Answered: "Who discovered momentum?"

High School
Physics
Thermal Physics
Helmholtz Free Energy

trapskrumcu

Answered question

2022-09-22

Who discovered momentum?

Answer & Explanation

Denier5h

Beginner2022-09-23Added 5 answers

Although it builds on related earlier ideas, Jean Buridan's notion of impetus is very close to the modern notion of momentum. Here is what he had to say on the matter:
...after leaving the arm of the thrower, the projectile would be moved by an *impetus* given to it by the thrower and would continue to be moved as long as the impetus remained stronger than the resistance, and would be of infinite duration were it not diminished and corrupted by a contrary force resisting it or by something inclining it to a contrary motion
He was very close to defining

p = m v

. Quoting from wikipedia:
Buridan further held that the impetus of a body increased with the speed with which it was set in motion, and with its quantity of matter.
The answer to your question is a function of how fuzzy you make the notion of momentum. For some range of fuzziness, Buridan is your answer.

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