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Aristotle further believed that objects fall at a speed that is proportional to their weight. In other words, if you took a wooden object and a metal object of the same size and dropped them both, the heavier metal object would fall at a proportionally faster speed. link
I mean these guys were in love with the math of proportions and nice neat numbers, look at the frikken detail of their observation of the world. I've heard the above so many times as it's one of those things that everyone has to mention. But it's always sounded a little bit suss to me. I mean if it already is agreed they were thinking not just that a heavier object falls faster, but crucially it would fall proportionally faster.
Wouldn't they be busting themselves to place bets that Metal for some metaphysical reason is of an important order of elemental importance compared to wood, would not one of them say, "I bet ye my goodly Aris, that the proportion will be a doubling" Nay ye pox ridden Archi, it be in the proportion of the square root of angle between something that makes sense"
So I just don't believe it, and why should I. I wasted my time finally getting a proper understanding of the tides and when I felt I nailed it to my satisfaction I see I was conned and that really really pissed me off because I didn't expect this from proper scientists. It's like the Vos Savant thing where I can't remember the numbers it's on wiki but it's worth pondering, I mean it's worse that all those early laughable hypotheses that some very smart people wish they had just waited a couple of years. Why? I mean they are so smug they're saying she must be wrong because otherwise she's saying 10,000 or whatever math professors say her analysis is a nonsense, I mean that should settle shouldn't it, I love the arrogance it's a little bit disturbing too. I never tire of that one. It's worth doing it yourself with playing cards and see it happen before your eyes.
The reasoning given is always, 'yes those Greeks eh, they just had to work it out in their mind only, always, absolutely. No argument'.
Or maybe they did do it and saw everything fell at the same rate and thought they'd better keep schtum like what happened to their irrational number discovery. How do we tell which. Does this bother anyone else, it bothers me because if it's false then it's shoring up a false narrative about the ancient Greeks. I do find that if I keep reading the same stuff or listening in my case over and over from many different source you gradually tease out little nuggets that all the others miss. I guess we'll never know.
TL:DR is it plausible that the Ancient Greeks did not drop two objects to see the proportionality of the descents?
I mean these guys were in love with the math of proportions and nice neat numbers, look at the frikken detail of their observation of the world. I've heard the above so many times as it's one of those things that everyone has to mention. But it's always sounded a little bit suss to me. I mean if it already is agreed they were thinking not just that a heavier object falls faster, but crucially it would fall proportionally faster.
Wouldn't they be busting themselves to place bets that Metal for some metaphysical reason is of an important order of elemental importance compared to wood, would not one of them say, "I bet ye my goodly Aris, that the proportion will be a doubling" Nay ye pox ridden Archi, it be in the proportion of the square root of angle between something that makes sense"
So I just don't believe it, and why should I. I wasted my time finally getting a proper understanding of the tides and when I felt I nailed it to my satisfaction I see I was conned and that really really pissed me off because I didn't expect this from proper scientists. It's like the Vos Savant thing where I can't remember the numbers it's on wiki but it's worth pondering, I mean it's worse that all those early laughable hypotheses that some very smart people wish they had just waited a couple of years. Why? I mean they are so smug they're saying she must be wrong because otherwise she's saying 10,000 or whatever math professors say her analysis is a nonsense, I mean that should settle shouldn't it, I love the arrogance it's a little bit disturbing too. I never tire of that one. It's worth doing it yourself with playing cards and see it happen before your eyes.
The reasoning given is always, 'yes those Greeks eh, they just had to work it out in their mind only, always, absolutely. No argument'.
Or maybe they did do it and saw everything fell at the same rate and thought they'd better keep schtum like what happened to their irrational number discovery. How do we tell which. Does this bother anyone else, it bothers me because if it's false then it's shoring up a false narrative about the ancient Greeks. I do find that if I keep reading the same stuff or listening in my case over and over from many different source you gradually tease out little nuggets that all the others miss. I guess we'll never know.
TL:DR is it plausible that the Ancient Greeks did not drop two objects to see the proportionality of the descents?