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, i.e., gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets, with reference to Kepler's laws of motion, and consulting with Hooke and Flamsteed on the subject. He published his results in De Motu Corporum (1684). This contained the beginnings of the laws of motion that would inform the Principia. The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (now known as the Principia) was published on 5 July 1687¹) with encouragement and financial help from Edmond Halley. In this work Newton stated the three universal laws of motion that were not to be improved upon for more than two hundred years. He used the Latin word gravitas (weight) for the force that would become known as gravity, and defined the law of universal gravitation. In the same work he presented the first analytical determination, based on Boyle's law, of the speed of sound in air. With the Principia, Newton became internationally recognised. He acquired a circle of admirers, including the Swiss-born mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, with whom he formed an intense relationship that lasted until 1693. The end of this friendship led Newton to a nervous breakdown.

Later life

nervous breakdown In the 1690s Newton wrote a number of religious tracts dealing with the literal interpretation of the Bible. Henry More's belief in the infinity of the universe and rejection of Cartesian dualism may have influenced Newton's religious ideas. A manuscript he sent to John Locke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published. Later works — The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) and Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) — were published after his death. He also devoted a great deal of time to alchemy (see above)². Newton was also a member of the Parliament of England from 1689 to 1690 and in 1701, but his only recorded comments were to complain about a cold draft in the chamber and request that the window be closed. Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, a position that he had obtained through the patronage of Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. He took charge of England's great recoining, somewhat treading on the toes of Master Lucas (and finagling Edmond Halley into deputy comptroller of the temporary Chester branch). Newton became Master of the Mint upon Lucas' death in 1699. These appointments were intended as sinecures, but Newton took them seriously, exercising his power to reform the currency and punish clippers and counterfeiters. He retired from his Cambridge duties in 1701. Ironically, it was his work at the Mint, rather than his contributions to science, which earned him a knighthood. Newton was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705. Newton was made President of the Royal Society in 1703 and an associate of the French Académie des Sciences. In his position at the Royal Society, Newton made an enemy of John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, by attempting to steal his catalogue of observations. Newton died in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It is believed Newton never had a romantic relationship, and he is said to have died a virgin. There is some speculation that Newton had Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. See People speculated to have been autistic. His niece, Catherine Barton Conduitt³, served as his hostess in social affairs at his house on Jermyn Street in London; he was her "very loving Uncle"⁴, according to his letter to her when she was recovering from smallpox.

Religious views

4 The law of gravity became Newton's best-known discovery. He warned against using it to view the universe as a mere machine, like a great clock. He said, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done." His scientific fame notwithstanding, the Bible was Newton's greatest passion. He devoted more time to the study of Scripture and Alchemy than to science, and said, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily." Newton himself wrote works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to find hidden messages within the Bible (See Bible code). Despite his focus in theology and alchemy, Newton tested and investigated these myths with the scientific method, observing, hypothesizing, and testing his theories. To Newton, his scientific and mythical experiments were one in the same, observing and understanding how the world functioned. Newton is often accused of being a Unitarian and Arian, and not believing in the church's doctrine of divine trinity. However, T.C. Pfizenmaier argued that he more likely held the Eastern Orthodox view of the Trinity rather than the Western one held by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and most Protestants.⁷ In his own day, he was also accused of being a Rosicrucian (as were many in the Royal Society and in the court of Charles II). In his own lifetime, Newton wrote more on religion than he did on natural science. He believed in a rationally emanent world, but he rejected the hylozoism implicit in Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza. Thus, the ordered and dynamically informed universe could be understood, and must be understood, by an active reason, but this universe, to be perfect and ordained, had to be regular.

Newton's effect on religious thought

Newton and Robert Boyle’s mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians. Thus, the clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional and metaphysical superlatives of both superstitious enthusiasm and the threat of atheism, and, at the same time, the second wave of English deists used Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion." The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment "magical thinking," and the mystical elements of Christianity, were given their foundation with Boyle’s mechanical conception of the universe. Newton gave Boyle’s ideas their completion through mathematical proofs, and more importantly was very successful in popularizing them. Newton refashioned the world governed by an interventionist God into a world crafted by a God that designs along rational and universal principles. These principles were available for all people to discover, allowed man to pursue his own aims fruitfully in this life, not the next, and to perfect himself with his own rational powers. The perceived ability of Newtonians to explain the world, both physical and social, through logical calculations alone is the crucial idea in the disenchantment of Christianity. Newton saw God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.⁵'^6' But the unforeseen theological consequence of his conception of God, as Leibniz pointed out, was that God was now entirely removed from the world’s affairs, since the need for intervention would only evidence some imperfection in God’s creation, something impossible for a perfect and omnipotent creator. Leibniz's theodicy cleared God from the responsibility for "l'origine du mal" by making God removed from participation in his creation. The understanding of the world was now brought down to the level of simple human reason, and humans, as Odo Marquard argued, became responsible for the correction and elimination of evil. On the other hand, latitudinarian and Newtonian ideas taken too far resulted in the millenarians, a religious faction dedicated to the concept of a mechanical universe, but finding in it the same enthusiasm and mysticism that the Enlightenment had fought so hard to extinguish.

Newton versus the counterfeiters

Newton estimated that 20% of the coins taken in during The Great Recoinage were counterfeit. Counterfeiting was treason, punishable by death by drawing and quartering. As gruesome as the penalties were, the courts were not arbitrary or capricious. The rights of free men had a long tradition in England and the crown had to prove its case to a jury. The law also allowed for plea bargaining. Convictions of the most flagrant criminals could be maddeningly impossible to achieve; however, Newton proved to be equal to the task. He assembled facts and proved his theories with the same brilliance in law that he had shown in science. He gathered much of that evidence himself, disguised, while he hung out at bars and taverns. For all the barriers placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of government, English law still had ancient and formidable customs of authority. Newton was made a justice of the peace and between June 1698 and Christmas 1699 conducted some 200 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers and suspects. During this time he obtained the confessions he needed and while he could not resort to open torture, whatever means he did use must have been fearsome because Newton himself later ordered all records of these interrogations to be destroyed. However he did it, Newton won his convictions and in February 1699, he had ten prisoners waiting to be executed. Newton's greatest triumph as the king's attorney was against William Chaloner. Chaloner was a rogue with a devious intelligence. He set up phony conspiracies of Catholics and then turned in the hapless conspirators whom he entrapped. Chaloner made himself rich enough to posture as a gentleman. Petitioning Parliament, Chaloner accused the Mint of providing tools to counterfeiters. (This charge was made also by others.) He proposed that he be allowed to inspect the Mint's processes in order to improve them. He petitioned Parliament to adopt his plans for a coinage that could not be counterfeited. All the time, he struck false coins, or so Newton eventually proved to a court of competent jurisdiction. On March 23, 1699, Chaloner was hanged, drawn and quartered.

Enlightenment philosophers

Enlightenment philosophers chose a short history of scientific predecessors—Galileo, Boyle, and Newton principally—as the guides and guarantors of their applications of the singular concept of Nature and Natural Law to every physical and social field of the day. In this respect, the lessons of history and the social structures built upon it could be discarded. It was Newton’s conception of the universe based upon Natural and rationally understandable laws that became the seed for Enlightenment ideology. Locke and Voltaire applied concepts of Natural Law to political systems advocating intrinsic rights; the physiocrats and Adam Smith applied Natural conceptions of psychology and self-interest to economic systems, and sociologists critiquing the current social order fit history into Natural models of progress.

Newton's legacy

progress]] Newton's laws of motion and gravity provided a basis for predicting a wide variety of different scientific or engineering situations, especially the motion of celestial bodies. His calculus proved vitally important to the development of further scientific theories. Finally, he unified many of the isolated physics facts that had been discovered earlier into a satisfying system of laws. Newton's conceptions of gravity and mechanics, though not entirely correct in light of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, still represent an enormous step in the evolution of human understanding of the universe. For this reason, he is generally considered one of history's greatest scientists, ranking alongside such figures as Einstein and Carl Friedrich Gauss. In 1717, the Kingdom of Great Britain went on to an unofficial gold standard when Newton, then Master of the Mint, established a fixed price of £3.17.10 ½d per standard (22 carat) troy ounce, equal to £4.4.11 ½d per fine ounce. Under the gold standard the value of the pound (measured in gold weight) remained largely constant until the beginning of the 20th century. Newton is reputed to have invented the cat flap. This was said to be done so that he would not have to disrupt his optical experiments, conducted in a darkened room, to let his cat in or out. Newtonmas is a holiday celebrated by some scientists as an alternative to Christmas, taking advantage of the fact that Newton's birthday falls on December 25. In July 1992, the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences was opened at Cambridge University - it is regarded as the United Kingdom's national institute for mathematical research.

Fictional appearances

Isaac Newton appears in many works of fiction. He is a recurring figure in Rubrique-à-brac, a French comic strip by Marcel Gotlieb. An ongoing gag involves various depictions of the legend that he discovered the law of gravity due to an apple falling on his head. Newton also figures as a major character in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and in Philip Kerr's novel, Dark Matter. Newton has a cameo role, along with Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, in a poker game in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation during season 6. Newton is notable in that scene for being the only scientist without a sense of humour. He also takes offence at the notion that the story of the apple would be fictitious. He also appears in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where it is claimed that a member of the Q Continuum shook the tree he was sitting under, causing the apple to fall. "Isaac Newton's College" is one of the "Wonders of the World" bonus achievements in the classic computer strategy game by Sid Meier, Civilization. One of the more bizarre fictional apperances have been made in a Japanese animated show Vision of Escaflowne, where the main antagonist, Dornkirk, is revealed to be a 200+ year-old Isaac Newton.

Writings by Newton

- Method of Fluxions (1671)
- De Motu Corporum in Gyrum (1684)
- Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
- Opticks (1704)
- [http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/ed/newton-intro.html Reports as Master of the Mint] (1701-1725)
- Arithmetica Universalis (1707)
- An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1754) Short Chronicle, The System of the World, Optical Lectures, Universal Arithmetic, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, Amended and De mundi systemate were published posthumously in 1728.

Notes

- Note 1: The remainder of the dates in this article follow the Gregorian calendar.
- Note 2: Westfall (pp. 530–531) notes that Newton apparently abandoned his alchemical researches.
- Note 3: Westfall, p. 44.
- Note 4: Westfall, p. 595.
- Note 5: Principia, Book III; cited in; Newton’s Philosophy of Nature: Selections from his writings, p. 42, ed. H.S. Thayer, Hafner Library of Classics, NY, 1953.
- Note 6: A Short Scheme of the True Religion, manuscript quoted in Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton by Sir David Brewster, Edinburgh, 1850; cited in; ibid, p. 65.
- Note 7: Pfizenmaier, T.C., "Was Isaac Newton an Arian?" Journal of the History of Ideas 68(1):57–80, 1997.
- Yates, Frances A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p28.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p37 and p44.
- Westfall, Richard S. Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England. Yale University Press, New Haven: 1958. p200.
- Fitzpatrick, Martin. ed. Knud Haakonssen. “The Enlightenment, politics and providence: some Scottish and English comparisons.” Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1996. p64.
- Frankel, Charles. The Faith of Reason: The Idea of Progress in the French Enlightenment. King’s Crown Press, New York: 1948. p1.
- Germain, Gilbert G. A Discourse on Disenchantment: Reflections on Politics and Technology. p28.
- Webb, R.K. ed. Knud Haakonssen. “The emergence of Rational Dissent.” Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1996. p19.
- Westfall, Richard S. Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England. p201.
- Marquard, Odo. "Burdened and Disemburdened Man and the Flight into Unindictability," in Farewell to Matters of Principle. Robert M. Wallace trans. London: Oxford UP, 1989.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p100-101.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p61.
- Cassels, Alan. Ideology and International Relations in the Modern World. p2.

Resources

References

- [http://scidiv.bcc.ctc.edu/Math/Newton.html Excerpt]
-
-
-
-
-
-

External links

-
- [http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95dec/newton.html Sir Isaac Newton Scientist and Mathematician by Lucidcafé]
- [http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Physics/History/People/Newton,_Isaac/ Isaac Newton Directory]
- [http://www.newtonproject.ic.ac.uk/ Newton Research Project]
- [http://www.skepticreport.com/astrology/newton.htm Rebuttal of Newton as an astrologer]
- [http://www.galilean-library.org/snobelen.html Newton Reconsidered], an interview with Newton scholar Stephen D. Snobelen at the Galilean Library
- [http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv/Newton/Newtonexhibit.htm March 5-June 12, 2005 Isaac Newton's personal copy of Principia on display at] Huntington Library
- [http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/ed/newton-intro.html Newton's Reports as Master of the Royal Mint]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/newton/ Newton's Dark Secrets] NOVA television program.
-
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-stm/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Newton's views on space, time, and motion]
- [http://fermatslasttheorem.blogspot.com/2005/09/sir-isaac-newton.html Sir Isaac Newton] an article that traces his life and achievements.
- [http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC051308/index.htm Newton's Castle] Educational material about Newton
- [http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/newton The Chymistry of Isaac Newton] Research about Isaac Newton's Alchemical writings
- [http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/ The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences] Newton, Issac Newton, Issac Newton, Issac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton,Isaac Newton,Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac ko:아이작 뉴턴 ms:Isaac Newton ja:アイザック・ニュートン simple:Isaac Newton th:ไอแซก นิวตัน

Principia

:For an in-depth account, see the writing of Principia Mathematica. the writing of Principia Mathematica The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin: "mathematical principles of natural philosophy", often Principia or Principia Mathematica for short) is a three-volume work by Isaac Newton published on July 5, 1687. It contains the statement of Newton's laws of motion forming the foundation of classical mechanics as well as his law of universal gravitation. He derives Kepler's laws for the motion of the planets (which were first obtained empirically). In formulating his physical theories, Newton had developed a field of mathematics known as calculus. However, the language of calculus was largely left out of the Principia. Instead, Newton recast the majority of his proofs as geometric arguments. It is in the Principia that Newton expressed his famous Hypotheses non fingo ("I feign no hypotheses", that is, "I do not assert that any hypotheses are true"). Here is the translated passage containing this famous remark: :I have not as yet been able to discover the reason for these properties of gravity from phenomena, and I do not feign hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena must be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities, or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular propositions are inferred from the phenomena, and afterwards rendered general by induction.

The historical context

The beginnings of the scientific revolution

Nicholas Copernicus had firmly moved the Earth away from the center of the universe with the heliocentric theory that he presented evidence for in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres) published in 1543. The structure was completed when Johannes Kepler wrote the book Astronomia nova (A new astronomy) in 1609, setting out the evidence that planets move in elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus, and that planets do not move with constant speed along this orbit. Rather, their speed varies so that the line joining the centers of the sun and a planet sweeps out equal parts of the ellipse in equal times. To these two laws he added a third a decade later, in his otherwise forgettable book Harmonices Mundi (Harmonies of the world). This law sets out a proportionality between the third power of the average distance of a planet from the sun and the square of the length of its year. The foundations of modern dynamics was set out in Galileo's book Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue on the two main world systems) where the notion of inertia was implicit and used. In addition, Galileo's experiments with inclined planes had yielded precise mathematical relations between elapsed time and acceleration, velocity or distance for uniform and uniformly accelerated motion of bodies. Descartes' book of 1644 Principia philosophiae (Principles of philosophy) stated that bodies can act on each other only through contact: a principle that induced people, among them he himself, to conjecture a universal medium as the carrier of interactions such as light and gravity— the aether. Another mistake was his treatment of circular motion, but this was more fruitful in that it led others to identify circular motion as a problem raised by the principle of inertia. Christiaan Huygens solved this problem in the 1650s and published it much later.

Newton's context

Newton had studied these books, or, in some cases, secondary sources based on them, and taken notes entitled Quaestiones quadem philosophicae (Questions about philosophy) during his days as an undergraduate. During this period (1664–1666) he created the basis of calculus, and performed the first experiments in the optics of colour. In addition he took two crucial steps in dynamics: first, in the course of an analysis of the impact between two bodies, he deduced correctly that the center of mass remains in uniform motion; second, he made his first, but mistaken, analysis of circular motion assuming that there must exist a (repulsive) centrifugal force. At this time, the central notion of inertia still remained outside his understanding. He summarized this work in a note which he called "The lawes of Motion" (preserved in the Cambridge University Library as the Additional MS 3958). Over the following years, he published his experiments on light and the resulting theory of colours, to overwhelmingly favourable response, and a few inevitable scientific disputes with Robert Hooke and others, which forced him to sharpen his ideas to the point where he composed sections of his later book Opticks already by the 1670s. He wrote up bits and pieces of the calculus in various papers and letters, including two to Leibnitz. He became a fellow of the Royal Society and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (succeeding Isaac Barrow) at Trinity College, Cambridge. He had already, in the plague year of 1665, had the famous revelation under an apple tree in Woolesthorpe which led him to the conclusion that the strength of gravity falls off in inverse square of the distance, by substituting Kepler's third law into his derivation of the centrifugal force, muddled as it was through his misunderstanding of the nature of circular motion (in The lawes of motion). Hooke, in 1674, wrote Newton a letter (later published in 1679 in his book Lectiones Cutlerianes) through which Newton first understood of the role of inertia in the problem of circular motion— that the tendency of a body is to fly off in a straight line, and that an attractive force must keep it moving in a circle. In reply Newton drew (and described) a fancied trajectory of a body, initially with only tangential velocity, falling towards a centre of attraction in a spiral. Hooke noted this error and corrected it, saying that with an inverse square force law the correct path would be an ellipse, and made the exchange public by reading both Newton's letter and his correction to the Royal Society in 1676. Newton tried a rearguard action by giving the orbits in various other kinds of central potentials in another letter to Hooke, thus showing his mastery over the method. In 1677, in a conversation with Christopher Wren, Newton realized that Wren had also arrived at the inverse square law by exactly the same method as him. It is not known when he performed his experiment with a rotating bucket with water, and even if he actually performed it at all. But such reflections on the effects of circular motion brought him to his concept of "absolute space" which served as basis for his definitions of motion. Newton had still not completed all the steps in the construction of the Principia by 1681, when a comet was observed to turn around the sun. The astronomer royal, John Flamsteed, recognized the motion as such, whereas most scientists believed that there were two comets, one which disappeared behind the sun, and another which appeared later from the same direction. The correspondence between Flamsteed and Newton showed that the latter had not grasped the point of the universality of the law of gravity that till then only few knew. This was the state of affairs when Edmund Halley visited Newton in Cambridge in August 1684, having rediscovered the inverse square law by substituting Kepler's law into Huygens' formula for the centrifugal force. In January of that year, Halley, Wren and Hooke had a conversation where Hooke claimed to not only have derived the inverse square law, but also all the laws of planetary motion. Wren was unconvinced, and Halley, having failed in the derivation himself, resolved to ask Newton. Newton said that he had already made the derivations but could not find the papers. Matching accounts of this meeting come from Halley and Abraham DeMoivre to whom Newton confided. In November 1684, Halley received a treatise of nine pages called De motu corporum in gyrum (On the motion of bodies in an orbit). It derived the three laws of Kepler assuming an inverse square law of force, and generalized the answer to conic sections. It extended the methodology of dynamics by adding the solution of a problem on the motion of a body through a resisting medium. After another visit to Newton, Halley reported these results to the Royal Society on 1684-12-10 (Julian calendar). Newton also communicated these results to Flamsteed, but insisted on revising the manuscript. These crucial revisions, especially concerning the notion of inertia, eventually turned into the Principia.

Publication

The text was presented to the Royal Society in 1686, and on 30 June Samuel Pepys, as President, was authorised to licence it for publication. Unfortunately the Society had just spent their book budget on a history of fish, so the initial cost of publication was borne by Edmund Halley. [http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/MOLsite/exhibits/pepys/pages/moreObjResult.asp?mode=star&id=101&code=EXH380%2F3&terms=&search=&tid=7&go=Go]

The contents of the book

In the preface of the Principia, Newton wrote⁶

... rational mechanics will be the science of motion resulting from any forces whatsoever, and of the forces required to produce any motion ... and therefore I offer this work as the mathematical principles of philosophy, for the whole burden of philosophy seems to consist in this — from the phenomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature, and then from these forces to demonstrate the other phenomena ...

It was perhaps the force of the Principia, which explained so many different things about the natural world with such economy, that caused this method to become synonymous with physics, even as it is practised almost three and a half centuries after his beginning. Today the two aspects that Newton outlined would be called analysis and synthesis. The Principia consists of three books #De motu corporum (On the motion of bodies) is a mathematical exposition of calculus followed by statements of basic dynamical definitions and the primary deductions based on these. It also contains propositions and proofs that have little to do with dynamics but demonstrate the kinds of problems which can be solved using calculus. #The second book was broken off from the first, since it would have otherwise become too long. It contains sundry applications such as motion through a resistive medium, a derivation of the shape of least resistance, a derivation of the speed of sound and accounts of experimental tests of the result. #De mundi systemate (On the system of the world) is an essay on universal gravitation that builds upon the propositions of the previous books and applies them to the motions observed in the solar system — the regularities and the irregularities of the orbit of the moon, the derivations of Kepler's laws, applications to the motion of Jupiter's moons, to comets and tides (much of the data came from John Flamsteed). It also considers the harmonic oscillator in three dimensions, and motion in arbitrary force laws. The sequence of definitions used in setting up dynamics in the Principia is exactly the same as in all textbooks today. Newton first set out the definition of mass⁶

The quantity of matter is that which arises conjointly from its density and magnitude. A body twice as dense in double the space is quadruple in quantity. This quantity I designate by the name of body or of mass.

This was then used to define the "quantity of motion" (today called momentum), and the principle of inertia in which mass replaces the previous Cartesian notion of intrinsic force. This then set the stage for the introduction of forces through the change in momentum of a body. Curiously, for today's readers, the exposition looks dimensionally incorrect, since Newton does not introduce the dimension of time in rates of changes of quantities. He defined space and time "not as they are well known to all". Instead, he defined "true" time and space as "absolute" and explained:

Only I must observe, that the vulgar conceive those quantities under no other notions but from the relation they bear to perceptible objects. And it will be convenient to distinguish them into absolute and relative, true and apparent, mathematical and common. [...] instead of absolute places and motions, we use relative ones; and that without any inconvenience in common affairs; but in philosophical discussions, we ought to step back from our senses, and consider things themselves, distinct from what are only perceptible measures of them.

It is interesting that several dynamical quantities which were used in the book (such as angular momentum) were not given names. The dynamics of the first two books was so self-evidently consistent that it was immediately accepted; for example, Locke asked Huygens whether he could trust the mathematical proofs, and was assured about their correctness. However, the concept of an attractive force acting at a distance received a cooler response. In his notes, Newton wrote that the inverse square law arose naturally due to the structure of matter. However, he retracted this sentence in the published version, where he stated that the motion of planets is consistent with an inverse square law, but refused to speculate on the origin of the law. Huygens and Leibniz noted that the law was incompatible with the notion of the ether. From a Cartesian point of view, therefore, this was a faulty theory. Newton's defence has been adopted since by many famous physicists — he pointed out that the mathematical form of the theory had to be correct since it explained the data, and he refused to speculate further on the basic nature of gravity. The sheer mass of phenomena which could be organized by the theory was so impressive that younger "philosophers" soon adopted the methods and language of the Principia.

The mathematical language

The reason for Newton's extension of Euclidean geometry as the mathematical language of choice in Principia is puzzling in two respects. The first is the puzzle that today's physicists, trained in modern analytical methods, descended from Descartes, face in reconstructing the arguments. This mathematical language reportedly baffled Richard Feynman to the extent that he tried to work out alternative Euclidean proofs to his own satisfaction. S. Chandrasekhar, in one of his last major efforts, tran

Motion

See also

Motion (legal)

Common motions

See also

Motion (democracy)

Observer

19th century

Europe

Americas

Other countries

Events

Wars

Significant people

Anthropology

Painters

Music

Literature

Science

Philosophy and Religion

Politics

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Decades and years

Isaac Newton

Biography

Early years

Middle years

Mathematical research

Optics

Gravity and motion

Later life

Religious views

Newton's effect on religious thought

Newton versus the counterfeiters

Enlightenment philosophers

Newton's legacy

Fictional appearances

Writings by Newton

Notes

See also

Resources

References

Further reading

External links

Principia

The historical context

The beginnings of the scientific revolution

Newton's context

Publication

The contents of the book

The mathematical language