Newton's Laws of Motion

Historical Context Note

Robert Iliffe (Imperial College London)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Domains

Planetary Astronomy and Laws of Motion

Dates

Date of occurrence 1687

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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Newton's laws of motion, propounded in the

Principia Mathematica

of 1687, were that 1) a body remains in its state of rest or uniform motion (i.e. in a straight line) unless it is acted upon by an external force, (2) that the change of motion (the rate of change of velocity times the mass of the body) is proportional to the force and in the direction of that force; (3) that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Applying these laws to an analysis of the orbit of the Moon around the Earth, and to the velocity of falling objects on the Earth's surface, led to the “law of universal gravitation ”which states that any body attracts any other with a force equivalent to a constant multiplied by the product of the masses divided by the square of the distance between them.

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409 words

Citation: Iliffe, Robert. "Newton's Laws of Motion". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 May 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1548, accessed 10 May 2024.]

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