The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton: Volume 3

by Isaac Newton

The main part of the third volume of Dr Whiteside's annotated and critical edition of all the known mathematical papers of Isaac Newton reproduces, from the original autograph, Newton's elaborate tract on infinite series and fluxions (the so-called Methodus Fluxionum), including a formerly unpublished appendix on geometrical fluxions. Ancillary documents include, in Part 1, papers on the integration of algebraic functions and, in Part 2, short texts dealing with geometry and simple harmonic motion in a cycloidal arc. Part 3 reproduces, from both manuscript versions of Newton's Lectiones Opticae and from his Waste Book, mathematical excerpts from his researches into light and the theory of lenses at this period. An appendix summarizes mathematical highlights in his contemporary correspondence.

616 pages, Hardcover

First published June 27, 1969

About the author

Sir Isaac Newton, FRS , was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries and is the basis for modern engineering. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.

In mechanics, Newton enunciated the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. In optics, he invented the reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into a visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.

In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the generalised binomial theorem, developed the so-called "Newton's method" for approximating the zeroes of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.

Newton was also highly religious (though unorthodox), producing more work on Biblical hermeneutics than the natural science he is remembered for today.

In a 2005 poll of the Royal Society asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton was deemed much more influential than Albert Einstein.