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Galileo Galilei
By 1590, Galileo Galilei had developed a number of criticisms of the Aristotelian system’s view of the physical world. Primary among these was his theory on falling objects. In 1591, he demonstrated from the leaning tower of Pisa that weights of one pound and one hundred pounds, dropped from the top of the tower at the same time, hit the ground at the same time. Aristotle's claim that the rate of fall was determined by the weight of an object was thus overthrown, and replaced by Galileo's correct theory that the Earth's gravity produced a universal acceleration of objects toward its surface. Galileo is most important to the history of physics for his insistence upon viewing the world in terms of calculable forces and measurable bodies, and his experiments proving this concept, such as the one described.
Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke
The study of gases began, surprisingly, in the Middle Ages with the work of Jan Baptist van Helmont of present-day Belgium. During the Scientific Revolution, Evangelista Torricelli built upon the work of van Helmont with the invention of the barometer, a device to measure air pressure, in 1643. In 1656, Otto von Guericke invented the air pump and did the first experiments with vacuums, demonstrating many properties of gases, such as weight. Using von Guericke’s air pump, Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke of Oxford examined the elasticity, compressibility, and weight of air. Boyle demonstrated later that only part of the air was used in respiration and combustion, an important finding that later earned Boyle and Hooke credit as the discoverers of oxygen.
Boyle also worked extensively with more purely chemical experiments, his book, The Skeptical Chymist, debunks the Aristotelian view of the four elements and suggests the use of chemical indicators for the detection of acidic and basic liquids. In Boyle's Origin of Forms and Qualities, published in 1666, he assumes the existence of a universal type of matter, common to all bodies, and divisible into its smallest components, which correspond to what are known today as atoms. He described the structure of these smallest particles and the secondary structures that we know as molecules. Though his views were largely flawed, they contributed greatly to the study of the properties of matter.
Tying Advances in Physics to Other Sciences
Advances in physics constituted a sort of centerpiece in the evolution of scientific knowledge during the Scientific Revolution. They were made possible by advances in mathematics, which had linked pure numerical mathematics to geometry and subsequently linked the new geometry to motion. The advances in physics then gave birth to advances in astronomy, which applied the growing knowledge of physics to the entire universe rather than simply to terrestrial phenomena. However, during the immediate time of discovery, theories of physics were generally applied solely to earthly phenomena.
Advances in Physics were also applied to the science of biology, as is discussed in the next section of this guide on the Scientific Revolution.
Acceptance of Discoveries in Physics
One benefit which physicists enjoyed over scientists in other fields was that they could often demonstrate their findings conclusively, in the lab or out in the open. The demonstrability of the hypotheses of physicists meant that in many cases, their findings were more quickly absorbed into European common knowledge, without resistance from those who clung to Aristotelian explanations or the Church. This acceptance allowed for the continuing development of physics at a more rapid rate than other disciplines, such as astronomy, whose founders were censored. However, this is not to say that the progress of physics experienced no resistance, since many less demonstrable findings did arouse the ire of those who clung to the authoritative view of the Aristotelian system and the Church.
Physicists as Inventors
Physics explained the natural laws of the world, and thus also taught scientists how to use those laws to produce desired results. Because of this, physicists often doubled as inventors. Some examples of their inventions include Torricelli's barometer (which is widely used today), Galileo’s air thermometer (which would eventually lead to the modern thermometer), and van Guerke’s air pump (which had both scientific and practical applications).
