Abstract
PROF. TAIT in his lecture on Force said that this word must be used in a certain definite sense and in this sense only. In order to claim Newton's authority for the one definite sense to which he would confine the word, he has to assume, not only that Newton translated force by vis impressa, but that he—an Englishman writing in Latin—used vis insita, vis motrix, &c., without any English equivalents. Until good evidence for these assumptions—improbable as they are on the face of them—is brought forward, Prof. Tait cannot claim the authority of Newton in his favour.
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MAIN, P. On the word “Force”. Nature 15, 96 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/015096c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/015096c0
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