Mechanics

Every motion requires a cause; bodies move toward their natural places, and the speed of motion is proportional to the force applied and inversely proportional to the resistance of the medium.

The lever and the floating body obey exact mathematical laws; mechanics is a deductive science, not a branch of speculative philosophy.

Falling bodies accelerate uniformly regardless of weight; the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics.

All physical phenomena reduce to matter in motion; the universe is a plenum of vortices, and God conserves the total quantity of motion.

Light propagates as a wave through an ethereal medium; the laws of reflection and refraction follow from the geometry of wave fronts.

Three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation account for all mechanical phenomena, from falling apples to planetary orbits.

The conduction of heat follows precise mathematical laws; physical phenomena can be analyzed by decomposing them into simple periodic components.

Electric and magnetic forces act through continuous fields pervading space, not through action at a distance between isolated particles.

The laws of mechanics are possible because the mind imposes the categories of substance, causality, and reciprocity on all experience; Newtonian physics presupposes transcendental conditions.