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Roger Cotes
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==The ''Principia''== From 1709 to 1713, Cotes became heavily involved with the second edition of Newton's ''Principia'', a book that explained Newton's theory of [[universal gravitation]]. The first edition of ''Principia'' had only a few copies printed and was in need of revision to include Newton's works and principles of lunar and planetary theory.<ref name="ODNB"/> Newton at first had a casual approach to the revision, since he had all but given up scientific work.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} However, through the vigorous passion displayed by Cotes, Newton's scientific hunger was once again reignited.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} The two spent nearly three and half years collaborating on the work, in which they fully deduce, from [[Newton's laws of motion]], the theory of the [[moon]], the [[equinox]]es, and the [[orbit]]s of [[comet]]s. Only 750 copies of the second edition were printed<ref name="ODNB"/> although pirated copies from [[Amsterdam]] were also distributed to meet the demand for the work.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} As a reward to Cotes, he was given a share of the profits and 12 copies of his own.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} Cotes's original contribution to the work was a preface which supported the scientific superiority of Newton's principles over the then popular [[Mechanical explanations of gravitation|vortex theory of gravity]] advocated by [[RenΓ© Descartes]]. Cotes concluded that the Newton's law of gravitation was confirmed by observation of celestial phenomena that were inconsistent with the vortex theory.<ref name="ODNB"/>
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