History of energy

The word energy derives from Greek ἐνέργεια (energeia), which appears for the first time in the 4th century BCE works of Aristotle (OUP V, 240, 1991) (including Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics and De Anima). Émilie marquise du Châtelet in her book Institutions de Physique ("Lessons in Physics"), published in 1740, incorporated the idea of Leibniz with practical observations of Gravesande to show that the "quantity of motion" of a moving object is proportional to its mass and its velocity squared (not the velocity itself as Newton taught—what was later called momentum).

History of energy

The word energy derives from Greek ἐνέργεια (energeia), which appears for the first time in the 4th century BCE works of Aristotle (OUP V, 240, 1991) (including Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics and De Anima). Émilie marquise du Châtelet in her book Institutions de Physique ("Lessons in Physics"), published in 1740, incorporated the idea of Leibniz with practical observations of Gravesande to show that the "quantity of motion" of a moving object is proportional to its mass and its velocity squared (not the velocity itself as Newton taught—what was later called momentum).