Science · 1687
Newton's Principia
London (published under the Royal Society's imprimatur)
Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), approved by the Royal Society in July 1686 and published in 1687, set out his laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. With one set of mathematical principles Newton explained Kepler's laws of planetary motion, the paths of comets, the tides and irregularities in the Moon's motion.
Why it mattered
The Principia became the mathematical foundation of classical mechanics and is generally considered one of the most important works in the history of science; the Enlightenment is sometimes dated from its publication.
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