Comments on: The Greatest? Newton’s Principia

By: The Greatest Physics Paper! The Result | Cosmic Variance

The Greatest Physics Paper! The Result | Cosmic Variance — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 05:07:01 +0000

[...] 25 votes: I. Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. 1687. (This counted as a paper.) Link here for the votes. [...]

By: auna

auna — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:41:42 +0000

Is this even fair?!

I think Noether’s is one of the most elegent modern papers, but there’s really no contest.

By: Dick Thompson

Dick Thompson — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:22:03 +0000

I’m for Newton, since you didn’t include Galileo’s relativity paper . It’s the sine qua non of modern physics, even though few have read it and of those, still fewer have followed the argument in it.

By: Papillon

Papillon — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 01:40:07 +0000

Isaac all the way, baby! (I do think contests of this sort- the greatest – are silly but hey, let the educated indulge!

Come on it’s no contest in terms of ancestry of ideas- calculus (ok, Leibnitz had a better notation), beautifully simple laws, predictive powers, analytics…

I guess it’s a shame Newton’s Optics will not have made the shortlist neither? It’s an astounding and supremely influential book too (well, I can’t think of a better word than “influential”).

Anyway, it’s good to see the passion in the science!

By: robert

robert — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:36:17 +0000

This is the one. He also established the gold standard for professional malice, so, for good and bad, his influence is all pervading.

By: Amara

Amara — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 05:59:43 +0000

most emphatically yes…

Newton’s physics approach changed the methodology of scientific research forever. It showed that a physics law (Newton’s Law of Gravity) combined with logic (mathematics) can reveal new truths with relatively little effort. That is, the work of: Tycho Brahe (30 years observations) + Kepler (30 years of arithmetic analysis) was smoothly surpassed by only an hour or two of applying Newton’s formulas. And the Newtonian methodology, in addition to leading to specific deductions and predictions, showed the universality of physical laws. Whereas Kepler’s empirical discoveries were meant to apply only to the solar system (for example), Newton’s derivations showed that the laws of nature are universal.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 02:28:35 +0000

Count me in!

By: Sam Harrelson

Sam Harrelson — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 23:46:41 +0000

This should be the foundation for intro to physical sciences taught in all schools. so, as an 8th grade science teacher i was able to incorporate this into our curriculum as the “text book” we’re using as an intro into the physics part of our intro class.

By: skyhawk science

skyhawk science — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 23:38:02 +0000

10 Important Things About the Principia

Today we started our discussion of Newton’s famous work, the Principia. Tomorrow we’ll dive into Book One and look at what Sir Isaac had to say about motion and buckets of water.To view this as a text file on

By: Mike Molloy

Mike Molloy — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:52:19 +0000

Set the standard.