[swhalen]

Do they genuinely expect someone in their third year of undergraduate study to read and even partially understand Newton's Principia Mathematica? It is famously unintelligible to modern readers, even those with knowledge of physics.

[mistercheph]

As can be detected by the disdain that other commenters have shown towards even the suggestion that someone might read the Principia Mathematica as opposed to a more modern treatment of the same subject, it is a lack of interest more than a lack of capacity that makes it unintelligible for modern readers. It is utterly comprehensible to any reader who has time, paper and pencil, and a copy of Euclid.