Research Guides: Physics Toolbox: Newton's Principia Plus ...

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Philosophiæ naturalis principia mathematica ONLINE
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Newton's Four Rules of Reasoning
Video segment: In his "Principia Mathematica," Newton describes universal gravitation, outlines his laws of nature and motion and lays the groundwork for classical mechanics. His four rules of reasoning are outlined. Segment length 3:08.
Isaac Newton's Calculus
Video Segment: Using Newton's calculus, one can work out the exact speed and precise distance traveled by an accelerating car. Newton's calculus helps us to understand the changing world such as motion and orbits. Segment length 2:04.
Impact of Newton's Principia on the Philosophy of Science
Ernan McMullin, Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame. This paper is a revised and enlarged version of a keynote address delivered at the Second International Conference on the History of the Philosophy of Science, held at the University of Notre Dame in 1998; also presented in the Pittsburgh Lecture Series in the Philosophy of Science, Fall 1999.
Michael Fowler, UVa Lecture
A brief account of Newton's life, followed by a discussion of perhaps his most important insight: that a cannonball shot horizontally, and fast enough, from an imagined mountaintop above the atmosphere might orbit the earth. This tied together Galileo's understanding of projectiles with the motion of the moon, and was the first direct understanding (as opposed to description) of motion in the heavens.

Additional Reading

Alexandre Koyré, Newtonian studies (London: Chapman and Hall, 1965).
Cohen, I. Bernard, The Newtonian Revolution (Cambridge 1980). QC7 .C66
I. Bernard Cohen, Introduction to Newton's Principia (Harvard University Press, 1971). QA803 .C64
Richard S. Westfall, Force in Newton’s physics; the science of dynamics in the seventeenth century (New York: American Elsevier, 1971).

Offsite-Swem Storage - Physics Offsite QA802 .W48
Westfall, Richard S., The Construction of Modem Science: Mechanisms and Mechanics (Willey 1971; CUP).
Westfall, Richard S., Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge 1980). QC16 .N7 W35 1990
Dobbs, Betty J., The Foundation of Newton's Alchemy: The Hunting of the Greene Lyon (Cambridge 1975).
S. Chandrasekhar, Newton’s Principia for the common reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). QA803 .C48 1995
Guicciardini, N., 2005, "Philosophia Naturalis..." in Grattan-Guinness, I., ed., Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics. Elsevier: 59-87.
Andrew Janiak, Newton as Philosopher (Cambridge University Press, 2008). B1299 .N34 J36 2008
François De Gandt, Force and geometry in Newton’s Principia trans. Curtis Wilson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, c1995).
Brian Ellis, "The Origin and Nature of Newton's Laws of Motion" in Beyond the Edge of Certainty, ed. R. G. Colodny. (Pittsburgh: University Pittsburgh Press, 1965), 29-68.
E.A. Burtt, Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1954).
Herivel, John, The Background to Newton's Principia (Oxford 1965).

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QA803 .H4
Manuel, Frank E., A Portrait of Isaac Newton (Harvard U. Press 1968).
Manuel, Frank E., The Religion of Isaac Newton (Oxford 1974).