# Tag Info

Accepted

### What was the vis viva controversy, including its philosophical aspects?

The controversy was ostensibly over what gets to be the "true quantity of motion", momentum or vis viva (kinetic energy), with Newton and Leibniz on the opposing sides. While there was some ...
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### Why did Galileo express himself in terms of ratios when describing laws of accelerated motion?

Galileo followed a venerable tradition of distinguishing numbers, magnitudes of different kinds (lengths, times, areas, etc.) and ratios. This is somewhat analogous to the strictures of modern ...
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### Why do I , J and K in mechanics represent X , Y and Z in maths?

This usage of $\mathbf i$, $\mathbf j$, and $\mathbf k$ is not specific to physics. It is also used in mathematics, specifically when teaching linear algebra or multivariable calculus in $\mathbf R^3$ ...
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### Why don't we learn Buridan's laws of motion?

The next to last sentence has all the reasons in a nutshell:"Buridan used the theory of impetus to give an accurate qualitative account of the motion of projectiles but he ultimately saw his theory as ...
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• 7,529
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### Who studied kinematics before Galileo? Did Galileo base his kinematic research on the previous work of any other scientist?

Kinematics was distinguished from dynamics by the Merton school (a.k.a. Oxford calculators) of scholastics in 14th century, who worked out kinematics of uniformly accelerated motion. In particular, ...
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### On the development of Newtonian Mechanics

According to Truesdell [1954]: (p. xliii:) As far as I can ascertain, it is Euler [1750, p. 196] which contains the first general statement of “Newton’s equations”. (p. xlii:) The axioms which ...
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