Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'The Limits of Abstraction' and 'The World'

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2 ideas

27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / b. Laws of motion
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.
27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / d. Time as measure
20820 Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus]
     Full Idea: Posidonius defined time thus: it is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed and slowness.
     From: report of Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.08.42
     A reaction: Hm. Can we define motion or speed without alluding to time? Looks like we have to define them as a conjoined pair, which means we cannot fully understand either of them.