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Galileo's Theory of Ballistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Abstract

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Type
Notes and Communications
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1968

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References

1 Opere di Galileo Galilei, Edizione Nazionale a cura di A. Favaro (Florence, 18901910); vol. xvii, No. 3443Google Scholar. All translations in this article are the responsibility of the author.

2 In A History of Technology, ed. Singer, C. et al. (Oxford, 19541958), vol. ii, 347376Google Scholar. See p. 374. Also Hall, A. R., Ballistics in the XVIIth Century (Cambridge, 1952), p. 91.Google Scholar

3 Opere, vol. xvii, No. 3503Google Scholar, Micanzio, to Galileo, , 20 06 1637.Google Scholar

4 Opere, vol. viii, p. 277Google Scholar, Discorsi intorno a Due Nuove Scienze, Fourth Day.

5 Opere, vol. viii, p. 278.Google Scholar

6 Opere, vol. viii, p. 275Google Scholar, “Quanto poi al perturbamento procedente dall'impedimento del mezo, questo è piu considerabile, e, per la sua tanto molteplice varietà, incapace di poter sotto regole ferma esser compreso e datone scienze.”

7 Opere, vol. viii, p. 307.Google Scholar

8 Opere, vol. viii, p. 277.Google Scholar

9 Opere, vol. viii, p. 276.Google Scholar

10 Opere, vol. viii, p. 279Google Scholar, “… nelle praticali operazioni, tra le quali principale è la composizione d'una tavola per i tiri che dicono di volata, la quale contenga le lontananze delle cadute delle palle tirate secondo tutto le diverse elevazioni; e perchè tali proiezzioni si fanno con mortari, e con non molta carica, in questi non essendo soprannaturale l'impeto, i tiri segnano lor linee assai esattamente.”

11 I am grateful to Professor A. K. Weaver of the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, for supplying me with the figures and equations.

12 Opere (di Galileo, ), vol. xvii, No. 3797, Descartes to Mersenne, 11 10 1638Google Scholar. (See passages quoted above from Discorsi, viii, 276277.)Google Scholar

13 Le Opere di Evangelista Torricelli. a cura di , G. L. & Vassura, G. (Faenza, 1919), vol. ii, p. 210.Google Scholar

14 Quoted by Hall, A. R.: Ballistics in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1952), pp. 9798.Google Scholar

15 Venn, Thomas: Military Disciplines (London, 1672)Google Scholar ascribes the discovery of the method for range tabulation to Galileo and then reprints Torricelli's tables. A list of other works on military ballistics which rely on Torricelli is in Hall, A. R., op. cit., pp. 5051.Google Scholar