MIT 8.01 Lesson 2: The Natural State of Motion and Newton's First Law
Lesson Summary
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Newtonian Mechanics is named after Isaac Newton, whose Principia Naturalis (1684) represented the first scientifically correct description of motion and its causes. Newton's first major insight was that the natural state of an isolated body (one with no forces on it) is motion with constant velocity. This contradicted more intuitively appealing earlier theories of motion in which the natural state of motion was at rest. |
Newton's approach also represented the first example of theoretical physics - the idea that one should start from a few hypotheses consistent with experiment, expand on their consequences using mathematics, and compare the resulting predictions with reality using the most accurate experiments possible. His starting point, the three laws of motion (called Newton's Laws), were not abstract hypotheses: the first two were summaries of Galileo's experimental work on motion, and the third is a description of the nature of force that is necessary for internal consistency.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this Lesson, you should be able to:
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| Newton's Impact |
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| Newton's Impact |
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| Animistic versus Newtonian Worldview |
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| Animistic versus Newtonian Worldview |
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| Inertial Reference Frames and the First Law |
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| Inertial Reference Frames and the First Law |
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