Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors

Galileo’s abilities as a mathematician were far below that of many of his contemporaries. He made numerous technical mistakes — including several high-profile, mathematically erroneous applications of his own law of fall — that were swiftly spotted and corrected by the leading mathematicians of the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Blåsjö, Viktor
Format: Online
Language:Italian
Published: Firenze University Press 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:ONIX_20240402_9791221502664_158
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1869526365138583552
author Blåsjö, Viktor
author_browse Blåsjö, Viktor
author_facet Blåsjö, Viktor
author_sort Blåsjö, Viktor
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Galileo’s abilities as a mathematician were far below that of many of his contemporaries. He made numerous technical mistakes — including several high-profile, mathematically erroneous applications of his own law of fall — that were swiftly spotted and corrected by the leading mathematicians of the day. Many aspects of Galileo’s work can be viewed as consequences of this limited technical proficiency in mathematics. For example, he ignores Kepler’s work and dismisses comets as a chimerical atmospheric phenomena: decisions that are difficult to justify on scientific grounds but which make sense if we grant that Galileo wanted to avoid technical mathematics at all costs. Instead he drops rocks, looks through tubes, rails against Aristotelian philosophers, and expounds at length about basic principles of scientific method: all of which can be seen as dwelling on precisely those parts of the mathematician’s worldview that do not require any actual mathematics.
format Online
id doab-20.500.12854ir-136089
institution Directory of Open Access Books
language ita
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Firenze University Press
publisherStr Firenze University Press
record_format ojs
spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1360892024-04-04T05:13:27Z Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors Blåsjö, Viktor Galileo cycloidal area orbital speeds extrusion by terrestrial whirling atmospheric theory of comets Galileo’s abilities as a mathematician were far below that of many of his contemporaries. He made numerous technical mistakes — including several high-profile, mathematically erroneous applications of his own law of fall — that were swiftly spotted and corrected by the leading mathematicians of the day. Many aspects of Galileo’s work can be viewed as consequences of this limited technical proficiency in mathematics. For example, he ignores Kepler’s work and dismisses comets as a chimerical atmospheric phenomena: decisions that are difficult to justify on scientific grounds but which make sense if we grant that Galileo wanted to avoid technical mathematics at all costs. Instead he drops rocks, looks through tubes, rails against Aristotelian philosophers, and expounds at length about basic principles of scientific method: all of which can be seen as dwelling on precisely those parts of the mathematician’s worldview that do not require any actual mathematics. 2024-04-04T05:13:26Z 2024-04-04T05:13:26Z 2024-04-02T15:49:07Z 2023 chapter ONIX_20240402_9791221502664_158 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/89189 9791221502664 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/136089 ita Knowledge and its Histories open access image/jpeg n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/89189/1/9791221502664_07.pdf Firenze University Press 10.36253/979-12-215-0266-4.07 10.36253/979-12-215-0266-4.07 2ec4474d-93b1-4cfa-b313-9c6019b51b1a 9791221502664 17 Florence open access
spellingShingle Galileo
cycloidal area
orbital speeds
extrusion by terrestrial whirling
atmospheric theory of comets
Blåsjö, Viktor
Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors
title Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors
title_full Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors
title_fullStr Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors
title_full_unstemmed Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors
title_short Chapter Galileo’s Mathematical Errors
title_sort chapter galileo s mathematical errors
topic Galileo
cycloidal area
orbital speeds
extrusion by terrestrial whirling
atmospheric theory of comets
topic_facet Galileo
cycloidal area
orbital speeds
extrusion by terrestrial whirling
atmospheric theory of comets
url ONIX_20240402_9791221502664_158
work_keys_str_mv AT blasjoviktor chaptergalileosmathematicalerrors