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Newton’s Major Works

YearBookSubjectContribution
1687Philosophia naturalis
principia mathematica
Terrestial physics;
celestial mechanics.
Revised edition, Cambridge, 1713; reprints, Amsterdam, 1714, 1723; London, 1726. Synthesis of terrestrial physics (three laws of motion) and celestial physics (universal gravitation).
1704OpticsPhenomena of colors
(reflection, refraction, etc.)
the nature of light;
experimentation.
First edition, English; Enlarged editions, 1706 (Latin), and 1717 and 1718 (English). Laws of reflection, refraction; experimental method; experimental physics.
1711De analysiPure mathematics;
calculus.
Foundational work on calculus.
1717 &
1718
Enumerato linearum
tertii ordinis [1667] and Tractavus de uadratura curvarum
Pure mathematics;
calculus.
Specific illustrations of his fluxions and fluents later generalized in the Methodus fluxionum.
1736
[1671]
Methodus fluxionum et
serierum infinitarum
Pure mathematics, fluxions.
Calculus in more general
terms.
Shows Newton's methods for fluxional calculus in more general terms that De analysi (1711), e.g., the method of quadrature and the inverse method of tangents.