First Law Of Motion Isaac Newton formulated his First Law of Motion in the eighteenth century. It stated that "every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it." Needham's researches have now established "that this law was stated in China in the fourth or third century BC. We read in the Mo Ching: "The cessation of motion is due to the opposing force ... If there is no opposing force ... the motion will never stop. This is as true as that an ox is not a horse." The book Mo Ching is the collection of writings of a school of philosophers called Mohists, after their founder and sage Mo Ti (more commonly known as Mo Tzu, which means "Master Mo"). The Mohists disappeared completely from Chinese history after only a moderate time, and most of their writings remained unread and almost forgotten until recently. Their brilliant scientific insights were also largely lost, and made very little lasting impact on later Chinese history. The Mohists were also the only ancient Chinese to consider the subject of dynamics in the theoretical sense, though practical dynamics was continuously applied in the great strides made by Chinese technology and invention. Sadly, although Newton's First Law of Motion was anticipated two thousand years earlier by the Mohists, nothing seems to have come of it. It was only in 1962 that Needham, in the first proper study of Mohist scientific doctrines, published the fact that this great step had ever been taken - but it was a step in soft sand, quickly washed away by the advancing tide of history. |