“Galileo's Machine”: Late Notes on Free Fall, Projectile Motion, and the Force of Percussion (ca. 1638--1639) (2014)
Salvia, Stefano (Author)
Physics in Perspective
Volume: 16, no. 4
Issue: 4
Pages: 440-460
Publication date: 2014
Language: English
My paper focuses upon the problem of determining the nature, establishing the proportionality, and measuring the intensity of the force of percussion of a projected or falling body, as treated in the Sixth Day of Galileo's Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze (1638). This fragment was written around 1638--1639 as part of two additional Days of the Discorsi, which Galileo never finished and remained unpublished until 1718. Galileo's last works on percussion show a significant step towards a generalization of his own views on uniform and accelerated motion that will later lead to the Newtonian principle of inertia. The experiment with two equal weights hanging on a pulley, performed in Arcetri during the same period, is compared with the Paduan 1604--1608 experience of the “water balance.” Both account for more than three decades of inquiries into what Galileo called forza della percossa, which marked the transition from preclassical to classical mechanics.
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