![]() ![]() As also argued by Fraser (2005), some of the relevant arguments relate to the equal actions on bodies at both ends of a compressed spring.Īll of these sources may give insight into Newton's thinking, but there remain always dangers of anachronism and misinterpretation in reading such documents and on some points, the language of the sources can permit different authors to draw different conclusions about their content and implications. Much of the ingredient thinking on dynamics that went into the 'Waste Book' appears to have related to the problem of formulating laws that would account acceptably for the phenomena of bodies in collision. when two bodies press against each other, it was not so obvious at first that the action and reaction were also equal in size. The 'Waste Book' casts some light on the origins and justification of the third law, as discussed in the Fraser paper cited above (p.50): this mentions that while Newton's words suggest he thought it was obvious that action and reaction were opposite in direction, e.g. The 'Waste Book' seems to be the only Newton manuscript source offering advance hints of the third law before the 1684 manuscript 'De motu' (an initial precursor of 'Principia', written on the stimulus of questions put to Newton by Edmund Halley, and sent to Halley and to the Royal Society). There is also some related material in another notebook of the period ( 'Questiones quaedam philosophicae', 'Certain philosophical questions'). It is a notebook started in 1665, and it is discussed by a number of authors, including D Fraser (2005), "The third law in Newton's Waste book" ( Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 36(1):43-60). Much early thinking about what became the laws of motion in the Principia, including the third law, can be found in Newton's "Waste Book". This text is adapted from Openstax, University Physics Volume 1, Section 5.5: Newton's Third Law.
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