‘Kinetic Energy’ (I): On the Physical Meaning of the Product mv2: The Experiments of G. Poleni and of J. W. ‘sGravesande

The results of renowned experimental works of Giovanni Poleni in 1718 and of Jakob W. ‘sGravesande in 1722 suggest that the ‘energy of motion’ or ‘kinetic energy’ of a material body which is moved in a vacuum in a reference frame by a gravitational process is proportional to the ’mass’ of the body and to the velocity of the body in the reference frame, and not to the mass and to the square of the velocity. Consequently, the amount of mechanical energy which is expended by gravitation in moving a body in a vacuum over a vertical distance z is not, as is currently believed, proportional to this distance, but it is proportional to the time-span of action of the process. The product between the mass of the body and the square of the velocity of the body is not proportional only to the amount of mechanical energy of motion of the body moved by the gravitational process, but it is proportional also to the power with which such an amount of ‘kinetic energy’ is consumed by collision with a plastic target at rest in the reference frame.