Theory of impetus

A medieval theory that a mover imparts an internal impetus to a projectile, sustaining its motion after contact ends. It offered an alternative to the claim that surrounding air keeps projectiles moving.

Impetus: An impressed motive force that medieval natural philosophers proposed could keep a moving body in motion after contact ended. This is the internal force the theory assigns to the projectile.
John Philoponus: A sixth-century philosopher who criticized aspects of Aristotle's physics and proposed an impressed force to explain projectile motion. His account is an early ancestor of medieval impetus theories.
Motion in Aristotelian physics: Aristotle's broad account of change, including locomotion, alteration, growth, and coming-to-be. Impetus theory addressed a specific puzzle within this wider account of motion.
Aristotelian theory of projectile motion: Aristotle's explanation that the surrounding medium, such as air, continues to move a projectile after its launch. This is the principal account impetus theory was devised to challenge.
Projectile motion: The curved motion of an object launched through the air under the influence of gravity and its initial velocity. Impetus theory sought to explain why a launched body keeps moving after release.
Avicenna: An influential Persian philosopher and physician whose natural philosophy included an account of impressed force in motion. His treatment helped transmit alternatives to Aristotle's projectile explanation.
Violent motion: Motion imposed on a body contrary to its natural tendency in Aristotelian physics. The theory aimed chiefly to explain this kind of motion after the mover withdrew.
Inertia: The property by which a body resists changes to its state of rest or uniform straight-line motion. Unlike impetus, inertia does not require motion to be sustained by an imparted internal force.
Aristotelian physics: A natural philosophy in which motion, change, and the elements are explained through Aristotle's principles and categories. Impetus emerged within debates over Aristotle's account of violent motion.
Jean Buridan: A fourteenth-century French philosopher who developed impetus theory in commentaries on Aristotle. His formulation became the most influential medieval version of the theory.

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