Abstract
In his Axioms, Newton proposed a relationship between an impressed force and the motion which it generates in a body—his second law of motion. He then explained, in the propositions of Sect. II, how one may deduce the precise nature of a centripetal force acting on a body from the details of the motion which the body exhibits. In Book III, Newton went on to describe the type of motion which had been observed in the five primary planets and their moons. Now, Newton finally combines these seemingly disparate lines of thought in order to arrive at his Universal Law of Gravitation.
The force which retains the celestial bodies in their orbits has been hitherto called the centripetal force; but it being now made plain that it can be no other than a gravitating force, we shall hereafter call it gravity.
—Isaac Newton
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See Chap. 26.
- 3.
See Ex. 27.4, below. For the value of the proportionality constant, see Eq. (27.2).
- 4.
See pages /107–110/ of Galileo’s Dialogues, contained in Chap. 3 of the present volume.
- 5.
Cavendish, H., Experiments to Determine the Density of the Earth, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 17, 469, 1789.
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Kuehn, K. (2015). Universal Gravitation. In: A Student's Guide Through the Great Physics Texts. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1366-4_27
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