Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Kinematics
/ˌkɪnəˈmætɪks/noun
The description of motion in terms of position, velocity and acceleration, without reference to its causes.
The Greek roots
κίνημα
kínēma
movement, motion
Literally: “the study of movement”
Follow a root:κίνημα3 words
The story of the word
Ampère proposed cinématique in 1834 in his scheme for classifying the sciences, wanting a name for motion studied on its own terms with the forces left out. κίνημα is a movement, from κινεῖν, to move or set going. The same root came back into English by another door as cinema, clipped from cinématographe, so kinematics and the movies were named for the same thing sixty years apart.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 1840s
Same family
cinemakinetictelekinesiskinesiology
In a sentence
Sprint coaching now starts with the kinematics of the first three steps.
Robot arm kinematics is mostly a problem of angles and reach.