From what we demonstrated above, it appears that an impetus is impressed into the struck body by the striking body and is transmitted instantaneously rather than over some time. This is verified in absolutely hard and inelastic bodies. Thus, at the instant when contact and percussion occur, some part of its motive virtue and impetus is poured out from the striking body as if it were from a spring and is transmitted through all the mass of the body sustaining the blow. As a result of this migration of motive virtue and impetus, the impetus of the striking body is diminished. This diminution cannot occur gradually and over some time but at the very instant when it is poured out and transmitted into the struck body. Actually, it never happens that all the motive force and impetus of the striking body are completely removed and transferred into the body sustaining the blow. If this is supposed to be immobile and movable, i.e. if it does neither resist nor oppose the arriving impetus, then of course the struck body certainly will receive the highest degree of velocity of all. However, this is only a part of the velocity and it will never equal the velocity of the striking body, as demonstrated. Therefore, it is impossible that, in the instantaneous diffusion of the impetus occurring in the act of percussion, the impetus of the striking object is completely consumed and deleted. It only undergoes a diminution.

If the blow is repeated several times so that the striking body knocks the order of many corpuscles immobile and movable, then of course more and more singular instantaneous decreases of the impetus continuously occur. But it cannot happen that the impetus of the striking body be completely consumed. Although reduced by the continuous diminution to a very small and weak velocity, the very last small degree of impetus is never consumed in its last blow. After migration of a portion of it, another residual portion always remains since, due to the nature of the quantities, although it can diminish infinitely it can never be consumed completely.