How Scientists Learned to Distinguish Energy from Force Brief Historic Review

How Scientists Learned to Distinguish Energy from Force (Brief Historic Review) 

These discussions were connected with the question What is the measure of force In the seventeenth century two scientists proposed two different answers. Let force F be applied to the body having mass m during time interval t. At the end of this interval the velocity of a body will be K It was shown experimentally that the force is proportional to the mass, as well as to the acquired velocity. Thus, the force 2F applied to the mass m during time t leads to the velocity 2V, The measure of force associated with the 

The true measure of yorce (or living force, using the Leibnitz terminology— Vis vitd in Latin) is consequently mV. Indeed, m (2V) = 4m V. The contemporary expression mV /2 was introduced by the French scientist Kariolis. 

The creator of mechanics, the great scientist Isaac Newton, was totally on the side of Descartes. He suggested the well-known definition of force 

Due to the immense authority of Newton, the Leibnitz idea and the very notion of work performed by force were practically forgotten until the middle of the eighteenth century, when the Swiss scientist Bernoulli began to use the term Vis vita again. He understood that in many cases Vis vita apparently disappears, but the ability to perform work is preserved and only transfers into a different form, e.g., into the compression of a spring. Euler took one more step forward. He stated that the Vis vita of a material body is a one-valued function of its state. The change of Vis vita during motion measures the work performed. 

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