Newton Finishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)

Date: 1686 A.D.
Author: Isaac Newton, British Mathematician and Physicist

Dear Journal,
     I am about to publish my greatest work ever. Principia will demolish Aristotle's teachings and once and forever remove humans from the center of the universe and put him in a very insignificant off-center place in the infinite universe. However, it will also bring him from a world of superstition to the great clockmaker's world, where he might dream what Kepler dreamt in Somnium, which is to go to other worlds. Principia will have two sets of laws: the laws of motion and the law of gravity. The latter one will be the crushing force against the belief that the Earth is at the centered of the universe.

     I acknowledge that I have stood on the shoulders of giants. Copernicus's heliocentricism, Brahe's astronomical data, Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and Galileo's laws of mechanics have contributed immensely to my work. Galileo himself came very close to formulating the law of inertia and acceleration, but his belief in circular instead of elliptical orbits hindered that discovery, I am also extremely grateful to my very good friend Edmund Halley, the great astronomer and mathematician who inspired Principia.