The general principles of dynamics are rules which demonstrate a relationship between the motions of bodies and the forces which produce those motions. Based in large part on the work of his predecessors, Sir Isaac Newton deduced three laws of dynamics which he published in 1687 in his famous Principia.

Prior to Newton, Aristotle had established that the natural state of a body was a state of rest, and that unless a force acted upon it to maintain motion, a moving body would come to rest. Galileo had succeeded in correctly describing the behavior of falling objects and in recording that no force was required to maintain a body in motion.

He noted that the effect of force was to change motion. Huygens recognized that a change in the direction of motion involved acceleration, just as did a change in speed, and further, that the action of a force was required. Kepler deduced the laws describing the motion of planets around the sun. It was primarily from Galileo and Kepler that Newton borrowed.