Mass, Speed, Direction: John Buridan's 14th century concept of momentum

Abstract

In the 14th century the French thinker John Buridan developed a theory of motion that bears a strong resemblance to Newtonian momentum. Buridan's ideas include a quantity of motion which is determined by an object's mass, speed, and direction; in the absence of resistive effects, this quantity remains with the object. Buridan's work is an interesting story in the history of physics. Buridan's insights have value for introducing concepts of inertia and momentum to physics students.