
The three laws of motion: firstly, that a body will only moved when acted on by an outside force (see: external force); two, that greater the force, the greater the change in motion (aka acceleration); third, that for every action (force) there is an equal and opposite reaction (force), which implies that forces are always found in pairs (see also: conjugate variables). [3]

The three laws of motion: firstly, that a body will only moved when acted on by an outside force (see: external force); two, that greater the force, the greater the change in motion (aka acceleration); third, that for every action (force) there is an equal and opposite reaction (force), which implies that forces are always found in pairs (see also: conjugate variables). [3]

In physics, laws of motion, aka "Newton’s law of motion", are three sets of laws that defined the nature of the forces and motions of interacting bodies.

The three laws of motion, as a set, were codified by English physicist Isaac Newton and first presented in his 1687 Principia, the first sixty copies of which were printed and shipped on a wagon from London to Cambridge.

First law of motion

See main: First law of motion

Greek philosopher-scientist Aristotle (384-322BC) was one of the first to grapple with the outlines of the first law; discussions of which resulting from his investigations into the nature abhors a vacuum query, which he was an advocator of. Aristotle’s proto-version version of the first law was: [4]

“Nobody can give a reason why a body that has been put into motion in empty space should stop on its own account. Why should it stop in one place rather than in another? Thus it will remain at rest, or it will of necessity keep moving ad infinitum unless it is hindered from doing so.”

Greek physicist-engineer Hero (c.10-70AD) stated the following on the matter: [4]

“Bodies will have a rapid motion through a vacuum where there is nothing to obstruct or repel them, until they are in contact.”


The 1687 original rendition of the laws of motion by Isaac Newton, according to the English translation by Andrew Motte (1850). [7]

The 1687 original rendition of the laws of motion by Isaac Newton, according to the English translation by Andrew Motte (1850). [7]

In 1490, Leonardo Da Vinci, in his notebooks, moved from simply describing inventions to a more intense search for underlying principles, the laws of motion, in particular. In respect to what Newton would later categorized, in 1687, as the first law of motion, Da Vinci wrote: [5]

“Nothing whatever can be moved by itself, but its motion is effected through another. There is no other force.”

“All movement tends to maintenance, or rather that all moved bodies continue to move along as the impression of the force of their motors (original impulse) remains in them.”

In c.1600, Italian physicist Galileo Galilei outlined a proto-version of the first law of motion in the form of the principle of inertia, or Galileo's principle, refined—there are two states: being at rest and moving uniformly, which are to be treated as being the same. [1]

In 1644, Rene Descartes, in his Principles of Philosophy, proposed seven laws of motion, which, supposedly, were almost entirely wrong. [8]

In 1687, Newton codified the first law of motion as follows:

“Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed.”

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Second law of motion

See main: Second law of motion

The second law of motion, according to Newton (1687), states that:

“A change in motion is proportional to the motive force impressed and takes place along the straight line in which that force is impressed.”

In equation form, relation is defined by the following formula:

$F = ma \,$

which states that the force F acting on a body of mass m will tend to cause an acceleration a of motion. Force, in other words, generates motion, and these are quantities to be added and multiplied according to mathematics. [1]

Third law of motion

See main: Third law of motion

In circa 340BC, Greek philosopher Plato stated the following:

“The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.”

In 1494, Leonardo Da Vinci, in his notebooks (e.g. Codex Arundel, f. 44v), penned next to his designs (shown below), penned something about how he arrived at conclusion of the impossibility of perpetual motion, supposedly, foreshadowing Newton's third law in some way. [6] The following statement, by Da Vinci, according to Leonard Shlain, is said to express the idea or essential principle behind the third law: [5]

“See how the wings, striking the air, sustain the heavy eagle in the thin air on high. As much force is exerted by the object against the air as the air against the object.”

In 1687, Newton codified the third law of motion as follows:

“To any action there is always an opposite and equal reaction; in other words, the actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and always opposite in direction.”

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Human physics
In 1960, Lewis Richardson (1881-1953), an English physical chemist and mathematical psychologist, in the context of human physics (or possibly human mathematics), expanded upon his earlier method of differential equation based weather forecasting to develop an “action-reaction pairs” model of warfare scenarios between countries (see also: war thermodynamics), in some type of effort to forecast and or scientifically explain the causes of war and conditions of peace. [2]

Quotes
The following are related quotes:

“Descartes discovered coordinate geometry and the first two laws of motion, while Galileo discovered the acceleration due to gravity and the two moons of Jupiter.”
— Thomas Conlon (2011), Thinking About Nothing (pg. 319)

See also
● Dean Hamden
● Self-motion
● Universal gravitation law

References
1. Gleick, James. (2003). Isaac Newton (pgs. 129-30). Vintage Books.
2. (a) Attar, Riad A. (2009). Arms and Conflict in the Middle East (pg. 68). Emerald Group Publishing.
(b) Lewis Fry Richardson – Wikipedia.
3. Laws of motion – Physics4Kids.com.
4. Genz, Henning. (1994). Nothingness: the Science of Empty Space (pgs. 73, 108). Perseus Publishing.
5. Shlain, Leonard. (2009). Leonardo’s Brain: Understanding da Vinci’s Creative Genius (manuscripts, pg. 6; spurge, pg. 9; Machiavelli, pg. 27; desire to know, pg. 75; laws of motion, pgs. 111-14). Lyons Press, 2014.
6. (a) Perpetual motion machines – LeonardoDaVinciInventions.com.
(b) Blackadder, Warren. (2013). Produce Basic Engineering Detail Drawings (pg. 12). LuLu.
(c) Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks (overview) – British Library.
(d) Insights (Leonardo’s Notebooks) – British Library.
7. Newton, Isaac. (1687). The Principia: the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (translator: Andrew Motte; existography: N.W. Chittenden, pgs. 9-61; Preface, pgs. 65-67; laws of motion, pgs. 83-84). Putnam, 1850.
8. Inwood, Stephen. (2003). The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Strange and Inventive Life of Robert Hooke 1653-1703 (pg. 116). Pan MacMillan.

External links
● Newton’s laws of motion – Wikipedia.