Norton, John D. and Roberts, Bryan W. (2012) Galileo's Refutation of the Speed-Distance Law of Fall Rehabilitated. Centaurus, 54 (2). pp. 148-164.
This is the latest version of this item.
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
|
PDF
GalileoRehabilitated.pdf - Published Version Download (983kB) |
Abstract
Galileo's refutation of the speed-distance law of fall in his Two New Sciences is routinely dismissed as a moment of confused argumentation. We urge that Galileo's argument correctly identified why the speed-distance law is untenable, failing only in its very last step. Using an ingenious combination of scaling and self-similarity arguments, Galileo found correctly that bodies, falling from rest according to this law, fall all distances in equal times. What he failed to recognize in the last step is that this time is infinite, the result of an exponential dependence of distance on time. Instead, Galileo conflated it with the other motion that satisfies this ‘equal time’ property, instantaneous motion.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||
| Additional Information: | Published in Centaurus | |||||||||
| Keywords: | acceleration, freefall, foundations of physics, Galileo, history of physics | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics | |||||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Bryan W. Roberts | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 26 May 2012 13:09 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 26 May 2012 13:09 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 9123 | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Centaurus | |||||||||
| Official URL: | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-... | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics | |||||||||
| Date: | 2012 | |||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 148-164 | |||||||||
| Volume: | 54 | |||||||||
| Number: | 2 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9123 |
Available Versions of this Item
-
Galileo's Refutation of the Speed-Distance Law of Fall Rehabilitated. (deposited 18 Jul 2010)
- Galileo's Refutation of the Speed-Distance Law of Fall Rehabilitated. (deposited 26 May 2012 13:09) [Currently Displayed]
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}