Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

For the work of Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, consult Principia Mathematica .

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for mathematical Principles of natural philosophy ), often shortened in Principia or Principia Mathematica , is the main work of Isaac Newton, a book in three volumes published the July 5th 1687. It is one of the scientific books having had the most influence which was ever published; it was translated into French by Emilie of Châtelet under the title mathematical Principes of natural philosophy .

This work contains the Lois of the movement of Newton which formed the base of the traditional Mécanique as well as the law of the gravitation. Starting from these laws, Newton also deduced the Lois from Kepler of the movement of the Planet S which had been obtained empirically by Kepler. Many other things are also exposed there: laws of the shocks, the movement of the fluids, the theory of the tides, etc

By formulating these physical theories, Newton developed the Infinitesimal calculus, a field of the Mathématiques. Nevertheless, the language of the infinitesimal calculus is largely absent from Principia because Newton had reformulated there the majority of its demonstrations in arguments geometrical S, the current language of physics at that time.

Three volumes of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica are entitled:

On the movement of the bodies
On the movement of the bodies (continuation)
the system of the World

Sites of the copies

Many collections of rare books have original editions of the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica . For example:

the Wren Library with the Trinity College of Cambridge has the proper specimen of Newton with its handwritten notes for the second edition.
Whipple Museum off the History off Science in Cambridge has a specimen of the first edition which belonged to Robert Hooke.
the Fisher Library with the Université of Sydney has a first edition annotated by a mathematician whose identity is dubious as well as the corresponding notes of Newton itself.
the Pepys Library with the Magdalene College of Cambridge, has the specimen Samuel Pepys (third edition).

An edition Fac-similé was published in 1972 by Alexandre Koyré and I. Bernard Cohen (Cambridge University Press, 1972, ISBN 0674664752).

See too

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, London, 1687, 2ère ED. 1713, 3ère ED. 1726 -->

Principia Mathematica of Whitehead and Russell.
Interpretation of Principia
Principia and Calculus

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