Galileo's Balls: Did He Really Drop Them?
()
About this ebook
According to Aristotle, the speed with which an objects falls is proportional to its weight, i.e., he said heavy objects fall faster than light ones. The Italian Renaissance philosopher Galileo Galilei is widely believed to have tested this claim when he was a professor in Pisa by dropping different weight balls from its Leaning Tower. However, many historians doubt this because there is no supporting historical evidence. These skeptics further object that though Galileo reported the results of such an experiment, he did not say how he knew this. And since the two outcomes Galileo reported are both physically impossible, these historians conclude Galileo's account could only be a speculation. The present paper reports a demonstration of a dropping test done in the way which someone in Galileo's time likely would have conducted such an experiment. Both questionable results were observed. They are not physically impossible because they are not physics phenomena. One is neurological and the other a perceptual illusion. Thus it appears likely that Galileo either actually did a similar test or knew of the results which others found from such an experiment.
Read more from Donald R. Miklich
1001 Sex Positions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsObjective Reality Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Fallacy of Scientific Truth: Why Science Succeeds Despite Ultimate Ignorance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deliberately Dumb: Understanding America's Education Failure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Galileo's Balls
Related ebooks
The Mystery of Ancient eclipses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEsoteric Astrology: Builders Of The Adytum Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cambridge Modern History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAquinas, Science, and Human Uniqueness: An Integrated Approach to the Question of What Makes Us Human Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReading the Book of Nature: How Eight Best Sellers Reconnected Christianity and the Sciences on the Eve of the Victorian Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings42 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIntroducing Science and Religion: A path through polemic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTemple Mountain: The Original Myth, the Final Frontier, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFantasmagoriana - The Tales of the Dead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Quantum God: (Why Our Grandchildren Won’T Know Atheism) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhere did That Number Come From?: Chronological Histories and Derivations of Numbers Important in Science Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMysticism and Logic and Other Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFundamentals of the Creation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Religion of Science (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of David Hume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKeep Watching the Skies!: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Babylonian-Assyrian Birth-Omens and Their Cultural Significance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Doubts Relative To Napoleon Buonaparte Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn the Origin of Continents and Oceans: Book 2: The Earths Rock Record Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom Protagoras to Aristotle: Essays in Ancient Moral Philosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrand Canyon: A New Paradigm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife through Time and Space Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Henry Chadwick: Selected Writings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Philosophical Impact of Contemporary Physics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Temple and the Grail: The Mysteries of the Order of the Templars and the Grail and their Significance for Our Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRhetoric Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Physics For You
Physics I For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feynman Lectures Simplified 1A: Basics of Physics & Newton's Laws Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic, Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quantum Physics: A Beginners Guide to How Quantum Physics Affects Everything around Us Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quantum Physics for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5String Theory For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Step By Step Mixing: How to Create Great Mixes Using Only 5 Plug-ins Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Physics Essentials For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reality Revolution: The Mind-Blowing Movement to Hack Your Reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Theory of Relativity: And Other Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nature of Space and Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science's Strangest Phenomenon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Physics Book: From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection, 250 Milestones in the History of Physics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What the Bleep Do We Know!?™: Discovering the Endless Possibilities for Altering Your Everyday Reality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Introducing Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flatland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Consciousness of the Atom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand: Fifty Wonders That Reveal an Extraordinary Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Galileo's Balls
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Galileo's Balls - Donald R. Miklich
Galileo's Balls:
Did He Really Drop Them?
Donald R. Miklich, Ph.D.
Published at Smashwords by Donald R. Miklich
Copyright 2014 Donald R. Miklich
Pity the poor history professor, for much of what is considered common historical knowledge is actually folklore. I well know this because through high school, college and graduate school I accepted a widely held story as fact which turned out, when I finally bothered to investigate, to be mere legend. I long believed the Italian Renaissance natural philosopher Galileo Galilei dropped different weight balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa in order to test Aristotle's claim that the heavier would fall faster. However, as I discovered, the historical evidence does not support this notion. It's a legend which seems to have grown from