# Newton's Principia Problem

Furthermore, is there any way of understanding the Principia in a more numerical ways rather than words like this? Just asking.
Again, thank you very much.

Doug Huffman
Gold Member
S. Chandrasekhar Newton's Principia for the Common Reader Chapter 3, Section 15, pp 50-52 in modern integral notation.

Philip Wood
Gold Member
I think that in modern terms, this is $s = \frac{1}{2} a t^2$. So $\frac{s_1}{s_2} = (\frac{t_1}{t_2})^2$. This is constant acceleration from rest. Since it's at the very beginning off the motion, the force won't have had time to change?

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Stephen Tashi
It would interesting to know whether Newton is representing a graph of a function of position vs time with time on the y-axis or whether he is thinking of the curves as trajectories of an object in 2-D space.

Wao, thank you everyone, this helps much

jtbell
Mentor
The English translation (of Newton's original Latin) that you are reading dates from around 1730 and can be difficult to read, even for native English speakers. This book contains a new translation from the late 1990s, along with an extensive "guide to the Principia" which is as long as the Principia itself (i.e. half the book)!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520088174/?tag=pfamazon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20

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