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2 ideas
20964 | Descartes said there was conservation of 'quantity of motion' [Descartes, by Papineau] |
Full Idea: Descartes incorporated the conservation of what he called 'quantity of motion', by which he meant mass times speed. | |
From: report of René Descartes (The World [1631]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness App 2 | |
A reaction: Mass times velocity is now called 'momentum'. Is this the first ever conservation law? There are now lots of them. |
5989 | Archelaus said life began in a primeval slime [Archelaus, by Schofield] |
Full Idea: Archelaus wrote that life on Earth began in a primeval slime. | |
From: report of Archelaus (fragments/reports [c.450 BCE]) by Malcolm Schofield - Archelaus | |
A reaction: This sounds like a fairly clearcut assertion of the production of life by evolution. Darwin's contribution was to propose the mechanism for achieving it. We should honour the name of Archelaus for this idea. |