Abstract
The formulations of Newton's first law in Newton's Principia and in modern textbooks are examined critically. A special effort is made to differentiate clearly between definitions and nontrivial facts of nature, and this is done in as primitive terms as possible, with emphasis on the projective structure. A somewhat novel characterization of the term ‘free particle’ is proprosed, and a new, coordinate-independent definition of the term ‘straight line’ is provided. The analysis is performed in 4-dimensional spacetime, and separately for the idealized case of the absence of gravity and for the dynamics in the presence of gravity.
Full Text 
Sign-in/Register to access full text options
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Paper version not known
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
