Quote: Stoic theory of error--false ideas are part of external reality but they can't mature into clear and distinct ideas (science) [»lakaI_1976]

Quote: in the history of science, causal reductions lead to ontological reductions; e.g., reduction of heat to molecular motion redefines heat

Quote: Poincare--study the history of science to learn about the development of minds; like 'embryology recapitulates phylogeny' [»lakaI_1976]

Quote: SIMPLICIO: heavenly and earthly phenomena must be different; the same proof can not explain the course of planets and projectiles [»lakaI_1976]

Quote: sweep away dread of the supernatural by observing Nature and her laws [»lucr_55]

Quote: nothing can be made of nothing; otherwise any breed could be born from any other; people would pop out of the sea

Quote: Gilbert ignored the ancients and the Greeks. He avoided graces of rhetoric and verbal ornateness [»gilbW_1600, OK]

Quote: Gilbert's doctrine of the loadstone was contradictory to most of the principles and axioms of the Greeks

Quote: if the same force and nature abide everywhere, there are other worlds with other races of people and other kinds of animals in other places [»lucr_55]

Quote: Newton's third rule--qualities confirmed by experiment are universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever [»newtI_1685, OK]

Quote: experiment and demonstrated arguments are more effective than conjecture and philosophical speculation [»gilbW_1600, OK]

Quote: for a ground, Faraday used the house gas pipes, public gas pipes, and water pipes; needed for many experiments [»faraM_1839, OK]

Quote: study the inner constitution of the earth by experimenting with magnetic bodies

Quote: in the beginning, there were many freaks that did not survive and reproduce; beasts have either wits, or bravery, or fleetness of foot to spare, ensuring their survival; beasts may be useful to us [»lucr_55]

Quote: a mathematical scientist must deduct material hindrances just as a merchant computer must discount the boxes from the weight of sugar [»galiG_1632]

Quote: proof that any solid lighter than a fluid will displace its weight [»arch_212]

Quote: Galileo discovered the equation for acceleration in free fall by seeking a general rule of proportionality for uniform growth of distances, times, and speeds [»drakS5_1973]

Quote: Galileo depended on the Euclidean theory of proportion for the application of mathematics to physics

Quote: confirmation of Galileo's experiment of rolling balls down an inclined plane with time measured by water [»settTB1_1961]

Quote: Maxwell developed his theory in cartesian coordinates and promoted the use of quaternion or vector equations

Quote: divers, possible explanations for the movements of the stars; which is right? we cannot say, but one of them has to hold true [»lucr_55]

Quote: science is about asking questions sliced thin enough that they can be answered, definitely, once and for all [»campNR_1919, OK]

Quote: measurement belongs to science while eternal truth belongs to faith; e.g., Ptolemy's astronomy vs. Plato's philosophy

Quote: Galileo's father discovered a mathematical law about the lengths and tensions of musical strings [»drakS_1980]

Quote: Galileo sought reasonable agreement with observation rather than Aristotle's incontrovertible evidence

Quote: observation depends on coincidence in space and time, independent of a frame of reference; fundamental idea of relativity [»bohrN_1934]

Quote: bodies at rest stay at rest; bodies in motion stay in motion; nothing can change itself [»hobbT_1651, OK]

Quote: a body in motion stays in motion; can not stop in an instant; e.g., waves on the water [»hobbT_1651, OK]

Quote: rain from clouds is similar to laundry becoming damp with moisture from the sea [»lucr_55]

Quote: force is real; space, time, and motion are relative, a relationship [»leibGW4_1695]

Quote: the atoms of matter are lines of force; the source of radiant phenomena [»faraM_1855, OK]

Quote: the laws of motion must preserve the relative nature of motion

Quote: matter is nothing but force; matter does not itself exist; we experience matter as force [»wallAR_1870, OK]

Quote: a revolving copper plate is a new electric machine for any of the ordinary applications of electricity [»faraM_1839, OK]

Quote: electricity, whatever may be its source, is identical in its nature [»faraM_1839, OK]

Quote: Faraday failed to unify gravity and electricity

Quote: just as the sun sends particles of light, so things give off streams of images in all directions; e.g., reflections from a mirror [»lucr_55]

Quote: a bowl of water instantly reflects light from the heavens; light must travel fast [»lucr_55]

Quote: need both corpuscles and waves to explain matter and radiation; complementary aspects of reality [»debrL_1937]

Quote: the sun at night has either reached the limit of the sky or continued beneath the ground [»lucr_55]

Quote: the length of day and night change with the seasons because the sun's course above and below ground slice the sky's regions in unequal arcs, or air is denser underneath the earth, or the sun is created anew each day at different rates [»lucr_55]

Quote: lunar phases are due to reflection from the sun, or from a turning ball, or from newly created moons [»lucr_55]

Quote: Aristarchus of Samos conjectured that the earth revolves around the sun, and the stars are far away [»arch_287]

Quote: the center of the universe is nonsensical; the centers of the planets' orbits are clearly near the sun [»drakS_1978]

Quote: discovery of the moons of Jupiter; they revolve around Jupiter as Jupiter revolves around the Sun; just as the Moon revolves around the Earth [»galiG_1610]

Quote: the head of a comet is like a conglobate nebula; its beard is an effluvium from the head, expelled through the rays of the sun; the tail represents the death of the head [»galiG_1623]

Quote: Galileo's father was skeptical about authority

Quote: the Lincean Academy was the first scientific society of lasting significance; kept Galileo informed; coined 'telescope' [»drakS_1980]

Quote: Galileo's perfection of the telescope from news that it was possible [»galiG_1623]

Quote: Descartes misunderstood Galileo's 'Two New Sciences' [»drakS_1978]

Quote: description of Galileo's sentencing by the Holy Office [»drakS_1978]

Quote: Galileo believed that Aristotle would accept him as a follower and would change his opinions to match Galileo's observations [»drakS_1978]