Customer Reviews

The Principia (Great Minds)

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I bought this book not for the purpose of learning Classical Mechanics from it, but for the scientific curiosity of learning how the great Isaac Newton presented his revolutionary scientific ideas to the world. Of course, it is difficult to read. This is an old translation of a book written in Latin more than 300 years ago!

This book is a jewel. Just like the original works of Einstein, Maxwell, Heisenberg, Schroedinger and all those giants. The person buying this book should not expect to find a clear didactic textbook when originally it was not written for the layman, but for the expert scientific community of its time. Buy this book, sit back, scan through it, and enjoy a true piece of history.

I can hardly believe Hawking lent his credibility to this edition. Although his motivation of getting people to read classics is great, this edition barely contains any Hawking commentary, is riddled with errors and omissions, and fell apart after just a couple of months of use. Buy the Green Lion or the big Blue edition instead!

Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, whose Principia (published in 1687) founded classical mechanics, and described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion.

"I have in this treatise cultivated mathematics so far as it regards philosophy.... (G)eometry is founded in mechanical practice, and is nothing but that part of universal mechanics which accurately proposes and demonstrates the art of measuring."

"The propositions here demonstrated are adapted to the true constitution of the Earth.... For gravity ... decreases in its progress from the superficies of the Earth; upwards in a duplicate ratio of the distances from the centre of the earth; downwards in a simple ratio of the same."

At the beginning of Book III, he states, "In the preceding Books I have laid down the principles of philosophy, principles not philosophical, but mathematical; such, to wit, as we may build our reasonings upon in philosophical inquiries.... It remains that, from the same principles, I now demonstrate the frame of the System of the World."

He concludes the book on the note, "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being ... This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called Lord God.... The Supreme God is a being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect.... It is the dominion of a spiritual being which constitutes a God ... God is a living, intelligent, and powerful Being; and, from his other perfections, that he is supreme, or most perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from eternity to eternity; his presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done.... He is utterly void of all body and bodily figure, and can therefore neither be seen, nor heard, nor touched; nor ought he to be worshipped under the representation of any corporeal thing. We have ideas of his attributes, but what the real substance of any thing is we know not."

Newton's Principia is most likely the greatest scientific treatise ever written but a modern translation from the original Latin is needed. This book is written in cryptic language and is useful only for historical value in my opinion. Viva physics!

VERY heavy on the geometric proofs and arguments; thank goodness for analytic notation. The upside is that it make you learn and relearn vocabulary.

I read up to Prop 6 and could not quite carry on. His language is not easy to understand. I hope someone will publish a Dictionary of it. Anyway, his proof of Kepler's 2nd theorem is clever, and he is very rigorous mathematically for his time. ...

A few years ago I was bored with most of what was available in book stores, and it seemed as though I had read through everything interesting (a few things that were not). My desire to be intellectually wowed lead me to purchase this book, and it served its purpose. Newton's ideas are not that difficult to follow if you take time to think about them, but Newton did not simply have to follow these principles; he had to derive them himself, and within a single lifetime I might add. This work allowed me to appreciate the brilliance of Newton in a similar manner as one appreciates an impresseive work of art, and like many fine works of art, its ability to display the impressive magnitude of its creator's abilities far outshines its ability to teach the observer something new. In a world void of any other books on physics or mathematics I suppose The Principia would be adequate as an educational resource, but in a world where far better textbooks exist, this book no longer retains much pedagogical value.