Abstract
YOUR correspondent, Mr. R. H. Smith (NATURE, vol. xix, p. 194), speaks of “the fine old crusty Newtonian maxim... ‘force is any CAUSE which,’ &c.” Now Newton's words are these: “Definitio IV.—Vis impressa est ACTIO IN CORPUS EXERCITA, ad mutandum ejus statum vel quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum”. It will be observed that Newton avoids the use of the obnoxious word CAUSE. I suppose that some translator, or commentator on Newton, adopted the word “cause” (in the sense, probably, not of an efficient cause in itself, but, by a common figure of speech, of the action of some cause), and that other writers transcribed the expression.
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H., J. Force and Energy. Nature 19, 315 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019315a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019315a0
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