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oapen-20.500.12657-891892024-04-03T02:24:36Z 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. 2024-04-02T15:49:07Z 2024-04-02T15:49:07Z 2023 chapter ONIX_20240402_9791221502664_158 9791221502664 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/89189 ita Knowledge and its Histories application/pdf n/a 9791221502664_07.pdf https://books.fupress.com/doi/capitoli/979-12-215-0266-4_7 Firenze University Press 10.36253/979-12-215-0266-4.07 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. 10.36253/979-12-215-0266-4.07 bf65d21a-78e5-4ba2-983a-dbfa90962870 9791221502664 2 17 Florence open access
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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.
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