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Re: Galileo's _Dialog..._



Greetings,
Is it Salviati who spoke the thoughts of Galileo, Sagredo who had to be convinced as he believed the ideas of Aristotle, and Simplicio who took the form of the Court Jester who would offer encouragement to Salviati (Galileo)? (Or do I have Salviati and Sagredo reversed?)

Now if I could just find my book, "Dialogues concerning TWO NEW SCIENCES" by Galileo Galilei.

There was a film from the Roots of a Nation history series on Galileo. In it there was more than one scene represented as a trilogy. In one scene in particular, One man would speak of Galileo's accomplishments and ask Galileo to speak or demonstrate on the topic. Two men of Rome would have no part of it. There were a couple of women who wanted to see Galileo's experiments. So Galileo did them (i.e. dropped a heavy and light object, and looked through a telescope).

Dick
Helping teachers who teach, motivating students who learn.
"Science is nothing more than learning how to communicate with nature in such a manner that it will talk back."

Dick Heckathorn 14665 Pawnee Trail Middleburg Hts, OH 44130-6635 440-826-0834
Physics Teacher Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy 4687 Wyoga Lake Road Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44224 330-929-0575 VM 120


-----Original Message-----
From: Wilson Gonzalez-espada [SMTP:wge@ARCHES.UGA.EDU]
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2000 1:23 PM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: Galileo's _Dialog..._

Dr. Figura:

I remember using a fragment of one of Galileo's dialogues about free fall
in a physics class. Salviati represented the ideas of Galileo. Simplicio
represented the ideas of Aristotle. Sagredo represented an impartial
listener. Simplicio was not an idiot, but a person who believed the
accepted models of the universe at that time, and required much more than
a simple argument to be conviced. I think that we sometimes behave like
Simplicio when new radical scientific ideas are discussed.

I am sure that Paolo Cavallo, an excellent physics teacher who is on this
list, will give you a much more detailed explanation (both scientific
and historical) than me.

Wilson

> Greetings
- >
I'm teaching an intro to astronomy course and I'm going to be discussing
Galileo for a day. I recall hearing somewhere that Galileo used the names
(Salviati, Sagredo, Simplicio) as underhanded jabs against the geocentric
paradigm. Obviously, Simplicio denotes an idiot/simpleton, but I don't
remember
the translation of the other names.

From the preface to The Dialog it seems that he has borrowed the names
from real people. I'm not sure that I understand who those people were,
though.
Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks much -


Charles Figura
figura@wartburg.edu http://www.wartburg.edu/mcsp/figura
Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics
(319) 352-8373 "The only capital crime in nature is stupidity.
(319) 352-8606 (fax) The penalty is death, and it is administered
promptly, and without mercy."
-R. A. Heinlein


Wilson J. Gonzalez-Espada
Science Education Department
University of Georgia
wge@arches.uga.edu