Newton's laws of motion Newton in his "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687. Newton used them to explain and investigate the motion of many physical objects and systems. For example, in the third volume of the text, Newton showed that these laws of motion, combined with his law of universal gravitation, explained Kepler's laws of planetary motion. A fourth law is often also described in the bibliography, which states that forces add up like vectors, that is, that forces obey the principle of superposition. Newton's laws are applied to objects which are idealised as single point masses,
Projectile motion Projectile motion Projectile motion is a form of motion experienced by an object or particle (a projectile) that is thrown near the Earth's surface and moves along a curved path under the action of gravity only (in particular, the effects of air resistance are assumed to be negligible). This curved path was shown by Galileo to be a parabola. The study of such motions is called ballistics, and such a trajectory is a "ballistic trajectory". The only force of significance that acts on the object is gravity, which acts downward, thus imparting to the object a downward acceleration. Because of