Physics 107 Navigation Bar    Click here for FirstClass
 



goals and outline
questions before lecture
questions after lecture
parts of homework
supplementary material
timely reminders
  

LECTURE 3
     goals and outline

lecture title

    Two Leaps of Logic: Galileo

lecture goals

  • Learn a bit about one of the greatest scientists of all history.
  • Understand why Aristotle's theory of falling motion was plausible, though full of glaring errors.
  • Understand why educated people were reluctant to challenge Aristotle's theory.
  • Learn Galileo's theory and the reasoning (two leaps of logic) which led him to it.

outline of lecture

    1. Galileo's Life

    2. Falling Motion: Aristotle

    3. Falling Motion: Galileo

quote

Nature did not make human brains first, and then construct things according to their capacity to understand, but she first made things in her own fashion and then so constructed the human understanding that it, though at the price of great exertion, might ferret out a few of her secrets.

-- Galileo Galilei

[home]  [course]  [lecs unit 1]  [homework]  [exams]  [FirstClass]  [what's new] 
Please email any questions, comments, or suggestions to Professor Bernice Durand, bdurand@theory3.physics.wisc.edu.

Revised September 4, 1997.


Content © 1997, Bernice Durand
Images and layout © 1997, Shane Hamilton