As enjoyable as it is important, this classic encompasses 30 years of highly original experiments and theories. Its lively expositions discuss dynamics, elasticity, sound, strength of materials, and more. 126 diagrams.

Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in Florence in 1632, was the most proximate cause of his being brought to trial before the Inquisition. Using the dialogue form, a genre common in classical philosophical works, Galileo masterfully demonstrates the truth of the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic one, proving, for the first time, that the earth revolves around the sun. Its influence is incalculable. The Dialogue is not only one of the most important scientific treatises ever written, but a work of supreme clarity and accessibility, remaining as readable now as when it was first published. This edition uses the definitive text established by the University of California Press, in Stillman Drake’s translation, and includes a Foreword by Albert Einstein and a new Introduction by J. L. Heilbron.

This book aims to make Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) accessible to the modern reader by refashioning the great scientist's masterpiece "Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences" in today's language. Galileo Galilei stands as one of the most important figures in history, not simply for his achievements in astronomy, physics, and engineering and for revolutionizing science and the scientific method in general, but also for the role that he played in the (still ongoing) drama concerning entrenched power and its desire to stifle any knowledge that may threaten it. Therefore, it is important that today's readers come to understand and appreciate what Galilei accomplished and wrote. But the mindset that shapes how we see the world today is quite different from the mindset -- and language -- of Galilei and his contemporaries. Another obstacle to a full understanding of Galilei's writings is posed by the countless historical, philosophical, geometrical, and linguistic references he made, along with his often florid prose, with its blend of Italian and Latin. De Angelis' new rendition of the work includes translations of the original geometrical figures into algebraic formulae in modern notation and allows the non-specialist reader to follow the thread of Galileo's thought and in a way that was barely possible until now.

'Bertoloni Meli reexamines such major texts as Galileo's Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, Descartes' Principles of Philosophy, and Newton's Principia, and in them finds a reliance on objects that has escaped proper understanding. From Pappus of Alexandria to Guidobaldo dal Monte, Bertoloni Meli sees significant developments in the history of mechanical experimentation, all of them crucial for understanding Galileo. Bertoloni Meli uses similarities and tensions between dal Monte and Galileo as a springboard for exploring the revolutionary nature of seventeenth-century mechanics.' (Back cover)

Galileo's groundbreaking dialogues are a summation of three decades of scientific work he had undertaken in the fledgling field of physics. This edition includes the diagrams crucial for understanding the text. Writing these dialogues in 1638, the elderly Galileo had a life of achievements behind him. Despite attempts at suppression of his writings by the Roman Inquisition, his ideas were successfully communicated across Europe. The motion of objects and resistance to such motion, the concept of velocity, and the laws of gravity are merely a few of the topics covered in these detailed dialogues. At the outset, we are introduced to the three conversation partners: Salviati, Sagredo and Simplicio. These three Venetians embark on a scientific discussion, hoping to explain the curiosities of things such as speed and movement. Over the course of four days, their meetings grow in complexity and scope as they strive to explain physical phenomena. Later, we encounter many propositions and theorems concerning a wide variety of subjects; these represent the sum of Galileo's progress in understanding gravity, motion, resistance, acceleration, velocity, and the behavior of material structures. The 'Two New Sciences' referred to by the title are the nature of materials, and the motion of objects. A total of 130 illustrations and charts populate this text; for the most part, they are situated adjacent to their respective proposition or theorem. In many of the more complex explanations, they are important in aiding the reader to grasp what Galileo means. Through absorbing these wide-ranging investigations, we may appreciate the justness of Galileo's moniker: "The father of modern physics." This edition's translation to English is by Alfonso de Salvio and Henry Crew. The former was an expert on the technical aspects of the Italian language, while the latter was a longstanding scholar of physics with much experience teaching in the field.

An insightful companion volume to the original classic designed to bring a thorough and unique new reading of "The Hobbit" to a general audience written by the host of the popular podcast "The Tolkien Professor.O