Violent motion is the movement experienced by an object going the way it doesn't naturally want to go. In other words we have to apply a force to it to make it move, otherwise it just goes where it naturally wants to go. That is it slows down and stops - at the Earth.

If you imagine pushing a box across the floor, this seems to be common sense. The box isn't going to move unless you push it - is it?

But when you throw something into the air this idea falls down (as well as the object you are throwing!)

So Aristotle had to come up with another idea to explain the action of falling objects.

He reckoned all the air ahead of the ball got pushed out of the way and jumped in again behind the ball to push it along.

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