They are almost all posed in the negative, as rhetorical questions. These Queries are not really questions in the ordinary sense. These Queries, especially the later ones, deal with a wide range of physical phenomena, far transcending any narrow interpretation of the subject matter of 'optics.' They concern the nature and transmission of heat the possible cause of gravity electrical phenomena the nature of chemical action the way in which God created matter in 'the Beginning ' the proper way to do science and even the ethical conduct of human beings. In the fourth edition of 1730, there were 31 Queries, and it was the famous '31st Query' that, over the next two hundred years, stimulated a great deal of speculation and development on theories of chemical affinity. The first set of Queries were brief, but the later ones became short essays, filling many pages. Opticks concludes with a set of 'Queries.' In the first edition, these were sixteen such Queries that number was increased in the Latin edition, published in 1706, and then in the revised English edition, published in 1717/18. Query 31, in particular, launched affinity chemistry and the dozens of affinity tables that were made in the 18th century, based on Newton's description of affinity gradients. The Queries (or simply Queries) is the third book to English physicist Isaac Newton's Opticks, with various numbers of Query sections or 'question' sections (up to 31, depending on edition), expanded on from 1704 to 1718, that contains Newton's final thoughts on the future puzzles of science.

Title page to the 1730 edition of The Queries.

Opticks by isaac newton