Galileo’s discovery of scaling laws

@article{Peterson2001GalileosDO,
  title={Galileo’s discovery of scaling laws},
  author={M. Peterson},
  journal={American Journal of Physics},
  year={2001},
  volume={70},
  pages={575-580}
}
  • M. Peterson
  • Published 2001
  • Physics
  • American Journal of Physics
Galileo’s realization that nature is not scale invariant motivated his subsequent discovery of scaling laws. His thinking is traced to two lectures he gave on the geography of Dante’s Inferno. 
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Comment on “Galileo’s discovery of scaling laws,” by Mark A. Peterson [Am. J. Phys. 70 (6), 575–580 (2002)]–Galileo and the existence of hell
Mark Peterson has given a brilliant and fascinating account of Galileo Galilei’s early lectures ~1588! on Dante’s Inferno and their relation to Galileo’s mature theory of the laws of scaling,… Expand
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Galileo and Kepler: "On Theoremata Circa Centrum Gravitatis Solidorum" and "Mysterium Cosmographicum"
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FROM DANTE’S UNIVERSE TO CONTEMPORARY COSMOLOGY
– A reading of the Divina Commedia with the eyes of a modern scientist reveals that Dante devoted great attention to the description of a wide variety of natural phenomena, particularly those… Expand
Galileo's Muse: Renaissance Mathematics and the Arts
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Scaling laws in the distribution of galaxies
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Unifying Physics and Psychophysics on the Basis of Symmetry, Least-Action ≈ Simplicity Principle, and Conservation Laws ≈ Veridicality
Psychophysics refers to the branch of Experimental Psychology that deals with the study of Sensation and Perception. A consensus has grown up among experts in Psychophysics during the last hundred… Expand
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References

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Two New Sciences, op.cit
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See, for example, the entertaining account in William Dunham
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