Re: [Phys-l] Galileo was wrong

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 09/20/2010 01:52 PM, Joseph Bellina wrote:
> The problem for Galileo is that he had good arguments against the  
> Aristotlean geocentric model that was supported by the church, but he  
> did not have evidence that in fact the earth went around the sun, and  
> the Jesuit astronomers knew that.  Foucault pendulum was 1851 or so,  
> long after this.

Huh????

Galileo may have been before Foucault, but he was after
Copernicus and after Kepler.

In addition to all the evidence from Copernicus and all
the evidence from Kepler, he had his own observations of
the phases of Venus ... and his own experimental and
theoretical mastery of the laws of motion. 

If Galileo had lacked convincing arguments, he would 
have been ignored.  They took strong action against him 
precisely because they knew he had tons of evidence.
They knew his books understated what he actually knew.

> > Stillman Drake is always an interesting and authoritative read.

Yes indeed.