《自然哲学的数学原理》(拉丁語:Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica),是英国科学家艾萨克·牛顿的三卷本代表作,成书于1686年。1687年7月5日该书的拉丁文版首次出版发行。[1][2]牛顿本人之后又分别于1713年与1726年进行了两次修订。[3]1729年由班傑明·莫特(英语:Benjamin Motte)将其译成英文付印,就是现在所见流行的英文本。各版均由牛顿本人作了增订,并加序言。后世有多种文字的译本,中译本出版於1931年。
题为“论宇宙的系统”(拉丁文:De mundi systemate)的第三卷主要关于万有引力(特别在天文学方面)的影响与意义。本卷以前两卷中的命题为基础,并将这些理论具体应用于解释观测到的太阳系天体的运动。Proposition 22和命题25-35中研究了月球运动轨道的特点,特别提到了月球轨道的潮汐演变。在本卷“天象”部分中,牛顿列出了他所引用的天文观测的数据,并逐步推导出平方反比定率在太阳系天体运动中的体现。这一部分从讨论木星卫星开始,然后逐步证明这一理论是普适的。在引理4和命题40中牛顿提出了彗星运动的理论,这一部分中的大多数数据来源于約翰·佛蘭斯蒂德和哈雷的观测记录。本卷中牛顿还尝试着定量计算了太阳和月球引理对潮汐的影响,并提出了分点岁差的理论。本卷还包括了三维谐振子和在任意力下的运动。
在“总释”中,牛顿写下了他的一句名言:“我不做假设。”('Hypotheses non fingo')[8],以此反击第一版《原理》所遭致的批评。当时的人们认为牛顿提出的超距作用的万有引力在科学中引入了不可知力。[15]牛顿反对这些批评,并认为实际的观测结果已经证明了万有引力的存在但没有显示这些力的来源。而且他拒绝对这个力的起因提出假设,因为这样的假设“在实验科学中并没有存在的意义”。他认为实验科学应当“从现象推出具体结论并通过归纳法推广到一般情况”。[16]
大学期间牛顿曾对上述著作进行了研究,并做了一本题为《若干哲学问题》(拉丁文:Quaestiones quaedam philosophicae)的手记。在此期间他创立了微积分的基础,并进行了关于颜色的光学研究。他利用棱镜证明了白光是由其他色光组合而成的,推翻了当时的主流理论并得到广泛承认,这也导致了他与胡克的激烈争论。许多论文和信件提到了他对微积分的研究,包括两封与莱布尼茨的通信。他成为了英国皇家学会的成员和巴罗之后第二任卢卡斯教席教授。
^This relationship between circular curvature, speed and radial force, now often known as Huygens' formula, was independently found by Newton (in the 1660s) and by Huygens in the 1650s: the conclusion was published (without proof) by Huygens in 1673.This was given by Isaac Newton through his Inverse Square Law.
^ 2.02.1Volume 1 of the 1729 English translation is available as an online scan; limited parts of the 1729 translation (misidentified as based on the 1687 edition) have also been transcribed online (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆).
^ 3.03.1[In Latin] Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica: the Third edition (1726) with variant readings, assembled and ed. by Alexandre Koyré and I Bernard Cohen with the assistance of Anne Whitman (Cambridge, MA, 1972, Harvard UP)
^J M Steele, University of Toronto, (review online from Canadian Association of Physicists) 互联网档案馆的存檔,存档日期2010-04-01. of N Guicciardini's "Reading the Principia: The Debate on Newton’s Mathematical Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736" (Cambridge UP, 1999), a book which also states (summary before title page) that the "Principia" "is considered one of the masterpieces in the history of science".
^(in French) Alexis Clairaut, "Du systeme du monde, dans les principes de la gravitation universelle", in "Histoires (& Memoires) de l'Academie Royale des Sciences" for 1745 (published 1749), at p.329 (according to a note on p.329, Clairaut's paper was read at a session of November 1747).
^ 7.07.1The content of infinitesimal calculus in the 'Principia' was recognized both in Newton's lifetime and later, among others by the Marquis de l'Hospital, whose 1696 book "Analyse des infiniment petits" (Infinitesimal analysis) stated in its preface, about the 'Principia', that 'nearly all of it is of this calculus' ('lequel est presque tout de ce calcul'). See also D T Whiteside (1970), "The mathematical principles underlying Newton's Principia Mathematica", Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol.1 (1970), 116-138, especially at p.120.
^ 8.08.1Or "frame" no hypotheses (as traditionally translated at vol.2, p.392, in the 1729 English version).
^From Motte's translation of 1729 (at 3rd page of Author's Preface); and see also J. W. Herivel, The background to Newton's "Principia", Oxford University Press, 1965.
^Eric J Aiton, The Cartesian vortex theory, chapter 11 in Planetary astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics, Part A: Tycho Brahe to Newton, eds. R Taton & C Wilson, Cambridge (Cambridge University press) 1989; at pp.207-221.
^See Curtis Wilson, "The Newtonian achievement in astronomy", pages 233-274 in R Taton & C Wilson (eds) (1989) The General History of Astronomy, Volume, 2A', at page 233).
^Newton's position is seen to go beyond literal Copernican heliocentrism practically to the modern position in regard to the solar system barycenter.
^D T Whiteside, "The pre-history of the 'Principia' from 1664 to 1686", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 45 (1991), pages 11-61; especially at 13-20.
^See J. Bruce Brackenridge, "The key to Newton's dynamics: the Kepler problem and the Principia", (University of California Press, 1995), especially at pages 20-21.
^See page 10 in D T Whiteside, "Before the Principia: the maturing of Newton's thoughts on dynamical astronomy, 1664-1684", Journal for the History of Astronomy, i (1970), pages 5-19.
^The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol.4, Cambridge University Press 1967, at pp.519, n.2.
^The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol.4, Cambridge University press 1967, at p.42.
^I Bernard Cohen, Introduction to the Principia, Cambridge 1971.
^The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol.4, Cambridge University press 1967, at pp.518-20.
^The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, vol.5, Cambridge University press 1975. Bentley's letter to Newton of October 1709 (at p.7-8) describes Cotes' perhaps unenviable position in relation to his master Bentley: "You need not be so shy of giving Mr. Cotes too much trouble: he has more esteem for you, and obligations to you, than to think that trouble too grievous: but however he does it at my Orders, to whom he owes more than that."
^"Translating Newton's 'Principia': The Marquise du Châtelet's Revisions and Additions for a French Audience." Author(s): Judith P. Zinsser Source: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 55, No. 2 (May, 2001), pp. 227-245.
^I Bernard Cohen (1968), "Introduction" (at page i) to (facsimile) reprint of 1729 English translation of Newton's "Principia" (London (1968), Dawsons of Pall Mall).
^See pages 29-37 in I. Bernard Cohen (1999), "A Guide to Newton's Principia", published as an introduction to "Isaac Newton: The Principia, Mathematical principles of natural philosophy, a new translation" by I Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman, University of California Press, 1999.
^"Isaac Newton: The Principia, Mathematical principles of natural philosophy, a new translation" by I Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman, preceded by "A Guide to Newton's Principia" by I Bernard Cohen, University of California Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-520-08816-0, ISBN 978-0-520-08817-7.
^Dana Densmore and William H. Donahue, Newton's Principia: The Central Argument: Translation, Notes, and Expanded Proofs (Green Lion Press; 3rd edition, 2003) ISBN 9781888009231, ISBN 978-1888009231