vis viva

English

Etymology

From Latin, meaning "live force", coined by Gottfried W. Leibniz in order to denote a quantity discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

Noun

vis viva (uncountable)

(physics, obsolete) The product of an object's mass and the square of its speed.

Usage notes

It is exactly twice what is now called kinetic energy.

Antonyms

vis mortua

Derived terms

vis viva equation

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