In his Discorsi, Galileo aimed to correct centuries of Aristotelian “unreason” concerning the physics of falling objects by introducing a thought experiment that pointed out contradictions when combinations of one light and one heavy body are dropped. Inspired by Galileo's story, we sought to formulate research questions and design experiments for students to enable independent learning based on the history of science. The experiments involve commonly used or inexpensive equipment and free software, and show that Aristotle and Galileo did not disagree about falling objects, but were focusing on different kinds of motion. We assess data generated by high-speed video motion tracking of the fall of various combinations of simple handmade paper cones, following closely the discussion between Simplicio, Salviati and Sagredo in the Discorsi, and demonstrate that every statement in Galileo's reductio ad absurdum holds true and that his argument is in fact free of contradiction.
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December 2018
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December 01 2018
Using history to foster critical scientific thinking: Aristotle and Galileo's debate resolved through high-speed motion tracking in the classroom
Josef M. Stadlbauer;
Josef M. Stadlbauer
a)
Department of Soft Matter Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz
, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
Search for other works by this author on:
Lukas Kehrer;
Lukas Kehrer
Department of Soft Matter Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz
, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
Search for other works by this author on:
Siegfried Bauer
Siegfried Bauer
b)
Department of Soft Matter Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz
, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
Search for other works by this author on:
Josef M. Stadlbauer
a)
Lukas Kehrer
Siegfried Bauer
b)
Department of Soft Matter Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz
, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
a)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
Am. J. Phys. 86, 903–908 (2018)
Article history
Received:
April 19 2018
Accepted:
September 20 2018
Citation
Josef M. Stadlbauer, Lukas Kehrer, Siegfried Bauer; Using history to foster critical scientific thinking: Aristotle and Galileo's debate resolved through high-speed motion tracking in the classroom. Am. J. Phys. 1 December 2018; 86 (12): 903–908. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5062167
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