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TWO NEW SCIENCESBY GALILEO ° O° TWO NEW SCIENCESBY GALILEO °_o° THE MACMILLAN COMPANY _W YORJK• BOSTON• CItlCAGO• DALLAS ATLANTA• SANyP.ANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Lmrr_ LONDON• BOMBAY• CALCUTTA _T,_ OUP._NE T_L_; MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO GALILEOGALILEI. Subterman'pors trait,paintedaboutI64O;nowin the Galler_dra ' Pittiat Florence. DIALOGUES CONCERNING TWO NEW SCIENCES BY GALILEOGALILEI Translatedfromthe Italianand Latin intoEnglishby HENRY CREWAND ALFONSODE SALVIO of Northwestern University WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANTONIOFAVARO of the University of Padua. "I think with your friend that it has been of late too much the mode to slight the learning of the ancients." Benjamin Franklin, Phil. Trans. 64,445.(I774.) N_ _ork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY I914 All rightsreserved COPX_IGBTX.914 B_ THEMACMILLANCOMPANY Set upande[ectrotyped. PublishedMay_I914. "La Dynamiqueest lasciencedesforcesaccN6ra- tricesor retardatriceset, des mouvemensvaries qu'ellesdoiventproduire.Cette scienceest due enti_rementauxmodernes,et Galileeest cduiqui denaadj.Iet_. zlzl,es premierfsondemens."LagrangeMec. TRANSLATORS' PREFACE OR morethana centuryEnglishspeaking studentshavebeenplacedin theanomalous positionof hearingGalileoconstantlyre- ferredto asthefounderofmodernphysical science,withouthavinganychanceto read, in theirownlanguagewhat, Galileohimself has to say. Archimedehass beenmade availablebyHeath;HuygensLight' hasbeen turnedinto Englishby Thompson,whileMotte has put the Principiaof Newtonbackintothe languagein whichit was conceived.To renderthe Physicsof Galileoalsoaccessibleto EnglishandAmericanstudentsis the purposeofthefollowing translation. The lastof the greatcreatorsof the Renaissancewasnot a prophetwithouthonorin hisowntime;for it wasonlyone groupofhiscountry-menthat failedto appreciatehim. Even duringhislifetime,hisMechanicshadbeenrenderedintoFrench byoneofthe leadingphysicistsoftheworld,Mersenne. Withintwenty-fiveyearsafterthe deathofGalileohis, Dia- loguesonAstronomyand, thoseon TwoNewScienceshad, been doneinto Englishby ThomasSalusburyand wereworthily printed in two handsomequarto volumes. The TwoNew Scienceswhich, containspracticallyallthat Galileohastosayon the subje&ofphysics,issuedfromthe Englishpressin I665. vi TRANSLATORS'PREFACE It issupposedthatmostofthecopiesweredestroyedinthegreat Londonfirewhichoccurredinihe yearfollowing.Weare not awareofanycopyinAmerica:eventhat belongingtotheBritish Museumisan imperfecCtone. Againin 173° the TwoNewScienceswasdoneintoEnglish by ThomasWeston;but thisbook,nownearlytwo centuries old,is scarceand expensive.Moreover,the literalnesswith whichthistranslationwasmaderendersmanypassageseither ambiguouors unintelligibleto themodernreader. Otherthan thesetwo,noEnglishversionhasbeenmade. Quite recentlyan eminentItalian scholar,after spending thirtyofthebestyearsofhislifeuponthe sul_jecCt,hasbrought to completionthe greatNationalEdition of the Worksof Galileo.Wereferto the twentysuperbvolumesin whichPro- fessorAntonioFavaroofPaduahasgivena definitivepresenta- tionofthelaborsofthe manwhocreatedthemodernscienceof physics. The followingrenditionincludesneitherLe Mechanicheof GalileonorhispaperDeMotuAcceleratosince, the formerof thesecontainslittlebut the Staticswhichwascurrentbefore thetimeofGalileo,andthelatterisessentiallyincludedin the DialogueoftheThirdDay. Dynamicswasthe onesubjecCtto whichundervariousforms,suchas BallisticsAcou, sticsA, s- tronomy,he consistentlyand persistentlydevotedhis whole life. Into the one volumeheretranslatedhe seemsto have gathered,duringhislast years,pracCticallally that is of value either to the engineeror the physicist. The historian,the philosopherand, the astronomerwillfindthe othervolumes repletewithinterestingmaterial. tt ishardlynecessaryto addthatwehavestric°dyfollowedthe textofthe NationalEdition---essentiallythe Elzevireditionof 1638.Allcommentsandannotationshavebeenomittedsave hereandtherea foot-noteintendedto economizethe reader's time. To eachofthesefootnoteshasbeenattachedthe signa- ture[Trans.]inorderto preservetheoriginalasnearlyintacCtas possible. Muchofthevalueofanyhistoricaldocumentliesin the lan- guageemployedand, thisis doublytruewhenoneattemptsto TRANSLATORS' PREFACE vii trace the rise and growthof any set of conceptssuch as those employedin modem physics. We have thereforemade this translationasliteral as is consistentwithclearnessandmodem- ity. In caseswherethere is any importantdeviationfromthis rule, and in the caseof many technicaltermswherethere is no deviationfrom it, we have giventhe originalItalian or Latin phrase in italics enclosedin square brackets. The intention here is to illustratethe great varietyof termsemployedby the earlyphysiciststo describea singledefiniteidea,and conversely, to illustratethe numeroussensesinwhich,then as now,a single wordis used. For the fewexplanatoryEnglishwordswhichare placedin squarebrackets without italics,the translatorsalone are responsible.The pagingofthe NationalEditionis indicated in squarebrackets inserted alongthe medianlineof the page. The imperfecCtionsof the followingpageswouldhave been manymorebut for the aidof threeof our colleagues.Professor D. R. Curtiss was kind enoughto assist in the translationof thosepageswhichdiscussthe natureofInfinity:ProfessorO.H. Basquingavevaluablehelp in the renditionof the chapteron Strengthof Materials;and ProfessorO.F. Long clearedup the meaningofa numberof Latin phrases. To ProfessorA. Favaroof the UniversityofPaduathe trans- lators share, with every reader, a feelingof sincereobligation for his IntroducCtion. H.C. A. DE S. EVANSTONILLIN) OIS) x5February,I9x4. INTRODUCTION ..................'...............................RITINGto hisfaithfulfriendEliaDiodati, hehadin mindto printas being"superior to everythingelseof minehithertopub- lished";elsewherehe says"they contain results-whichI considerthemostimportant ofallmy studies";andthisopinionwhich _ heGalileoexpressedspeaksconcerningofthe"NewhisSciences"ownworkwhichhas beenconfirmedby posterity:the "NewSciences"are,indeed, the masterpieceofGalileowhoat the timewhenhemadethe aboveremarkshadspentuponthemmorethanthirtylaborious years. Onewhowishesto tracethe historyofthisremarkablework willfindthat the greatphilosopherlaidits foundationsduring the eighteenbest yearsof his lifc thosewhichhe spentat Padua. As welearnfromhislast scholar,VincenzioViviani, the numerousresultsatwhichGalileohadarrivedwhilein this city,awakenedintenseadmirationin the friendswhohadwit- nessedvariousexperimentsby meansof whichhe wasaccus- tomedto investigateinterestingquestionsinphysics.FraPaolo Sarpiexclaimed:To giveus the ScienceofMotion,Godand Naturehavejoinedhandsandcreatedthe intellecCtofGalileo. Andwhenthe "NewSciences"camefromthe pressoneofhis foremospupit lsPao, loAproino,wrotethatthevolumecontained muchwhichhehad "alreadyheardfromhisownlips"during studentdaysat Padua. Limitingourselvesto onlythe moreimportantdocuments whichmightbecitedin supportofourstatement,it willsuffice to mentionthe letter,writtentoGuidobaldodelMonteon the 29thofNovember,I6O2concernin, theg descentofheavybodies x INTRODUCTION alongthearcsofcirclesandthe chordssubtendedbythem;that to Sarpi,datedI6thofOctoberI6o4, ,dealingwiththefreefall of heavybodies;the letterto Afltoniode'Medicion the IIth ofFebruary,I6o9,in whichhestatesthat hehas"completedall the theoremsanddemonstrationspertainingto forcesandre- sistancesof beamsof variouslengths,thicknessesand shapes, provingthat theyareweakerat the middlethanneartheends, that theycancarrya greaterloadwhenthat loadisdistributed throughoutthe lengthof the beamthanwhenconcentratedat onepoint,demonstratingalsowhatshapeshouldbe givento a beamin orderthat it mayhavethe samebendingstrengthat everypoint,"andthat hewasnowengaged"uponsomeques- tionsdealingwiththemotionofprojeCtiles";andfinallyinthe letterto BelisarioVinta,dated7th of May, x6IO,concerning hisreturnfromPaduato Florence,heenumeratesvariouspieces ofworkwhichwerestillto becompleted,mentioningexplicitly threebooksonan entirelynewsciencedealingwiththe theory ofmotion. Althoughat varioustimesafterthe returnto his nativestatehe devotedconsiderablethoughttotheworkwhich, evenat that date,he hadin mindas isshownby certainfrag- mentswhichclearlybelongto differentperiodsof hislifeand whichhave,forthe firsttime,beenpublishedin the National Edition;andalthoughthesestudieswerealwaysuppermostin histhoughtit doesnotappearthat hegavehimselfseriouslyto themuntilafterthe publicationof the Dialogueandthe com- pletionof that trialwhichwasrightlydescribedas thedisgrace ofthecentury. InfaCtaslateasOctober,x63o,he barelymen- tionsto Aggiuntihisdiscoveriesin the theoryof motion,and onlytwoyearslater,in alettertoMarsiliconcerningthemotion ofprojeCtiles,hehintsat abooknearlyreadyforpublicationin whichhewilltreat alsoofthis subject;andonlya yearafter thishewritesto Arrighettithat hehasinhandatreatiseonthe resistanceofsolids. But the workwasgivendefiniteformby Galileoduringhis enforcedresidenceat Siena:in thesefivemonthsspentquietly with the Archbishophe himselfwritesthat he hascompleted "a treatiseona newbranchofmechanicsfullofinterestingand usefulideas";sothat a fewmonthslaterhe wasableto send INTRODUCTION xi wordto Micanziothat the "workwasready";as soonashis friendslearnedofthis,theyurgeditspublication.It was,how- ever,no easymatterto printthe workofa manalreadycon- demnedbythe HolyOffice:andsinceGalileocouldnothopeto printit eitherinFlorenceor inRome,heturnedto the faithful Micanzioaskinghimto findoutwhetherthiswouldbepossible inVenicefrom, whencehehadreceivedoffersto printthe Dia- logueonthePrincipalSystemsas, soonasthenewshadreached
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