Which scientist proposed the three laws of motion in his 1687 work Principia?

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Isaac Newton proposed the three laws of motion in his 1687 work Principia.

Newton presented the laws in Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, usually called the Principia. The first law describes inertia, the second connects force, mass, and acceleration, and the third states that interacting bodies exert equal and opposite forces on one another. Together, the laws became foundations of classical mechanics.

The Principia also presented Newton’s law of universal gravitation, linking falling objects on Earth with the motion of the Moon and planets. Newton built on earlier work by Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and René Descartes rather than developing mechanics in isolation.

Newton’s laws remain highly accurate for ordinary speeds and everyday scales. They require modification in circumstances involving speeds close to light, very strong gravity, or atomic and subatomic systems, where relativity and quantum mechanics are more appropriate.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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