Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

Top positive review

Important Read

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2014

This is one of those books where you can get all the information contained therein from other sources. It is a difficult read in that it was written in the language of the 16th century. However, it is stunning. Follow the math which begins with geometry and evolves into calculus. Not as a learning progression but as a necessity. At times, Newton seems almost apologetic when establishing his scenarios and problems. Almost as if he knows you can't possibly understand his intent! This book, along with The Principia, ranks as one of the very first applications of the scientific method. With all due respect to Copernicus, Galileo and many others; Newton was THE intellectual giant of the Renaissance. We are all forever in his debt.

52 people found this helpful

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Critical reviews›

David Morton

A great view of math history, a little hard to read and comprehend for non-experts

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2016

This book is a facsimile version, which appeals to my sense of history; although it has a drawback: in places bits of letters have gone missing and it can impede reading ease and comprehension. Kind of like both sides of a coin I guess, so I present this as a fact, not a criticism.

The real challenge is that it isn't helping me learn maths, I see no evidence of it being like a tutorial or textbook. It reads much more like a reference for people who have a very good understanding of the maths in it already. I'm very interested in understanding what it says, and it's going to take additional help.

All up, I think it's a treasure in the historical sense as a time capsule of science, it's an economical price and looks as though it's made to last as a book.

3 people found this helpful

465 total ratings, 159 with reviews

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From the United States

John Arbuckle

Important Read

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

52 people found this helpful

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lots of geometry

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2018

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I've only examined the book in a very cursory (e.g., turning pages, looking at diagrams, etc.) way, so I don't have anything profound to say. Newton's use of geometry to "prove" many mathematical properties leading to calculus is very interesting. Today, these concepts can be explained in terms of point set topology, for example. I'm amazed at how Newton was able to use the only mathematical tools available to him at the time to develop his "version" of calculus (Leibniz also).

3 people found this helpful

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StephOoO

For the general idea

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2014

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I wanted to get an idea of why Newton discovered/created the calculus framework. I was more interested in the problems he was trying to solve than the explicit descriptions of the math problems. The dated English is hard to decipher at times but its worth reading through at least once. Its a bit dry and a bit slow but it does something most present math books don't do; this book explains why.

23 people found this helpful

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Gerald Stevens

a classic in the field of physics

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2018

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This was one of the books that started classical physics. You can find modern books which are easier to understand but this is the book that started it all.

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David Morton

A great view of math history, a little hard to read and comprehend for non-experts

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2016

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3 people found this helpful

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Payton Smith

Perfect Condition

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2020

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Bought for my physicist boyfriend. It's a hardcover and unabridged, so it's quite special to him!

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Robert Thorne

Very difficult to read and understand. One of the greatest books on the fundamentals of physics.

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

I was excited when this book was suggested for me. The problem is that it takes a great deal of concentration to read it. I barely recognized Newton's three laws of motion. It is about as readable as a PhD thesis.
Anyone can afford to acquire this premier work which presents the fundamental principals of physics.
I gave it three stars because the idea of having it on the Kindle format is commendable. However, the translation needs a translation. Perhaps, there is a brillant writer , like Michael Guillan or Andy Weir, who can put the concepts into a form that is much easier to comprehend.

One person found this helpful

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Rajeev goel

Printing quality is not great, but still a fascinating insight into Newton's mind.

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2017

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This is not an easy read even for mathematicians. But hey, you can't blame the publishers for that ... it's Newton's original text, and it's a work of genius. Newton did use some pretty heavy language and sentence structure, so you have to read it real slowly and multiple times to grasp the concepts.

What I can blame the publishers for, though, is that some of the text is hard to see clearly. Letters and words are cut-off at the margins of the page, so some words are truncated. This makes it even a more difficult text to parse and understand.

6 people found this helpful

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Mindo'ermatter

Great Resource to Understand the Occidental World

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2019

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Newton's seminal work laid the groundwork for centuries to understand physical science. Once required reading for all the college "educated," this important volume illustrates well the explorations and innovative insights of one man.

This volume is complete, well laid out, and easy to read. However, the Kindle edition I got does NOT permit minimizing pages for convenient scrolling through the book, a major shortcoming for a reference volume.

Still, I value the opportunity to get into Newton's thoughts and explorations.

One person found this helpful

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Ismael

principia mathmatica

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

I got this for my kindle, it is an awesome book. it is amazing the knowledge of mathematics Newton had. for the price it's gets five stars. the content five stars as well. if your liking for this book then you probably have some idea of how deep it is in terms of mathematical understanding. either way great book.

16 people found this helpful

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