Abstract
The formulation of the laws of free fall and projectile motion is usually regarded as Galileo’s most important scientific achievement. The new science of motion was however met with skepticism not only by Aristotelians but also by mechanical philosophers. After the publication of the Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (1632) and the Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze (1638), interesting discussions took place in Europe concerning the validity of the law of fall. The issues that were mostly debated were (a) the possibility of deriving that law from a causal explanation of gravity, (b) Galileo’s views concerning the composition of continuous magnitudes, and (c) the alleged lack of empirical support in favor of the law.
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Palmerino, C.R. (2019). Law of Free Fall in Renaissance Science. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_939-1
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