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| Photo by tiltti. |
Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) taught his students heavy objects fall faster than light objects. This idea was believed to be true 2000 years!
- Who gets credit for first understanding that, in the absence of air resistance, all objects fall (accelerate) toward the ground at the same rate?
- Consider this thought experiment... ... Imagine dropping a bowling ball and a marble from the same height at the same time. According to Aristotle, the bowling ball will fall faster and land first. According to Aristotle's reasoning, think about what would happen if you tied the two together and dropped them again. Would the combined objects fall faster or slower than the bowling ball alone? Why does this present a paradox? (As an interesting side note, the inventor of this gravity paradox is none other than the answer to question one above!)
I think this was first proposed by someone in the 1500 or 1600s, but I can't remember his name. Can anyone help?
ReplyDelete1. I believe that it was Galileo who stated in the absence of air resistance, all objects accelerate toward the ground at the same rate. Galileo concluded after dropping a ten-pound weight and a one-pound weight off the Leaning Tower of Pisa, he proved that they both fall at the same speed.
ReplyDelete2. According to Aristotle’s theory the bowling ball would fall faster. Even if tying the objects together, they would not fall any slower or faster, as Galileo proved in his experiment.
It is inconceivable that Galileo was the first person to observe a discrepancy with Aristotle's predictions. Galileo was the one who changed the course of history because he was able to assemble the observations into a coherent pattern, and also because he carried out systematic quantitative (numerical) measurements rather than just describing things qualitatively.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is likely to be true considering what Reetamlap stated. Galileo in a way to prove Aristotle predictions incorrect. Galileo dropped a cannonball and a musketball simultaneously from a tower. He observed that they hit the ground at almost at = the same time. This contradicted Aristotle's long-accepted idea that heavier objects fell faster.
ReplyDeleteGood comments so far. You're right about the scientist being Galileo. I, too, have often thought that it seems unlikely that Galileo was the first one to question Aristotle, but it is true that Galileo was the first to offer evidence that Aristotle's understanding was not right and then to publish his work.
ReplyDeleteWhere are these statements about the Leaning Tower of Pisa coming from? Did Galileo really visit the tower to test his theory?
We still need to work on an answer to the second question... ... By following Aristotle's logic, one reaches a paradox with that scenario. Why?
I don't believe that Galileo actually dropped anything off the Leaning Tower of Pisa,I'm thinking that Galileo basically knows that dropping anything off of anything the objects are going to accelerate at the same rate.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the second question?
ReplyDeleteThe chance that Galileo, one of the smartest men of his time, dropped a cannon ball and a musket ball off the Leaning Tower of Pisa just to see what would happen seems a little ridiculous. Also I do believe that the bowling ball would be slowed down slightly by the marble even though the marble is smaller, they are still connected.
ReplyDeleteWe're still waiting for a comment about why the scenario is *paradox*. What is that all about?
ReplyDeleteI found that the heaviness of one interacts with the lightness of the other, but they fall at a reduced rate which is somewhere in between the rate that either would fall alone.
ReplyDeleteThe two objects as a unit have more gravity than either of them alone, so they fall at a faster rate than either would fall alone.
If objects fall at a different rate according to their gravity, then there is no gtood way to predict which one of these might actually occur.
all of the objects fall at the same rate. no matter whattheir weight.
If the two objects fall at the same rate then they will do so whether or not they are tied together.
Now we're on to something:)
ReplyDelete1. Galileo is credited with being the first to understand that in the absence of air resistance all objects fall toward the ground at the same rate.
ReplyDelete2. According to Aristotle, tying the two objects together would cause them to fall faster than the bowling ball alone.
Objects that have more gravity will fall faster than an object that has a lower gravity. When two objects acting as a single unit fall, their gravity is greater than what it would be if they fell separately. The rate at which something falls is based on its gravity, not on its weight.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments this week.
ReplyDelete