Newton's Principia and Euclid's Elements

[JTC]

I have always wanted to read the textbooks in the thread title.

But their styld is so old.

Does someone know of any "middle of the road" textbooks?

By that, I mean: books that basically teach what these two men wrote, but, perhaps with updated language, or some really-not-essential stuff removed.

I am not as much interested in learning about topics from the books (well, I suppose I sort of am) -- but more like, learning how these men thought (but with occassional and precise rewording of some basic things).

 

[smodak]

1. Newton's Principia for the Common Reader by Chandrasekhar
2. Force and Geometry in Newton's "Principia" by Gandt
3. Magnificent Principia: Exploring Isaac Newton's Masterpiece by PaskNot sure about Euclid's elements

 

[ibkev]

A while back Mathwonk posted a link to some very accessible notes he put together about Euclid's proofs:

http://alpha.math.uga.edu/~roy/camp2011/10.pdf

 

[StoneTemplePython]

A free 21st century version of Euclid (recommended by Stillwell in Four Pillars of Geometry) is an online compilation from David Joyce available here:

https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~DJoyce/java/elements/elements.html

- - -
if you really want to dive into original Euclid, Stillwell would recommend David Heath's English translation -- dated 1925 and quite long (all of Elements plus a lot of commentary from Heath).