Infinite Degrees of Speed Marin Mersenne and the Debate Over Galileo's Law of Free Fall

Abstract

This article analyzes the evolution of Mersenne's views concerning the validity of Galileo's theory of acceleration. After publishing, in 1634, a treatise designed to present empirical evidence in favor of Galileo's odd-number law, Mersenne developed over the years the feeling that only the elaboration of a physical proof could provide sufficient confirmation of its validity. In the present article, I try to show that at the center of Mersenne's worries stood Galileo's assumption that a falling body had to pass in its acceleration through infinite degrees of speed. His extensive discussions with, or his reading of, Descartes, Gassendi, Baliani, Fabri, Cazre, Deschamps, Le Tenneur, Huygens, and Torricelli led Mersenne to believe that the hypothesis of a passage through infinite degrees of speed was incompatible with any mechanistic explanation of free fall.

Arduino İle Bi̇lgi̇sayar Kontrollü Serbest Düşme Deney Si̇stemi̇

“…If one of the two A4 size papers of the same weight is crumpled in a ball-like form and two of them are released from the same height, it can be seen that the crumpled paper falls first to the floor. This indicates that the fall times of objects of the same weight are not dependent on weight (Palmerino, 1999).…”

Copernicus, Epicurus, Galileo, and Gassendi

“…Because of this, when I saw that three spaces were traversed in the second moment, I promptly supposed that just as one space was traversed through the degree of speed remaining from the first moment, so two other spaces were traversed through two other degrees of speed that had been acquired in the meantime (De proportione 2.12; 3.621b). 24 See Palmerino (1999Palmerino ( , 2004Palmerino ( , 2008 for more on this. 25 At 3.497b he also appeals to the innate motion of atoms as part of an attempt to deconstruct the distinction between natural and violent motion.…”

On the Frontlines of the Scientific Revolution: How Mersenne Learned to Love Galileo

“…And at the very end of his life, Mersenne did come to worry about whether Galileo's simple mathematical laws were justi ed, and whether one could derive such laws in ignorance of the details of the cause of gravity (See Dear 1988, pp. 208-22;Palmerino 1999;Galluzzi 2001, pp. 252-69).…”