Aristotle Falling Body

In the letter Galileo explained that it would not matter if something in the Bible was disproven, the primary purpose of the Bible is salvation. He also believed that God gave him and others intellect. He reasoned that if God did not want people to gain knowledge, then God would not have gave them the ability to reason or the ability to make new discoveries. Galileo also believed that if the sacred scribes wanted us to have all the answers they would have written them, and that the Holy Ghost intended to only teach us how to get to heaven, not how heaven goes.

Aristotle’s model by today’s standards can easily be picked apart, but at the time, it was the best explanation that could be made with so little technology and insight. Although his theories have long since been replaced, they created a base for future scientists to work off of and challenge. Over time many great scientists began to question Aristotle’s theories. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), for example, contested the absolute significance of the earth, and he did not agree that it should be viewed as the center of the entire universe (Lizhi & Youquan, 1987). He plotted the earth at the center of the universe and created a heliocentric system just as mathematically complicated as the Ptolemaic system (one that also improved on Aristotle’s), but it explained a number of anomalies, including resolving the issue of retrograde motion (Ede, A. & Cormack, L., 2004). The problem was that Aristotle’s physics of ‘natural motion’ fell apart without the earth in the center of everything.

in accordance with a simple relationship, he could explain the fall of objects to the ground,

Technology during Galileo’s time was still quite primitive. His experiment which required him to drop objects from the leaning tower of Piza, would’ve have been very inaccurate. Therefore in an attempt to acquire accurate results, Galileo simplified his experiment by using a ramp.

In the midst of this, Cardinal Bellarmine wrote him a letter explaining why his ideas were not going to be accepted. He said: “But to want to affirm that the sun really is fixed in the center of the heavens and only revolves around itself (i.e., turns upon its axis) without traveling from east to west, and that the earth is situated in the third sphere and revolves with great speed around the sun, is a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false” (Document B). The Cardinal explains how Galileo is contradicting the teachings of the theologists, philosophers, and the Bible. Also, he is doing a dangerous deed because the Church was afraid of these contradicting ideas because they could have destroyed the perspective on the Church and caused a major decrease in power. Galileo contradicting the Church impacted the future by causing more people to begin and question the ways of life, leading to new

Galileo was the first European to make systematic observations of the heavens through his improved invention of the telescope. Through his telescope, Galileo made a series of discoveries. Galileo’s observations demolished among the traditional cosmology of what the universe seemed to be composed of. Not only did Galileo make astonishing discoveries, but he was also offered a new position from Grand Duke Cain II of Florence, as his court mathematician. During this time, Galileo was told that he could continue to discuss Copernicanism, as long as he would maintain everything as mathematical supposition, and not as facts. Due to the Inquisitions response, the church attacked the Copernican system since it threaten the Scripture and its’ entire conception of the universe. The new system rose'd much uncertainty that seemed as prudent to simply condemn it. In 1633, Galileo was found guilty of teaching the condemned Copernican system and was then forced to be placed under house arrest. He spent the remaining eight years of life studying mechanics. The principal of motion was the one of the problems that fell under the heading of mechanics. At the end, Galileo made two contributions to the problem of motion. He demonstrated by experimenting uniform force to accelerate

When he realized that the stars were actually going around Jupiter, it negated a major argument of the Ptolemaic model. Not only did this mean that the Earth could not be the only center of motion, but also it knocked a hole in another argument. The supporters of the Ptolemaic model argued that if the Earth were moving through space, the Moon would be left behind. Galileo’s observations showed that the moons of Jupiter were not being left behind as Jupiter moved.” Galileo is trying to explain how god had created the heaven in the heliocentric way since it was in the other way everything would not follow earth like the moon.

Galileo gave more emphasis to mathematical arguments rather than to experimental or physical arguments in

to have people accept his hypothesis, as a fact is one of the major problems

Aristotle’s definition of the soul is the substance in the sense which corresponds to the definitive formula of a thing's essence. Aristotle thought that the soul is the Form of the body. The soul is basically all of the operations of a human being. Aristotle believed that there are levels of living things. He stated that plants only have a vegetative soul, animals are above plants because they have senses and appetites, and humans are above animals because it has the power of reasoning and knowledge us. Aristotle tries to explain the difference between the body and the soul using an axe as an example. If an axe were a living thing, then its body would be made

Through experimentation, Galileo learned that an object rolling down an incline increases in speed. Likewise, an object rolling up an incline decreases in speed. These observations seem to verify Aristotle's stance that such motion must be sustained by a cause. The incline sustains the motion, but what if there was no incline whatsoever? In the absence of friction, on a perfectly horizontal line, Galileo reasoned that an object would have no force to speed or slow it, and the object would continue to move forever. Motion does not need to be sustained by a cause, once it begins it will continue until something stops it.

According to Dauben’s article, “Part II: Galileo's Analysis of Projectile Motion," Galileo was an Italian philosopher who made vast contributions to the scientific world, one of which was the principal of projectile motion. Through his observations he was able to accurately explain why projectiles would take the curved paths they do. It was concluded that projectiles travel through two planes, one being horizontal and the other vertical. It was also concluded that this motion on the two planes happened at the same time not separately. This concept altered the way projectiles were viewed, rather than an L shaped form of motion it was curved which means it was parabolic motion (Dauben 1997). The purpose of this experiment was to be able to calculate

The basic assumption of Aristotelian physics was that the natural state of terrestrial matter is at rest, and that earth air and water would continually strive to reach their natural place at the center of the earth unless impeded by an impenetrable surface like the ground or a ceiling. He assumed that the natural resting place of fire was somewhere above the earth but below the moon. this model held that the complicated nature of the circulation of the air was a result of the conflict between fire, which was trying to

Though he was developing and testing his theories, Galileo was not exposed to mathematics but was intrigued in the subject after attending a geometry lecture. He then began to study mathematics and natural philosophy instead of medicine since right before he earned his degree, the university cut him off due to unpaid funds. Returning to Florence, he lectured at the Florentine academy, where he studied and applied his new interests, and in 1586 he published an essay describing his invention of the hydrostatic balance, when fluid is at rest, which made his name known throughout Italy. With his other interest of philosophy, Galileo studied fine arts and received an instructer position in the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence in 1588 where he met Cigoli, a painter, who applied Galileo’s astronomical observations in his painting. This led Galileo to expand his mentality to be more aesthetic.

The main proof that Aristotle saw was his general surroundings. He watched that everything is in movement, and that one movement causes another movement etc. Much like billiard balls on a pool table. One ball hits another ball, that ball moves, hits a third ball, and the third ball moves. Like A causes B to move causes C to move and so on.