NEWTON'S PRINCIPIA FOR THE MODERN STUDENT

At some point in their careers, most physicists make an attempt to read and understand Newton's Principia. Unfortunately, it is an extremely difficult book — it quickly becomes clear that one does not simply 'read' the Principia. Even for a professional physicist, Newton's prose (written in Latin and translated to English) is difficult to follow. His diagrams and figures are complicated and confusing. To understand fully what Newton had done, the problems he posed would have to be solved by...