Mistranslation of Newton's First Law Discovered after Nearly 300 Years

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September 07, 2023

This week, we're revisiting a classic—classical "Newtonian" physics, that is. Our lead story delves into the curious possibility that scientists and historians have for centuries subtly misinterpreted Isaac Newton's first law of motion, all due to a minor mistranslation of a single phrase in Newton's 17th-century magnum opus, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Elsewhere, we have stories on a naked-eye comet losing its tail, the surprising physics behind winning the 'bottle flip' challenge, a breakthrough detection of superheavy oxygen, and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics

Astronomy Mistranslation of Newton's First Law Discovered after Nearly 300 Years A new interpretation of Isaac Newton's writings clarifies what the father of classical mechanics meant in his first law of motion By Stephanie Pappas

Planetary Science Watch a Comet's Tail Get Mangled by the Sun Discovered only last month, Comet Nishimura is drawing attention before close approaches to the sun and Earth in the coming weeks By Meghan Bartels

Quantum Physics Scientists Find a New Spin on Winning the 'Bottle Flip' Challenge Do try this at home By Elise Cutts

Astronomy What Color Is the Sun? Yellow, white or maybe even green—the sun's hue depends on how you see it By Phil Plait

Basic Chemistry Rare Superheavy Oxygen Isotope Is Detected at Last The long-awaited discovery of oxygen 28 might prompt physicists to revamp theories of how atomic nuclei are structured By Katherine Bourzac,Nature magazine

Defense They Remembered the Lost Women of the Manhattan Project So That None of Us Would Forget Physicists Ruth Howes and Caroline Herzenberg's 10-year research project ensured a place in history for the female scientists, engineers and technicians who worked on the atomic bomb By Katie Hafner,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Particle Physics She Cracked the Mystery of How to Split the Atom, but Someone Else Got the Nobel Prize for the Discovery Lise Meitner, an Austrian-born Jewish physicist, never received the Nobel Prize she deserved for her pioneering work on nuclear fission By Katie Hafner,Ashraya Gupta,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Computing Physicists Explain How Heat Kills Machines and Electronics Extreme heat can slow and even damage electronics ranging from computers to cars By Srinivas Garimella,Matthew T. Hughes,The Conversation US

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Sometimes the sun just blows out some very energetic stuff, and that tears a portion of the comet's tail away and gives people an impression that the comet tail disconnects. But the comet is totally fine. When it enters a calmer environment, you will see the tail regrow." Quanzhi Ye, a planetary astronomer at the University of Maryland and Boston University, on the sun-mangled tail of Comet Nishimura

FROM THE ARCHIVE The Three-Body Problem Although mathematicians know they can never fully "solve" this centuries-old quandary, tackling smaller pieces of it has yielded some intriguing discoveries By Richard Montgomery | August 2019

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