Today in the history of astronomy, one of the most influential books in the history of science is released.
Isaac Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, laying a cornerstone for modern physics. Credit: attributed to ‘English School’/Wikimedia Commons
- Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, a foundational work in physics, was published on July 5, 1687.
- Newton’s initial conceptualization of many key principles, including foundational elements of gravitational theory, occurred during a period of self-isolation in 1666 due to a plague outbreak.
- The development of Principia was spurred by a 1684 inquiry from Edmond Halley regarding planetary orbits, expanding upon Newton’s earlier work, De Motu.
Isaac Newton‘s monumental book, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, was published July 5, 1687. Newton had developed the foundational ideas for the work as early as 1666, when an outbreak of plague shut down Cambridge University, where he was a student, and drove him to the countryside. There he spent two years conceiving many of his biggest principles and theorems, including the groundwork for understanding gravity. In 1684, a query from Edmond Halley about planetary orbits prompted Newton to expand on that earlier work. Newton, then a professor at Cambridge, initially wrote a tract called De Motu that November; over the next two and a half years, De Motu evolved into Principia. The book, written in Latin and financed by Halley, is recognized a seminal scientific text, with Newton’s three laws of motion offering a framework for understanding terrestrial and celestial mechanics.
