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Full Idea
Law 1: Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed.
Gist of Idea
1: Bodies rest, or move in straight lines, unless acted on by forces
Source
Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica [1687], Axioms)
Book Ref
Newton,Isaac: 'Philosophical Writings' [CUP 2004], p.70
A Reaction
This is the new concept of inertia, which revolutionises the picture. Motion itself, which was a profound puzzle for the Greeks, ceases to be a problem by being axiomatised. It is now acceleration which is the the problem.
24064 | If something is pushed, it pushes back [Aristotle] |
19673 | Galileo mathematised movement, and revealed its invariable component - acceleration [Galileo, by Meillassoux] |
20964 | Descartes said there was conservation of 'quantity of motion' [Descartes, by Papineau] |
15958 | Inertia rejects the Aristotelian idea of things having natural states, to which they return [Newton, by Alexander,P] |
20968 | Newton's Third Law implies the conservation of momentum [Newton, by Papineau] |
17018 | 2: Change of motion is proportional to the force [Newton] |
17019 | 3: All actions of bodies have an equal and opposite reaction [Newton] |
17017 | 1: Bodies rest, or move in straight lines, unless acted on by forces [Newton] |
22173 | Galileo refuted the Aristotelian theory that heavier objects fall faster [Okasha] |
22618 | In modern physics the first and second laws of motion (unlike the third) fail at extremes [Ingthorsson] |