Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Curiosity and research
- 2 Overview of experimental analysis and design
- 3 Statistics
- 4 Mathematical models
- 5 Scientific information
- Appendix A Spreadsheets for basic scientific computation
- Appendix B Extract from Galileo's Two New Sciences
- Appendix C Safety in the laboratory
- Appendix D Grading rubrics
- Index
Appendix B - Extract from Galileo's Two New Sciences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Curiosity and research
- 2 Overview of experimental analysis and design
- 3 Statistics
- 4 Mathematical models
- 5 Scientific information
- Appendix A Spreadsheets for basic scientific computation
- Appendix B Extract from Galileo's Two New Sciences
- Appendix C Safety in the laboratory
- Appendix D Grading rubrics
- Index
Summary
The following quotation is from Galileo's final book, Dialogues on Two New Sciences [213] (179) translated by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvo (Macmillan, New York, 1914). Salvatore, a character who stands in for Galileo himself, has just been challenged to justify the claim that falling objects accelerate uniformly.
SALV. The request which you, as a man of science, make, is a very reasonable one; for this is the custom – and properly so – in those sciences where mathematical demonstrations are applied to natural phenomena, as is seen in the case of perspective, astronomy, mechanics, music, and others where the principles, once established by well-chosen experiments, become the foundations of the entire superstructure. I hope therefore it will not appear to be a waste of time if we discuss at considerable length this first and most fundamental question upon which hinge numerous consequences of which we have in this book only a small number, placed there by the Author, who has done so much to open a pathway hitherto closed to minds of speculative turn. So far as experiments go they have not been neglected by the Author; and often, in his company, I have attempted in the following manner to assure myself that the acceleration actually experienced by falling bodies is that above described. […]
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- Information
- Research Methods for Science , pp. 201 - 203Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011