Abstract
I explain that a target of Newton's example is the inadequacy of Descartes’s definition of motion. But I also a raise a serious problem for the current reading which comes from the attribution of “absolute and true circular motion” to the water revolving inside the bucket. The solution resides in an examination of Newton’s meticulous experimental setup as a self-contained, realistic description of how the quantity of true motion of a body of water changes I argue that the example should be read as real experiment and that it exemplifies a double methodological aspect.
