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What 1687 book by Isaac Newton is the foundational text of modern physics?
Newton's *Principia* (1687) presented his three laws of motion and universal gravitation in mathematical form, deriving Kepler's planetary laws and explaining the tides as consequences. It was the synthesis that completed the Scientific Revolution begun by Copernicus and Galileo. *Opticks* came in 1704 (Newton); the *Dialogue* was Galileo (1632); *De Revolutionibus* was Copernicus (1543).
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The Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was the period of intellectual change in Europe between approximately 1543 and 1687 during which modern science emerged from medieval natural philosophy. It produced heliocentric astronomy, classical mechanics, and the methodological commitment to mathematical and experimental method.
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