Before publication of Newton's Principia (1687), dynamics was an empirical science; i.e., it consisted of propositions that described observed behavior without any explanation for the forces that caused motion. For example, Kepler's laws are kinematic relations that describe orbital motion. Kepler (1571–1630) discovered these relations by laboriously fitting various possibilities to the voluminous measurements of planetary motion that had been recorded by Tycho Brahe. Likewise Galileo stated propositions describing the motion of freely falling bodies. The propositions are based on relating transit times for different drop heights to clear ideas of distance, time and translational velocity. These savants, however, possessed only the vaguest notion of force.

While Galileo recognized that there must be some extended cause for acceleration or retardation, he did not realize that a uniform acceleration was a consequence of a steady force; he recognized that there was a cause for acceleration but was not able to relate cause and effect. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how there could be progress in this direction before the creation of calculus.

At the time of Galileo, the topics at the forefront of dynamics were percussion, projectile ballistics and celestial mechanics. Each of these topics had technological importance for warfare, industrial development or navigation. Percussion in particular was concerned with the terminal ballistics of musket balls as well as the effect of a forging hammer on a workpiece.