What are Newton's three fundamental laws called?

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What are Newton's three fundamental laws called? They are Newton's laws of motion.

Isaac Newton presented these three principles in his 1687 work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, usually called the Principia. Together, they form the foundation of Newtonian mechanics by describing how forces affect the motion of objects.

The first law is the law of inertia: an object remains at rest or moves in a straight line at constant speed unless acted on by a net external force. The second law connects force, mass, and acceleration, commonly written as F = ma. The third law states that interacting bodies exert equal and opposite forces on each other.

A common mix-up is confusing these with Newton's law of universal gravitation. Gravity is one important force studied using the laws of motion, but it is not one of the three laws themselves. The laws work especially well for ordinary speeds and sizes, while relativity and quantum mechanics are needed in extreme conditions.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026

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