Galileo's laws of motion

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Domains

Planetary Astronomy and Laws of Motion

Dates

Date of occurrence 1602-1604

Places

Italy (Location)

According to Aristotle, heavier bodes fell faster than lighter bodies, but Galileo realised that all matter was subject to the same laws of motion and that all bodies would fall or accelerate at the same speed provided differences in friction or wind-resistance were eliminated. Galileo also realised that the natural state of an object is rest, unless it is acted upon by an external force, and that it had an inherent resistance to move (i.e. he discovered the principle of inertia) . This realisation was to be very important for Newton.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

91 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Galileo's laws of motion". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 January 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=453, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Galileo's laws of motion

Domains

Dates

Places

Save this article

Leave Feedback