It is widely accepted that the notion of an inertial frame is central to Newtonian mechanics and that the correct space-time structure underlying Newton’s methods in Principia is neo-Newtonian or Galilean space-time. I argue to the contrary that inertial frames are not needed in Newton’s theory of motion, and that the right space-time structure for Newton’s Principia requires the notion of parallelism of spatial directions at different times and nothing more.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Simon Saunders (2013) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: