ARISTOTELIAN AND GALILEAN CONCEPTIONS

• ARISTOTLE VIEWS ON VERTICAL MOTION - According to Aristotle, the natural place for heavy objects, like stones, was on the Earth, so when a stone was dropped from a height, it fell towards the Earth because it was seeking its natural place.
• ARISTOTLE VIEWS ON HORIZONTAL MOTION- Aristotle believed that objects in horizontal motion required a continuous force or "push" to keep them moving because he observed that motion on a horizontal plane tended to slow down and stop without a continuous force acting upon it. Aristotle argued that the force needed to maintain it was a result of external influences rather than the natural tendencies of the object itself.
• In the context of SAILING SHIPS, Aristotle likely understood that air and water were fundamental elements involved in propulsion and navigation. The wind, which is air in motion, provides the force needed to move the ship's sails and propel the vessel across the water. Meanwhile, water acts as the medium through which the ship moves, providing both resistance and support.
• FRICTION -Aristotle's observations suggested that the opposing forces of friction and air resistance played significant roles in slowing down objects on a horizontal surface. Aristotle would have observed that the box gradually slowed down and eventually stopped due to the opposing forces acting against its motion.
• ACCELERATION OF GRAVITY -When a baseball is thrown upward and forward, it follows a parabolic path due to the acceleration of gravity. When the baseball is thrown, it has both horizontal and vertical components of velocity. The horizontal component keeps the ball moving forward, while the vertical component determines the height of the ball. However, as soon as the ball is released, gravity starts to act on it, causing it to accelerate downward.
• GALILEO’S VIEWS ON VERTICAL MOTION- Galileo proposed that in the absence of air resistance, all objects would fall with the same acceleration due to gravity. This means that a feather and a hammer, when dropped from the same height simultaneously, would indeed accelerate towards the ground at the same rate and hit the ground at the same time.
• GALILEO- correctly observed that motion could be analyzed independently in different directions. He famously used inclined planes to study the effects of gravity on objects rolling downhill, allowing him to separate the horizontal and vertical components of motion. Through these experiments, Galileo deduced that the "rate of fall" or acceleration due to gravity is better measured in terms of downward acceleration.
• FRICTIONLESS FLAT SURFACE - Galileo’s realized that on a frictionless, flat surface, an object set in motion will continue moving indefinitely at a constant velocity. Galileo's observations and experiments with inclined planes and rolling balls led him to conclude that, in the absence of external forces such as friction, objects will maintain their state of motion.
• GALILEO'S THEORY OF VERTICAL MOTION- According to Galileo's theory, when an object is dropped from a certain height, it will initially have zero velocity. As it falls, its velocity will increase at a constant rate due to gravity until it eventually reaches the ground. At no point during this free fall does the stone travel at a constant speed; rather, its speed increases uniformly until it hits the ground.
• ARISTOTLE VS. GALILEO

  • Aristotle's understanding of motion was based on the concept of natural places and tendencies. According to Aristotle, objects had inherent tendencies to move toward their natural place, such as heavy objects moving downward toward the center of the Earth and light objects moving upward.
• ARISTOTLE VS. GALILEO

  • Galileo's approach to motion was based on mathematical laws and the concept of inertia. Galileo introduced the idea that objects in motion tend to stay in motion and objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force. This concept is encapsulated in Newton's first law of motion, which states that an object will remain in its state of motion unless acted upon by an external force.