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Innitesimals in the foundations of Newtons mechanics
Manuel A. Sells
Department of Logic, History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Philosophy, U.N.E.D., 28040 Madrid, Spain
Available online 15 June 2005
Abstract
This paper discusses two concepts of moment (innitesimal) used successively by Newton in his calculus
and relates these two concepts to the two concepts of force that Newton presented in Law II and Def. VIII of the
Principia, to which the approximations to the action of a centripetal force known as the polygonal and parabolic
models are considered to be related. It is shown that in the context of the application of the calculus to mechanics,
the transition in the use of these concepts of moment took place in 1684, between the writing of De Motu and its
rst revision.
2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Resumen
En este artculo se pretenden caracterizar dos concepciones de momento (un innitesimal) empleadas sucesi-
vamente por Newton en su clculo. Estas dos concepciones se intentan relacionar con los conceptos de fuerza que
Newton present en la Ley II y en la Def. VIII de los Principia, a los que se consideran vinculadas las aproxima-
ciones a la actuacin de la fuerza centrpeta conocidas como poligonal y parablica. Se muestra que en la aplicacin
del clculo a la mecnica la transicin en el empleo de estos conceptos de momento pudo tener lugar en 1684,
entre la redaccin del De Motu y su primera revisin.
2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Keplers second law; Force; Galileo; Newton; Calculus; Innitesimal
In their analysis of Newtons mathematical science, historians have identied a certain tension be-
tween the discrete and the continuous that Newton did not quite resolve. First, Newton declared that
he had renounced the innitesimal, although some specialists have found that he used innitesimals in