Kinetics is the science of motion. Joule was a pupil of Dalton and it is no surprise that he had learned a firm belief in the atomic theory, even though there were many scientists of his time who were still skeptical. He had also been one of the few people receptive to the work of John Herapath on the kinetic theory of gases. He was further greatly influenced by Peter Ewart's 1813 paper "On the measure of moving force."