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Re: Galileo's gravity



Jeff Braun (braun@charm.evansville.edu) writes:

I was under the impression that it was Newton who first conceived of
the earth's gravity extending to the Moon and beyond. Galileo still
had some Aristotelian cobwebs in his cosmology in that he believed
the "natural state" of heavenly objects was uniform circular motion.
Does anyone know if Galileo really preempted Newton? Thanks.

Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on ol' Galileo. If I remember from my reading of
the biography of Newton ("Never at Rest"), even Newton HIMSELF was confused by
uniform circular motion; as I recall, up until a few months before he finished
the Principia he was still trying to figure out how to "cancel" the forces on
an orbiting planet so it would be in eauilibrium ...

Regards, PRB

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Patrick R. Briggs __ __ __
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