Galileo Galilei

When Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaulti de Galilei was studying the laws of motion, there had already been considerable philosophical discussion on that subject. Aristotle, for instance, had put forward the intuitive idea that heavier objects accelerate faster during free fall. This is, of course, a notion that many of us share anyway. Galileo refuted that proposition by means of an experiment, by famously dropping small and large objects off the Pisa tower, showing that lighter and heavier objects accelerate at the same rate during free fall. Many people found this surprising. The experimental method, generally speaking, was not held in high regard in that era. People were more inclined to accept facts that were arrived at through “pure reason,” believing that one should not have to soil one’s hands by performing experiments in order to attain the truth.