The Mind of Newton

The idea is common, though false, that the star of Newton has set now that the star of Einstein is in the ascendant. Yet to-day no one pays greater homage to Newton than Einstein himself, nor is there probably any other living man who more fully grasps what may be termed the Mind of Newton. In his Principia Newton for the first time laid down those great principles of moving bodies which have ever since been used by man in all his inventions and discoveries. His system of dynamics still pervades all branches of mechanical science, whether in astronomy, engineering, or atomic physics. His system worked, and still holds for the motions of a planet round the sun, provided an attractive force exists between the one mass and the other, equal to their product and lessening as the square of their distance apart.