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Full Idea
A barrier to the formulation of an energy conservation principle by early Newtonians was their lack of a notion of potential energy.
Gist of Idea
Early Newtonians could not formulate conservation of energy, having no concept of potential energy
Source
report of Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica [1687]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness App 3 n5
Book Ref
Papineau,David: 'Thinking about Consciousness' [OUP 2004], p.239
A Reaction
Interestingly, the notions of potentiality and actuality were central to Aristotle, but Newtonians had just rejected all of that.
20969 | Early Newtonians could not formulate conservation of energy, having no concept of potential energy [Newton, by Papineau] |
20965 | Leibniz upheld conservations of momentum and energy [Leibniz, by Papineau] |
20973 | All forces conserve the sum of kinetic and potential energy [Helmholtz, by Papineau] |
20623 | First Law: energy can change form, but is conserved overall [Close] |
20975 | Quantum 'wave collapses' seem to violate conservation of energy [Papineau] |
21211 | If an expected reaction does not occur, that implies a conservation law [Martin,BR] |