Find out about a four - hundred - year - old thought experimentation that upset the Aristotelean school of thought , which held that weighed down objects fell quicker than light ones .
Aristotle , one of the great judgment of the classical world , is live for being wrong about many thing . Many , many things . He was unseasonable about the number and musical composition of the elements , the bit of legs on a rainfly , and the speeds of two dissimilar falling free weight .
Unlike the fly debacle , the falling objects are graspable . Aristotle consider that thing descend at a perpetual amphetamine , not accelerating , and that light aim fell more slowly than heavier ones . Since lighter objects incline to be more affected by lead impedance , they fall more slowly . nothingness resistivity helps determine final velocity – the speed at which an object ca n’t fall any quicker since the military group of air resistivity promote up and the force of sombreness pulling down cancel each other out – and sluggish moving objects are easier to honour . So they are seen falling at a perpetual rate , more slowly than sullen objects , and the theory is ‘ proved ’ .
Galileo confute that possibility , but not before he foil , amazed , and plausibly nark the hell out of the people around him with a toothsome conundrum . So a heavy object falls speedily . And a light aim falls lento . What happens when a light aim is attached – say , with chain – to a toilsome object ?
A light object and a heavy object would obviously make an even heavier aim . That heavier mass would then fall quicker than either of the original objects .
But wait ! The light object fall more slowly than the hard object . The weight of the string might increase its weight slimly , but it would still fall more lento than the heavier object . This means that it would be tugging the fleshy aim up , and the intact mass would fall dumb than at least one of the original objects .
It ’s also possible to prove Aristotle incorrect with a vacuum bedchamber , a plumage and a bowling ball , or two other than weight bowling balls and a great enough height – or , for that matter , with a fly . This opinion experimentation , however , has the inestimable welfare of being able to the carried out with one ’s tooshie firmly glued to a professorship and a smug grinning hard glued to one ’s face . It ’s much in force .
ViaPhilosophical Investigations .
HistoryPhysicsScience
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