Нерешённые проблемы физики по мнению Ньютона

В 1704 году сэр Исаак Ньютон опубликовал трактат "Оптика". В третьей книге этого трактата были собраны нерешённые проблемы физики, которые великий учёный назвал "The Queries". В последнем издании "Оптики" этих проблем насчитывалось 31.

Какие же вопросы волновали великого учёного?

Первые 24 проблемы можно увидеть в статье на Википедии, остальные, начиная с 25-й, придётся смотреть здесь (начиная с 357 страницы по данным бегунка внизу или с 328 страницы по номерам на отсканированном оригинале) или здесь.

Уже первая формулировка даёт понять, что Ньютон задумывался о том, что мы привыкли связывать с теорией относительности, а не с классической механикой:

1. Do not Bodies act upon Light at a distance, and by their action bend its Rays; and is not this action (cateris paribus) strongest at the least distance?

Но Ньютон не имел в виду искривление пространства под действием гравитации, а лишь апеллировал к корпускулярной природе света. Об этом можно понять из его формулировок 28-й и 29-й проблем:

28. Are not all Hypotheses erroneous, in which Light is supposed to consist in Pression or Motion, propagated through a fluid Medium? For in all these Hypotheses the Phenomena of Light have been hitherto explain'd by supposing that they arise from new Modifications of the Rays; which is an erroneous Supposition.

If Light consisted only in Pression propagated without actual Motion, it would not be able to agitate and heat the Bodies which refract and reflect it. If it consisted in Motion propagated to all distances in an instant, it would require an infinite force every moment, in every shining Particle, to generate that Motion. And if it consisted in Pression or Motion, propagated either in an instant or in time, it would bend into the Shadow. For Pression or Motion cannot be propagated in a Fluid in right Lines beyond an Obstacle which stops part of the Motion, but will bend and spread every way into the quiescent Medium which lies beyond the Obstacle...

29. Are not the rays of light very small bodies emitted from shining substances?...

А ещё это подразумевается в 17-й проблеме:

17. ... And in like manner, when a Ray of Light falls upon the Surface of any pellucid Body, and is there refracted or reflected: may not Waves of Vibrations, or Tremors, be thereby excited in the refracting or reflecting Medium at the point of Incidence, and continue to arise there...

Великий физик так же размышлял об эквивалентности массы и энергии:

30. Are not gross bodies and light convertible into one another?...

31-я проблема в формулировке Ньютона начинается словами "Have not the small particles of bodies certain powers, virtues, or forces, by which they act at a distance, not only upon the rays of light for reflecting, refracting, and inflecting them, but also upon one another for producing a great part of the Phenomena of nature?" и занимает около 30 страниц текста!

В процессе изложения сути вопроса Ньютон касается многих явлений природы. Попутно он задумывается о том, что позднее получило название "Второго начала термодинамики" и о том, что позднее назвали "Тепловой смертью Вселенной":

"...Motion may be got or lost. But by reason of the Tenacity of Fluids, and Attrition of their Parts, and the Weakness of Elasticity in Solids, Motion is much more apt to be lost than got, and is always upon the Decay."

"Vortices of Oil or Water, or some fluider Matter, might continue longer in Motion; but unless the Matter were void of all Tenacity and Attrition of Parts, and Communication of Motion, (which is not to be supposed,) the Motion would constantly decay. Seeing therefore the variety of Motion which we find in the World is always decreasing, there is a necessity of conserving and recruiting it by active Principles, such as are the cause of Gravity, by which Planets and Comets keep their Motions in their Orbs, and Bodies acquire great Motion in falling; and the cause of Fermentation, by which the Heart and Blood of Animals are kept in perpetual Motion and Heat; the inward Parts of the Earth are constantly warm’d, and in some places grow very hot; Bodies burn and shine, Mountains take fire, the Caverns of the Earth are blown up, and the Sun continues violently hot and lucid, and warms all things by his Light. For we meet with very little Motion in the World, besides what is owing to these active Principles. And if it were not for these Principles, the Bodies of the Earth, Planets, Comets, Sun, and all things in them, would grow cold and freeze, and become inactive Masses; and all Putrefaction, Generation, Vegetation and Life would cease, and the Planets and Comets would not remain in their Orbs."

Невероятный кругозор и невероятная широта научных интересов для сына неграмотного фермера! Хотя сам Исаак Ньютон оценивал себя гораздо скромнее. Сохранилось такое его высказывание:

"I know not what I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell, whilest the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."