The Inverse Cube Force Law
Classical Physics
2026-04-29 v1 History and Overview
Abstract
Newton's Principia is famous for its investigations of the inverse square force law for gravity. But in this book Newton also did something that remained little-known until fairly recently. He figured out what kind of central force exerted upon a particle can rescale its angular velocity by a constant factor without affecting its radial motion. This turns out to be a force obeying an inverse cube law! Here we discuss this and some other interesting features of the inverse cube force law.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.24799,
title = {The Inverse Cube Force Law},
author = {John C. Baez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.24799},
year = {2026}
}
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2 pages