Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and His System of the World

The 1729 English translation of Newtons Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, revised and annotated by Florian Cajori, is presented in this edition. It includes a portrait and Halleys ode, prefaces to the first three Latin editions, and three books that develop mathematical tools and apply them to motion in resisting media, the heavens, and the *General Scholium*. Cajoris appendix supplies historical and explanatory notes. Cotess preface champions Newtons experimental philosophy against scholastic occult qualities and Cartesian vortices, arguing from terrestrial gravitation and pendulum experiments to mutual attraction and Keplerian area and period–distance laws. The prefaces chronicle Newtons method, Halleys role, and later refinements to lunar theory, precession, comet orbits, and fluid resistance. The volume frames the *Principia* as a mathematical edifice and a philosophical watershed, revealing a world governed by demonstrable universal laws.

Format: Hardback
Length: 714 pages
Publication date: 27 May 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

Andrew Mottes 1729 English translation of Newtons Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, revised and annotated by historian Florian Cajori, is presented in this edition. It begins with a portrait and Halleys celebratory ode, followed by the prefaces to the first three Latin editions, where Newton defines rational mechanics as the mathematical study of motion and forces and declares his program of inferring forces from phenomena and deducing further phenomena from them. Book I develops the mathematical tools of limits, conics, central forces, apsidal motion, and pendula, proving that orbits with equal-areas law imply centripetal attraction. Book II treats motion in resisting media, including drag proportional to velocity or its square, hydrostatics, pendular resistance, and waves, bridging ideal dynamics and real fluids. Book III applies the theory to the heavens, stating Rules of Reasoning, listing Phenomena, and deriving universal gravitation, lunar nodes, tides, precession, cometary paths, and the General Scholium. A separate System of the World offers a more synthetic exposition. Cotess preface to the second edition champions Newtons experimental philosophy against scholastic occult qualities and Cartesian vortices. He argues from terrestrial gravitation and pendulum experiments to mutual attraction, then by Keplerian area and period–distance laws to centripetal forces inversely as the square of distance, unifying moon, planets, and comets under a single gravitational principle. The prefaces chronicle Newtons method (analysis from phenomena; synthesis to prediction), Halleys role in pressing publication, and later refine.

Weight: 1225g
Dimension: 234 x 156 x 43 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520364257