Questions tagged [aristotle]
The aristotle tag has no usage guidance.
12
questions
1
vote
0
answers
66
views
Did Archimedes or anyone else prior to Galileo think that heavier things did not fall faster?
I think I saw a high school science film in which Galileo is eating with nobility or something and the scientist amazes a young woman by simply dropping an orange and a grape, saying, if heavier ...
- 1,071
1
vote
0
answers
36
views
What justified that impetus was in proportion to speed and weight?
I often see the claim that impetus, the ancestor of momentum, was understood to be proportional to speed and weight.
For example, Jean Buridan wrote:
When a mover sets a body in motion he implants ...
- 535
2
votes
1
answer
164
views
How did Aristotle explain the motion of living things moving by themselves, and falling of objects, with his hypothesis of all motion needing a cause?
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), a pioneering, iconoclastic, and brilliant ancient Greek philosopher, made the observation in his writings that the long term stable state of objects is at rest, that ...
- 123
3
votes
1
answer
118
views
Aristotelian explanation of magnetism
How did Aristotle explain magnetism? As far as I know, there were only 7 postulates in Aristotelian mechanics:
The first hypothesis Earth is the center of the universe.
Second hypothesis All material ...
1
vote
1
answer
64
views
What was Aristotle's experience with vacuums?
What was Aristotle's idea of a vacuum when he said that nature abhors one? How would any ancient have experienced/observed or created a vacuum beside, I guess, when one breathes or perhaps when water ...
- 1,071
1
vote
0
answers
49
views
What is Aristotle's view on Plant generation?
I am new to Aristotle study, In Book 1 of Generation of Aristotle give his view on plant generation,
In Book 1.1 Aristotle writes " But all those creatures which do not move, as the Testacea and ...
- 243
2
votes
1
answer
348
views
What is "female seed" in Galen's work?
On the last page (page 84) of Anthony Preus's paper$^\star$ on Galen's criticism of Aristotle's Conception Theory, the author writes that Galen discussing the second book of "On Seed", which ...
- 243
1
vote
1
answer
617
views
How did Aristotle die? [closed]
Wikipedia says he died of natural causes. I recall going through a N. Wildberger lecture on the history of mathematics and got a different account. He was stabbed by a Roman soldier while Rome was ...
- 141
7
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Did Aristotle note that ships disappear over the horizon hull-first?
I have run across several references to Aristotle's arguments for a spherical earth which claim that he noted that ships sink over horizon hull-first. For instance, Isaac Asimov writes in his essay ...
- 279
5
votes
2
answers
720
views
When was the diving bell invented?
This question comes from my attempts to give a good answer to the previous question, How was difference in water pressure perceived in ancient cultures or the middle ages?
I know from my childhood ...
- 46.4k
7
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Why did Aristotle make mistakes in his laws of motion?
I was studying Aristotle's laws of motion and comparing them to Newton's. He states that heavier bodies fall faster than lighter ones. I really can't understand how he could have committed such a ...
- 123
10
votes
11
answers
18k
views
Was Aristotle really wrong about gravity?
When I was in 9th grade, I learned that Aristotle was responsible for holding back physics for centuries because he said that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. Finally, in the 16th ...
- 433