Mean speed theorem and Oresme graphs
Teorema de la velocidad media y representación gráfica de Oresme
- Date
- c. 1335 · confidence medium
- Place
- Oxford (Merton College) and Paris
- Credited to
- The Oxford Calculators (Heytesbury, Swineshead) and Nicole Oresme
- People
- 👤 Nicolás Oresme1323–1382
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
A uniformly accelerated body covers the same distance as one moving at a constant speed equal to the mean. Oresme proved it by plotting speed against time, anticipating coordinates, and also proved that the harmonic series diverges.
Oresme also worked with fractional exponents.
What it led to
- Galileo's kinematics
- analytic geometry
- infinite series
Built on
- Method of exhaustion and theory of proportionsc. 370 BCE
- Aristotelian physics