I discuss the physical basis of classical mechanics, such as expressed commonly using the framework of Newton’s Principia. Newton’s formulation of the laws of motion is seen to have quite a few ambiguities and shortcomings. Therefore, I offer an alternative set of laws, based in particular on ideas of his contemporaries Huygens and Leibniz with a crucial addition by Ludwig Lange, which avoids the problems with Newton’s formulation. It is shown that from these laws of motion, all the usual results of classical mechanics, as it concerns the motion of idealized point masses, can be rederived. The application of these principles to relativistic point particles is discussed. Abstract Published by the Jagiellonian University 2026 authors
J.W. van Holten (Wed,) studied this question.