Daria Drozdova (HSE): A quest on falling bodies: real and thought experiments in 17th Century Italy
Event ended
Room A402, HSE Humanities building
The talk will be followed by a discussion and a reception. All are welcome to attend! To request access to the building, please contact ucarlsson@hse.ru ahead of time.
Abstract: Galileo Galilei is often believed to have demonstrated the falsity of Aristotle's doctrine of motion—according to which heavier bodies should fall faster than lighter ones—by dropping various objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. However, the story is not that simple. The discussion about falling bodies started in Italy several decades earlier, in the 16th century, and didn't stop with Galileo. A number of mathematicians and natural philosophers tried to understand whether heavier bodies fall faster than lighter ones, and which factors influence a free fall. In order to answer these questions, two different techniques were employed: real experiments with different sets of bodies (Corezio, Baliani, Renieri, Cabeo, Riccioli), and thought experiment (Benedetti, Galileo, Borelli). Remarkably, while in the 16th century empirical observations were used to contest Aristotelian views, in the second third of the 17th century they were used to criticize Galileo’s new ideas. In this presentation, I will give an outline of this story and use it as a case study for analyzing the epistemic conditions of the development of experimental practice in the 17th century.
The talk will be followed by a discussion and a reception. All are welcome to attend! To request access to the building, please contact ucarlsson@hse.ru ahead of time.
Abstract: Galileo Galilei is often believed to have demonstrated the falsity of Aristotle's doctrine of motion—according to which heavier bodies should fall faster than lighter ones—by dropping various objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. However, the story is not that simple. The discussion about falling bodies started in Italy several decades earlier, in the 16th century, and didn't stop with Galileo. A number of mathematicians and natural philosophers tried to understand whether heavier bodies fall faster than lighter ones, and which factors influence a free fall. In order to answer these questions, two different techniques were employed: real experiments with different sets of bodies (Corezio, Baliani, Renieri, Cabeo, Riccioli), and thought experiment (Benedetti, Galileo, Borelli). Remarkably, while in the 16th century empirical observations were used to contest Aristotelian views, in the second third of the 17th century they were used to criticize Galileo’s new ideas. In this presentation, I will give an outline of this story and use it as a case study for analyzing the epistemic conditions of the development of experimental practice in the 17th century.