How was the formula for kinetic energy found, and who found it?

Question

My questions mostly concern the history of physics. Who found the formula for kinetic energy $E_k =\\frac{1}{2}mv^{2}$ and how was this formula actually discovered? I've recently watched Leonard Susskind's lecture where he proves that if you define kinetic and potential energy in this way, then you can show that the total energy is conserved. But that makes me wonder how anyone came to define kinetic energy in that way. My guess is that someone thought along the following lines: > Energy is conserved, in the sense that when you lift something up > you've done work, but when you let it go back down you're basically > back where you started. So it seems that my work and the work of > gravity just traded off. >But how do I make the concept mathematically rigorous? I suppose I need functions $U$ and $V$, so that the total energy is their sum $E=U+V$, and the time derivative is always zero, $\\frac{dE}{dt}=0$. But where do I go from here? How do I leap to either - a) $U=\\frac{1}{2}mv^{2}$ - b) $F=-\\frac{dV}{dt}$? It seems to me that if you could get to either (a) or (b), then the rest is just algebra, but I do not see how to get to either of these without being told by a physics professor.

Answer 1

The derivation of kinetic energy stems from the general kinetic energy concept. Kinetic energy is the energy required to accelerate a body from rest with initial velocity V_o to its current velocity V

The kinetic energy required is the change of energy from rest to its current, call that ΔK.

Now energy is equal to work W , then ΔK = W

The work of an object is the force times distance, W = F.d , from newtons second law F = m.a, where m is the mass and a is the acceleration, then ΔK = W = m.a.d ...eq1

recall from kinematics the equation of the change in velocity V² = V_o² + 2.a.d

solving for a.d = (V² - V_o² / 2) substituting a.d in eq1 above

ΔK = m ( V² - V_o² / 2) = 1/2 m V² - 1/2 m V_o² , when starting from rest V_o = 0, then

KE = 1/2 m V²

Hope that helps