Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
by Galileo Galilei · Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze
Assigned by 3 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1638
- Language
- Italian
- Length
- Medium · 300 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendDialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, translated by Henry Crew and Alfonso de SalvioDover, 1954The 1914 translation used by Great Books; Stillman Drake's Wisconsin translation is more accurate but harder to find.
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Galileo's last book, written under house arrest and printed in Leiden. Over four days Salviati, Sagredo and Simplicio discuss two new sciences, the strength of materials and the motion of bodies. The first two days treat cohesion, the breaking of beams, the vacuum and the infinite; the third and fourth give the mathematical laws of uniformly accelerated motion and projectiles, showing that falling bodies gain speed in proportion to time and that a projectile traces a parabola.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
