A Discourse Presented to the Most Serene Don Cosimo II., Great Duke of Tuscany, Concerning the Natation of Bodies Vpon, and Submersion In, the Water.Galilei, Galileo
Science
A Discourse Presented to the Most Serene Don Cosimo II., Great Duke of Tuscany, Concerning the Natation of Bodies Vpon, and Submersion In, the Water.
Galilei, Galileo
Hydrostatics; Specific gravity
He farther addes[18], that _Aristotle_ had clearly confuted the Ancients,
who said, that light Bodies moved upwards[19], driven by the impulse of
the more grave Ambient: which if it were so, it should seem of
necessity to follow, that all naturall Bodies are by nature heavy, and
none light: For that the same would befall the Fire and Air, if put in
the Bottom of the water. And, howbeit, _Aristotle_ grants a Pulsion in
the Elements, by which the Earth is reduced into a Sphericall Figure,
yet nevertheless, in his judgement; it is not such that it can remove
grave Bodies from their naturall places, but rather, that it send them
toward the Centre, to which (as he somewhat obscurely continues to
say,) the water principally moves, if it in the interim meet not with
something that resists it, and, by its Gravity, thrusts it out of its
place: in which case, if it cannot directly, yet at least as well as
it can, it tends to the Centre: but it happens, that light Bodies by
such Impulsion, do all ascend upward: but this properly they have by
nature, as also, that other of swimming. He concludes, lastly[20], that he
concurs with _Archimedes_ in his Conclusions; but not in the Causes,
which he would referre to the facile and difficult Separation of the
_Medium_, and to the predominance of the Elements, so that when the
Moveable superates the power of the _Medium_; as for example, Lead
doth the Continuity of water, it shall move thorow it, else not.
[18] His fourth Objection.
[19] The _A_ncients denyed _A_bsolute Levity.
[20] The causes of Natation & Submersion, according to the
Peripateticks.
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