Philosophy professor Daniel Hook from the Polytechnic University of Virginia stated in his scientific paper that there was an error in the English translation of Newton’s first law. Newton, an English physicist and mathematician, formulated the first law as follows: “A body remains in its state of rest or uniform straight-line motion as long as no forces act upon it.”
According to general opinion, this law refers to bodies that are not acted upon by forces. However, Hook believes that the law “also limits how much any body can change its motion, even if it is subject to external forces.”
He explained this misunderstanding as a mistake in the first English translation of Newton’s work “Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis,” published a few years after his death.
Hook suggests rephrasing the first law as follows: “A change in the state of motion of a body occurs due to the acting forces” or “Bodies accelerate only under the action of a force.”
“Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis” was published in 1687, and during Newton’s lifetime, two corrected editions were released in 1713 and 1726.
Newton’s laws pertain to classical mechanics, which is widely used today and is considered axiomatic.
