Galileo's mathematical-experimental method

Galileo's mathematical-experimental method was used to test the relationship between velocity and time for a falling body:

V ? T (Cohen, 1985). Since V could not be measured, he used a combination of mathematics and experimentation to verify this relationship: if V ? T, then D ? T2 by deduction, and this is a relationship which can be tested experimentally. By confirming this relationship experimentally, he could be confident that V ? T is valid. Because D ? T2 is derived from V ? T by mathematics, and then tested experimentally, this method was named the mathematical-experimental method. This method has also been called the hypothetico-deductive method because it is used to test a hypothesis which can't be tested directly by experimentation. Essentially, the hypothetico-deductive method allows for the experimenter to test a theory by proxy. In other words, because Galileo was unable to test V.T (there was no way for him to by experiment make a direct correlation between times and velocities because velocity was unknown), he instead tested the hypothetical deduction that followed from V.T. Because Galileo knew that if V.T was true then it would follow that D.Tsquared, he resolved to test D.Tsquared in order to validate the V.T supposition. Because Distance and Time were known entities, this was possible to do. By working backward in this fashion, Galileo was employing the hypothetico-deductive method (Cohen, 1985, p. 207).

Borrowing the symbolic terms proffered

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orbits and orbit times, served as a model of the whole Copernican system of the planets moving around the Sun (Cohen, 1985). It countered one of the main arguments to the Copernican heliocentric system - it proved that the Earth could move through space without losing its Moon. It also showed that the Earth was not unique in the solar system in having orbiting moons. In other words, by studying the behavior of the Moon and other planets, Galileo was able to deduce the behavior of the Earth. Thus, the hypothetico-deductive method was again a key factor in determining Galileo's theories. Where the Earth cannot be explicitly tested and observed other, comparable celestial bodies are tested and observed in its place, which allows the astronomer to divine overarching truths and principles that can be applied to the Earth by deductive logic (Cohen, 1985, p. 85, 207). Galileo also studied the Moon, and determined that it shone by reflected light from the Sun, and showed this was true of other planets (Cohen, 1985). He also showed that the dark spots seen on the Moon with the naked eye were due to mountains and craters and the light of the Sun shining on them, just as mountains and valleys on Earth light up at different times

Category: Science - G