Week 7.  Natural Forces Attraction vs. Repulsion

The "Queries" at the end of Newton's Opticks, exposed readers to the restless fertility of an inquisitive mind.  His provocative musings both stimulated and guided a new generation of investigators in their efforts to understand the nature of matter and light.

• If, as Newton suggested, matter is composed of small, massy, impenetrable particles, what gives materials their different physical characteristics?

• Can mechanical laws, which govern simple collisions, provide a useful model for describing and understanding gravity, electricity and magnestism, natural forces that seem to act without colliding or even touching?

• What is the physical nature of these forces?

• How can their effects be analysed, measured and quantified?

• Can Newton's mathematical treatment of gravity -- with which he defined the workings of the world on a universal scale -- be applied to invisible powers that act on the scale of the very small?

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