Readership: All scientists and historians of science, particularly mathematicians, physicists, and astronomists , professional and historical.
The late S. Chandrasekhar, Emeritus Professor, Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research, The Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago
"To grasp the truly awesome nature of Newton's achievement in the Principia, it is necessary to turn to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's Newton's Principia for the Common Reader... THis is a valuable guide to the Principia - certainly beyond the level of the "common reader" - that will take its place in the succession of major commentaries on the Principia of the past three centuries." - Physics Today November 1996
Prologue 1: The beginnings and the writing of the Principia 2: Basic concepts: definition and axioms 3: On the notion of limits and the ratios of evanescent quantities 4: On the motion of particles under centripetal attraction: an introduction to Newton's treatment 5: The law of areas and some relations which follow 6: The motion of bodies along conic sections 7: Kepler's equation and its solution 8: The rectilinear ascent and descent of bodies 9: The conservation of energy and the initial value problem 10: On revolving orbits 11: A pause 12: The two-body problem 13: The method of the variations of the elements of a Kepler orbit and Newton's lunar theory: an introduction to propositions LXV-LXIX 14: The three body problem: the foundations of Newton's lunar theory 15: The superb theorems 16: Attraction by non-spherical bodies 17: A digression into Opticks 18: Prolegomenon 19: The universal law of gravitation 20: The figure of the earth and of the planets 21: On the theory of tides 22: The lunar theory 23: The precession of the equinoxes 24: On the comets 25: The effect of air-drag on the descent of bodies 26: The solid of least resistance 27: The problem of the brachistochrone 28: The velocity of sound and long waves in canals
