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Full Idea
You have made the astonishing discovery that Kepler's ellipses result simply from the conception of attraction or gravitation and passage in a planet.
Gist of Idea
You have discovered that elliptical orbits result just from gravitation and planetary movement
Source
report of Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica [1687]) by Gottfried Leibniz - Letter to Newton 1693.03.07
Book Ref
Newton,Isaac: 'Philosophical Writings' [CUP 2004], p.106
A Reaction
I quote this to show that Newton made 'an astonishing discovery' of a connection in nature, and did not merely produce an equation which described a pattern of behaviour. The simple equation is the proof of the connection.
| 476 | Self-created numbers make the universe stable [Philolaus] |
| 17008 | You have discovered that elliptical orbits result just from gravitation and planetary movement [Newton, by Leibniz] |
| 17010 | We have given up substantial forms, and now aim for mathematical laws [Newton] |
| 8656 | The laws of number are not laws of nature, but are laws of the laws of nature [Frege] |
| 8381 | The constancy of scientific laws rests on differential equations, not on cause and effect [Russell] |
| 15125 | We only know the mathematical laws, but not much else [Hawthorne] |