Look at my diagram above. See the concentric circles? we have INFO, Consensus and Best Consensus.
How do we get there? Through a process of iteration, the previous consensus is improved by the new one.
What is the best consensus of inertia right before Newton's Second Law?
Before Newton, the accepted law was Aristotle's Impetus Theory. Let's start with this.
INFO
1. Aristotle (Fourth Century BC): distinguished between "natural motion" (such as objects falling due to gravity) and "violent motion" (caused by external forces). Natural motion was thought to be due to the tendency of objects to reach their natural place (e.g., heavy objects falling down).
What's the problem? The impetus theory lacked a clear concept of Inertia:
Objects were thought to naturally come to rest without a sustained force.
Jean Buridan: Professor at the University of Paris Aristotle's theory was improved during the Middle Ages). What is Impetus? The impetus theory, developed by medieval scholars like Jean Buridan, attempted to explain projectile motion and address the deficiencies in Aristotelian physics. It posited that an object in motion had an internal "impetus" imparted by the force that set it in motion, which would gradually dissipate, causing the object to slow down and stop.
CONSENSUS
Buridan's formula: impetus = weight x velocity
Problem: By discounting the possibility of any resistance either due to a contrary inclination to move in any opposite direction or due to any external resistance, he concluded their impetus was therefore not corrupted by any resistance. So, the problem is that impetus theory lacked the mathematical rigor to describe motion quantitatively.
ITERATION: So by the year 1614, Kepler introduces the concept of inertia in this book.
BEST CONSENSUS: Now, by 1687, we finally get to Newton's Second Law!
As you can see, consensus doesn't mean truth. Many instances of consensus have led nowhere. Some forms of consensus, like the one above, lead to a happy ending.
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