How to Submit
Browse
Events
Communities
About

HOW NEWTON'S LAW OF GRAVITY (THE LAW OF TWO-BODY GRAVITY) CAME TO BE CALLED THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION

03 March 2026, Version 1
Working Paper
This content is an early or alternative research output and has not been peer-reviewed by Cambridge University Press at the time of posting.

Abstract

This article attempts to dispel the biggest myth that has surrounded Newton's law of gravitation for over 300 years. It reveals the history of the term "law of universal gravitation" in physics and the consequences of its unjustified application to the law of two-body gravity. The role of Robert Hooke and his astonishing intuition, which paved the way for him to formulate the actual law of universal gravitation, is revealed in a new light.

Keywords

Robert Hooke
Isaac Newton
astronomy
Newton's law of gravitation

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting and Discussion Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.

Version History

Mar 03, 2026 Version 1

Metrics

20
2
0
Views
Downloads
Citations

License

CC logo
CC
BY logo
BY
The content is available under CC BY 4.0 [opens in a new tab]

DOI

10.33774/coe-2026-2wvfk
D O I: 10.33774/coe-2026-2wvfk [opens in a new tab]

Author’s competing interest statement

The author(s) have declared they have no conflict of interest with regard to this content

Ethics

The author(s) have declared ethics committee/IRB approval is not relevant to this content

Share