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In Our Time

The Laws of Motion

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2008

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Newton’s Laws of Motion. In 1687 Isaac Newton attempted to explain the movements of everything in the universe, from a pea rolling on a plate to the position of the planets. It was a brilliant, vaultingly ambitious and fiendishly complex task; it took him three sentences. These are the three laws of motion with which Newton founded the discipline of classical mechanics and conjoined a series of concepts - inertia, acceleration, force, momentum and mass - by which we still describe the movement of things today. Newton’s laws have been refined over the years – most famously by Einstein - but they were still good enough, 282 years after they were published, to put Neil Armstrong on the Moon. With Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College; Raymond Flood, University Lecturer in Computing Studies and Mathematics and Senior Tutor at Kellogg College, University of Oxford; Rob Iliffe, Professor of Intellectual History and History of Science at the University of Sussex.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.7

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.5

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

0:18.0

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast.

0:39.0

For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for

0:45.6

I hope you enjoy the program. Hello in 1687 Isaac Newton attempted to explain

0:51.2

the movements of everything in the universe from a pea rolling on a plate to the position of Pluto.

0:56.0

It was a brilliant, vaultingly ambitious and fiendishly complex task.

1:00.0

It took him three sentences.

1:02.0

These are the three laws of motion which Newton founded,

1:06.0

on which Newton founded the discipline of classical mechanics and conjoined a series of concepts,

1:10.7

inertia, acceleration, force, momentum and mass, by which we still describe the movement of things today.

1:17.0

Newton's laws have been refined over the years, most famously about Einstein, but they were still good enough

1:21.5

280 years after they were published to put Neil Armstrong on the moon

1:25.1

With me to discuss Isaac Newton's extraordinary achievements

1:28.1

are Simon Schaffer professor in history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College.

1:34.3

Robert Eiliff, Professor of Intellectual History and History of Science at the University of Sussex,

1:39.1

and Raymond Flood University of Lecture in Computing, Studies and Mathematics and Senior Tutor of Kellogg College, University of computing studies and mathematics and senior tutor of Kellogg College

1:44.0

University of Oxford.

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